SPEAKER_06: Hallelujah, Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_05: The Lord is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_06: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_06: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_06: Almighty.
SPEAKER_05: All desires are known.
SPEAKER_05: And from you the secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_05: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: That we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_06: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_06: And also with you.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: For God, whose blessed Son made himself known to His disciples in the breaking of bread.
SPEAKER_07: Open the eyes of our faith that we may behold him in all his redeeming work, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Please proceed.
SPEAKER_00: A reading from Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Peter, standing with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed to the crowd.
SPEAKER_00: This Jesus whom you crucified.
SPEAKER_00: Now, when they heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and to the other disciples, Brothers, what should we do?
SPEAKER_00: Peter said to them, Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, so that your sins may be forgiven.
SPEAKER_00: And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: For the promise is for you, for your children, and for all who are far away, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to him.
SPEAKER_00: And he testified with many other arguments and exhorted them, saying, Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.
SPEAKER_00: So those who welcomed his message were baptized, and that day about three thousand persons were added.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: The cords of death entangled me.
SPEAKER_00: The grip of the grave took hold of me.
SPEAKER_05: I came to grief and sorrow.
SPEAKER_00: Then I called upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: O Lord, I pray you save my life.
SPEAKER_00: How shall I repay you, O Lord, for all the good things you have done for me?
SPEAKER_00: I will lift up the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will fulfill my vows to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Precious in your sight, O Lord.
SPEAKER_00: O Lord, I am your servant.
SPEAKER_05: I am your servant and the child of your handmaid.
SPEAKER_05: You have freed me from my bonds.
SPEAKER_00: I will offer you the sacrifice of thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: I will fulfill my vows to the Lord in the courts of the Lord's house.
SPEAKER_08: Live in reverent fear during the time of your exile.
SPEAKER_08: You know that you were ransomed from the feudal ways inherited from your ancestors, not with perishable things like silver or gold, but with the precious blood of Christ, like that of a lamb without defect or blemish.
SPEAKER_08: He was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake.
SPEAKER_08: Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.
SPEAKER_08: Now that you have purified your souls by your obedience to the truth, so that you have genuine mutual love, love one another deeply from the heart.
SPEAKER_08: You have been born anew, not a perishable, but imperishable seed through the living and enduring word of God.
SPEAKER_08: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_07: Now on that same day, that being Easter Sunday, two of the disciples were going to a village called Emmaus, about seven miles from Jerusalem, and talking with each other about all these things that had happened.
SPEAKER_07: While they were talking and discussing, Jesus himself came near and went with them.
SPEAKER_07: But their eyes were kept from recognizing him.
SPEAKER_07: And he said to them, What are you discussing with each other while you walk along?
SPEAKER_07: They stood still, looking sad, and then one of them, whose name was Cleopathus, answered him, Are you the only stranger in Jerusalem who does not know the things that have taken place there in these days?
SPEAKER_07: Jesus asked them, What things?
SPEAKER_07: They replied, Well, the things about Jesus of Nazareth, who was a prophet, mighty indeed and word before God and all the people, and how our chief priests and leaders handed him over to be condemned to death and crucified him.
SPEAKER_07: We'd hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.
SPEAKER_07: Yes, and besides all this, it's now the third day since these things took place.
SPEAKER_07: Moreover, some women of our group astounded us.
SPEAKER_07: They were at the tomb early this morning, and when they did not find his body there, they came back and told us that they had indeed seen a vision of angels who said he was alive.
SPEAKER_07: Some of those who were with us went to the tomb and found it just as the women had said, but they did not see it.
SPEAKER_07: Then Jesus said to them, Oh, how foolish you are, and how slow of heart to believe all the prophets had declared.
SPEAKER_07: Was it not necessary the Messiah should suffer these things and then enter into his glory?
SPEAKER_07: And then beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them the things about himself and all the scriptures.
SPEAKER_07: As they came near the village to which they were going, he walked ahead as if he were going on, but they urged him strongly, saying, Stay with him, stay with us, because it is almost evening and the day is now nearly over.
SPEAKER_07: So Jesus went in to stay with them.
SPEAKER_07: When he was at the table with them, he took bread, blessed and broke it and gave it to them.
SPEAKER_07: Then their eyes were opened, and they recognized him, and he vanished from their sight.
SPEAKER_07: They said to each other, Were not our hearts burning within us while he was talking to us on the road, while he was opening the scriptures to us.
SPEAKER_07: At the same hour they got up and returned to Jerusalem, and they found the eleven and their companions gathered together.
SPEAKER_07: They were saying.
SPEAKER_07: This is a pretty famous story, The Walk to Emmaus, and I don't know if you noticed, it isn't in John.
SPEAKER_07: It isn't in Matthew or Mark either.
SPEAKER_07: Last week we read a very different story of what happens on Easter Day.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus shows up and allows Thomas the opportunity to touch his wounds.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you noticed.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus breathes on people and says, receive the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: According to the Gospel of John, Pentecost and Easter happen on the same day.
SPEAKER_07: Luke's got a different idea.
SPEAKER_07: Luke says the Holy Spirit doesn't blow through the town for about 50 days.
SPEAKER_07: And I want to say this to you, not to say the gospels disagree.
SPEAKER_07: I want to say that we've got four different gospels as an invitation so we can have eight billion.
SPEAKER_07: Eight billion.
SPEAKER_07: That is to say, I think our opportunity when we think about resurrection is to write the gospel according to John Leedy.
SPEAKER_07: To write the gospel according to Frank Acheson.
SPEAKER_07: There's four, but we're each invited to pin our own, not only with what it is we say and what the core parts of resurrection are to us, but how it is that we live into new resurrected life.
SPEAKER_07: So don't worry about four different views.
SPEAKER_07: Nope, add your own.
SPEAKER_07: Then you'll have actual good news to share with the world.
SPEAKER_07: Now, this is an interesting story because you notice that uh the people on the way don't recognize Jesus even though they're walking with him.
SPEAKER_07: This is a common theme after Easter, right?
SPEAKER_07: Mary thinks he's the gardener.
SPEAKER_07: These people have no idea who he is, even though they have a really good idea who he was.
SPEAKER_07: You can read that line that says they were kept from recognizing him, and I suppose you could imagine that God is keeping them from recognizing Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: But uh, truth be told, we like to say in the West, I'll believe it when I see it.
SPEAKER_07: Seeing is believing.
SPEAKER_07: But I would suggest to you once again that believing determines what we see.
SPEAKER_07: They don't recognize them because they don't believe there could be new life.
SPEAKER_07: That's a cautionary tale for us.
SPEAKER_07: If we're missing the presence of the risen Christ in our lives, it may not be that he's absent and maybe we're not looking for him in the right spot.
SPEAKER_07: This is part of the Easter message.
SPEAKER_07: The other thing that's really interesting when you hear this story, and I'm gonna use this word, and I don't want to use it offensively, but I want you to hear it.
SPEAKER_07: These guys are doing something called bibliolatry.
SPEAKER_07: Bibliolatry.
SPEAKER_07: That is making an idol out of the Bible.
SPEAKER_07: You ever heard the phrase, the Bible's the word of God?
SPEAKER_07: Can I disabuse you of that notion?
SPEAKER_07: The word of God is the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_07: In the beginning was the word, and the word was God, and the word was with God, and the word became flesh and dwelt among us.
SPEAKER_07: That isn't talking about the book and the pew next to you.
SPEAKER_07: Talking about the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: Martin Luther said that the Bible is like the manger, it holds Jesus, but it isn't him.
SPEAKER_07: And this is another cautionary tale about Easter.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, the Bible connects us to the story of God's people throughout the years.
SPEAKER_07: The Bible has all things necessary for salvation, but I want you to notice that the two guys in the story know the Bible so literally that they don't take it seriously and they can't see the risen, resurrected Jesus when he's standing so close to them because they're reading the Bible in a particular way.
SPEAKER_07: Now, this is an opportunity for all of us to grow up.
SPEAKER_07: And I would tell you, as your priest, if you're ever stuck between a literal reading of the Bible and where the resurrected Christ is, pick the resurrected Christ.
SPEAKER_07: I hope this makes sense.
SPEAKER_07: Here's a literal read of the Bible.
SPEAKER_07: Women are second-class citizens in the kingdom of God and they can't be priests.
SPEAKER_07: You can find a reading to support that if you choose to.
SPEAKER_07: There's no life there.
SPEAKER_07: Let that die.
SPEAKER_07: You're not dismissing the Bible, you're dismissing a phrase in the Bible that was never meant to be taken so literally that we forgot to take seriously that God created female and male in God's own image.
SPEAKER_07: You can choose to worship parts of uh of uh the Bible that support whatever you want.
SPEAKER_07: You can't.
SPEAKER_07: But we do that at our own peril, and we do it at the risk of missing the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: Now, I don't want to take pot shots on you here, so when I I am gonna give you a few more examples because that just seems really darn important to me to give you a few more examples.
SPEAKER_07: See, I grew up in a tradition that says, hey, if you've been divorced, you can't be in leadership because good leaders are the husband of but one wife.
SPEAKER_07: Good news, if you're a lady, you can have as many husbands as you want, apparently.
SPEAKER_07: Um because there's nothing about women there.
SPEAKER_07: So what we did is we took that so literally we disqualified really capable and godly people because they'd had a divorce 20 years ago in an abusive marriage.
SPEAKER_07: Does God enjoy divorce?
SPEAKER_07: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_07: There are worse things than being divorced.
SPEAKER_07: Many worse things than being divorced.
SPEAKER_07: And we worship a standard of care at our own detriment when we forbid people who are called by God to be ministers and who have gifts for ministry, and we say categorically, you can't do it because you got married to somebody when you were 20 because you didn't know better, and you realized you didn't know better and you left.
SPEAKER_07: Are we following the letter or are we following the risen Christ?
SPEAKER_07: We like to talk out of both sides of our mouth.
SPEAKER_07: We like to say, well, you know, most of all that stuff that shows up in the Hebrew Bible that we don't like, that doesn't apply to us anymore.
SPEAKER_07: Because we got Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: But you know, if you ask a Christian person why they're opposed to same-sex marriage, they'll pull something right out of Leviticus.
SPEAKER_07: Never mind that they're eating shellfish and making garments out of two kinds of fabric.
SPEAKER_07: See, what we do when we worship the Bible instead of the risen Christ is we miss, frankly, life and we miss an approach to reading scripture that God intended from the get-go, that we have a holy conversation with it, not that we're ruled by a book.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe this is radical preaching, but again, I think it's right.
SPEAKER_07: I think it's right.
SPEAKER_07: You notice what they say?
SPEAKER_07: Based on our literal view of the scriptures, we had hoped you would solve all our problems for us.
SPEAKER_07: We'd hope you would be the one who redeemed Israel in the ways we want.
SPEAKER_07: I hope it's not shocking.
SPEAKER_07: God doesn't always hope for the same things we do.
SPEAKER_07: If God had the same hopes we have, everybody would think like me.
SPEAKER_07: And the world would be a much better place.
SPEAKER_07: For some of us.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, you know, I'm glad you're laughing, but this is how we behave, right?
SPEAKER_07: So, what does God hope for you?
SPEAKER_07: God hopes you'll enjoy the life you've been given.
SPEAKER_07: God hopes that you'll live humbly, which does not mean debasing yourself.
SPEAKER_07: It means being exactly who God made you to be.
SPEAKER_07: No more and no less.
SPEAKER_07: God hopes you will love justice.
SPEAKER_07: This is what God hopes for you.
SPEAKER_07: God does not hope the Astros are going to win the World Series again.
SPEAKER_07: It's really controversial.
SPEAKER_07: God clearly isn't a Texans fan.
SPEAKER_07: Or maybe God's the best Texans fan.
SPEAKER_07: Look, we get this wrong when we think God is supposed to bend to our will instead of what are the qualities that God is inviting us to live into that look like the resurrected Jesus, that look like new life.
SPEAKER_07: We get to hear this bit here about, and this comes out of uh both the song that we sang and also this idea about the paschal mystery.
SPEAKER_07: And um, you know, sometimes we can hear this in such a way that we think, do you notice that phrase that came out of Acts, or out of Peter, Jesus was predestined before the foundation of the world?
SPEAKER_07: Predestined before the foundation of the world.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we think, you know, Adam and Eve messed it up, and the whole cross was God's plan B.
SPEAKER_07: No, no, the scripture says the cross, the incarnation, particularly, was God's plan A.
SPEAKER_07: If people never messed up, God was delighted to be incarnate from the get-go.
SPEAKER_07: That was the master plan, not the corrective plan.
SPEAKER_07: Right there in the scriptures.
SPEAKER_07: God loved us enough to be incarnate.
SPEAKER_07: That was always the plan.
SPEAKER_07: Always.
SPEAKER_07: Do we miss the resurrected Jesus because we're looking at our own feet instead of looking up?
SPEAKER_07: This is a good question, I think, for us.
SPEAKER_07: Do we miss the resurrected Jesus because we're hoping for something God isn't hoping for?
SPEAKER_07: And then comes the master stroke.
SPEAKER_07: Now, I don't know how it is that they recognize Jesus when he broke the bread.
SPEAKER_07: It makes me think maybe Jesus tore the bread in a really weird way.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, so weird that nobody else on the planet would do it.
SPEAKER_07: Like, maybe it was time to break the bread, he like tore it with his teeth.
SPEAKER_07: So idiosyncratic that the veil is lifted when he does it.
SPEAKER_07: And he does this kind of marvelous thing in doing something, you know, they they notice Jesus not when he heals a dead person, uh, not when pigs fly.
SPEAKER_07: They notice him when he shares a meal.
SPEAKER_07: Which reminds me of this Greg Boyle quote.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus is not worried, we'll forget how extraordinary the Eucharist is.
SPEAKER_07: He's worried we'll forget how ordinary it is.
SPEAKER_07: God's thanksgiving is embodied in a shared meal with regular old people.
SPEAKER_07: Now look, we do two things in the service.
SPEAKER_07: And if you've been to other Episcopal churches, we don't always do it the same way, but you know, right here you're looking up at the Lord's table, and we don't have the chalice person veiled, we have the gospel book.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you realize that every week we have actually two liturgies in one service.
SPEAKER_07: Right now we're in the part we call the liturgy of the word.
SPEAKER_07: The liturgy of the word is when we take four passages from Scripture and they're broken apart, and the goal of a good sermon, which you don't usually hear here, is to weave them all together in a coherent whole.
SPEAKER_07: It's to take pieces that are fragmentary and put them back together in unity.
SPEAKER_07: Hence the gospel book is front and center for the liturgy of the word.
SPEAKER_07: When we change to the liturgy of the sacrament, that's when the birth and veil show up.
SPEAKER_07: And what do you know?
SPEAKER_07: The same thing happens at the liturgy of the sacrament as a liturgy of the word.
SPEAKER_07: We take bread and we break it into pieces.
SPEAKER_07: That priest host, the round one, turns into 24 pieces.
SPEAKER_07: We give them to you.
SPEAKER_07: And I don't know if you've noticed the goal then of discipleship is to put them back together into one coherent whole.
SPEAKER_07: That is, you're each given a piece as an individual that we then put back together in a community so that the bread is broken and reconstituted, not just in us eating it, but in us joining together in a kindred spirit in unity and mission.
SPEAKER_07: This is why we do this.
SPEAKER_07: So let me tell you why I came to the Episcopal Church.
SPEAKER_07: It has to do with the sacrament.
SPEAKER_07: Um I was visiting a church in El Cajón that's 30 miles inland from San Diego, and uh they had undergone a big demographic shift in about the last 20 years before I'd got there.
SPEAKER_07: It used to be a suburban place where people would live on the cheap and commute downtown to San Diego.
SPEAKER_07: That way they could have bigger homes.
SPEAKER_07: Well, a lot had changed.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, it had become, frankly, a more neglected neighborhood.
SPEAKER_07: And I don't know if you know this at the time, it's Houston now, but at the time, San Diego had more immigrants, particularly people seeking asylum, like refugees, than any city in the United States.
SPEAKER_07: People from Iraq, and particularly people from what we now call Myanmar or Burma.
SPEAKER_07: So there had been a re huge resettlement of people looking for asylum.
SPEAKER_07: My first Sunday at St.
SPEAKER_07: Albans Episcopal Church in El Cahone, there I was, a recovering Baptist, not knowing what I was gonna do next.
SPEAKER_07: I honest, I was.
SPEAKER_07: I didn't have a home in the Baptist church anymore because I married a woman who believed she was called by God, and they wouldn't tolerate that.
SPEAKER_07: So I went church shopping, and there I was, and it was time to come up to the rail.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, uh, I what I was used to is little shot glasses of grape juice and things like some kind of thing that you would eat.
SPEAKER_07: I don't even know what it is.
SPEAKER_07: It wasn't bread, like a lump of flour or something.
SPEAKER_07: So we all got that.
SPEAKER_07: So instead, I come into this church and there's there's one this one cup, and the lady in front of me in the pew was about 80 years old, and she was about as proper as you could get.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, she was wearing a dress she'd probably iron twice.
SPEAKER_07: Every hair was in place, she had opera-length pearls, and when it was time to come to the rail, she reached into her purse and she pulled out some flawless white gloves.
SPEAKER_07: You ever seen the communion gloves come out?
SPEAKER_07: It's rare, it's a dying tradition, but this lady had the communion gloves, right?
SPEAKER_07: And after communion, she went back, took them off.
SPEAKER_07: Then it was me.
SPEAKER_07: I don't even know what I was wearing, but I wasn't dressed like that.
SPEAKER_07: The next lady who came to my left was a refugee from Burma, Myanmar.
SPEAKER_07: She had met the Anglican church in a refugee camp that she'd lived at for two years.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, I don't know that she spoke much English.
SPEAKER_07: It was probably her fifth language, and on her way up, she put on a little veil that she had knitted in the refugee camp.
SPEAKER_07: This is what they did.
SPEAKER_07: The women covered their heads for the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_07: The person next to her was a man that didn't smell very good.
SPEAKER_07: He was probably homeless, and uh I think maybe he was coming to church so he'd feel better about getting a meal at coffee hour after church.
SPEAKER_07: There we were at this rail.
SPEAKER_07: As different little fragments as we could be.
SPEAKER_07: And along came this chalice that made us all equal at the rail before and with God.
SPEAKER_07: Because every single one of us, homeless, sophisticated, confused young boy, a refugee looking for life, we long at the table of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Each of us got a fragment, and we were invited to put our fragments together into something whole and beautiful, and be those people who could leave and nourish the world with our lives.
SPEAKER_07: Talk about a mystical experience at the rail.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, that didn't happen every week, but I knew I couldn't go anywhere else after that.
SPEAKER_07: Where else can you go?
SPEAKER_07: This is one of those amazing things about ordinary meals.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you realize statistically, there's two ways to overcome deep-seated prejudices you have about individuals and wholesale groups of people.
SPEAKER_07: Research-based.
SPEAKER_07: First is physical contact.
SPEAKER_07: Turns out the more surface area, the better.
SPEAKER_07: Releases oxytocin in your brain.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, holding, shaking hands doesn't work really well.
SPEAKER_07: You need 45 seconds.
SPEAKER_07: So you can hold Aunt Flo's hand for 45 seconds, and you'll do better if you hold it like this because there's more surface area.
SPEAKER_07: It can flip a prejudice.
SPEAKER_07: This is the case.
SPEAKER_07: But of course, you probably know the second thing.
SPEAKER_07: And it's not explicit it's it's it's independent of contact, but it works when you put it together.
SPEAKER_07: It's sharing a meal at a table.
SPEAKER_07: Eating together is a way of overcoming prejudice.
SPEAKER_07: And look, this is old in human history.
SPEAKER_07: There's this old story that comes out of the uh Sufi tradition in Islam.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you know this.
SPEAKER_07: If you've eaten somebody's salt under their home, you're like a member of their family and you're not meant to transgress against them.
SPEAKER_07: So there's this old story that once upon a time a thief was loading up goods in the person's home, and then there were these two jars, and uh one had sugar and one had salt.
SPEAKER_07: The thief intended to steal the sugar, but you gotta taste it, right?
SPEAKER_07: So the thief tastes and got salt and promptly put everything back.
SPEAKER_07: Because you can't steal from somebody whose salt you've eaten.
SPEAKER_07: Look, this is core human experience, right?
SPEAKER_07: That when you share a meal with somebody in their home, there is something binding.
SPEAKER_07: That's archetypal.
SPEAKER_07: And notice what Jesus does.
SPEAKER_07: He's revealed that something as simple as a meal.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes what we don't realize is that the disciples categorically hated each other.
SPEAKER_07: Judas Iscariot, Simon the Zealot, those were freedom fighters.
SPEAKER_07: Matthew, also called Levi, was a tax collector, complicit with the Roman Empire and exploiting their own people through essentially usury.
SPEAKER_07: Those three guys categorically hated each other.
SPEAKER_07: What got them to have staying power?
SPEAKER_07: They sat down at a table with Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you know the story.
SPEAKER_07: It's the night before he's gonna be betrayed.
SPEAKER_07: He knows it's his last meal.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus shares it with the guy who betrays him on purpose.
SPEAKER_07: Now, maybe your family members aren't going to betray you to Jesus, but you know, there is I'm to the Roman Empire, but it is a funny thing to think about that sometimes I look at Thanksgiving meals and I think, oh my gosh, I'm looking forward to eating with about a third of you.
SPEAKER_07: And then there's the other two thirds, and I'll just try not to say something unpleasant.
SPEAKER_07: And there's something really powerful about sitting at the table with them.
SPEAKER_07: Something really good for me about sitting at the table with people I don't want to sit at the table with heightens the chance that I won't be kept from seeing the resurrected Jesus in the person across the seat from me by my own bigotry.
SPEAKER_07: This is what keeps us from seeing the resurrected Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: We think either God can't do a miracle out of some kind of injury, God won't do a miracle in somebody who's Lutheran.
SPEAKER_07: You fill in the line with what it is that keeps you from seeing the resurrected Jesus in the person you're walking the same road with.
SPEAKER_07: And we're called this week out of that behavior.
SPEAKER_07: We're called out of that behavior.
SPEAKER_07: This is a cautionary tale.
SPEAKER_07: Do not miss the resurrected Jesus because your preconceptions of where God will go get in the way.
SPEAKER_07: Even more so.
SPEAKER_07: We get nourished at this table.
SPEAKER_07: We're invited to put that bread back together in this community, and then we're invited to be that bread when we leave here because people are really, really hungry for spiritual calories that aren't empty.
SPEAKER_07: People are really hungry for genuine spiritual nourishment that looks like reading the scriptures so seriously that we don't always read them literally.
SPEAKER_07: People are starving to know that there can be new life after fill it in, after a divorce, after a cancer diagnosis, after they lose their hair from chemotherapy, after their child is neurodiverse.
SPEAKER_07: You name it.
SPEAKER_07: People are starving for a new life.
SPEAKER_07: I suspect you might be too.
SPEAKER_07: To be part.
SPEAKER_07: See, the interesting thing, and if you were here on Maundy Thursday, you probably heard me say this.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we misunderstand the whole Passover.
SPEAKER_07: You don't sacrifice the lamb to take care of your sins.
SPEAKER_07: That isn't what you do.
SPEAKER_07: That's what you do on Yom Kippur.
unknown: Right?
SPEAKER_07: The priest does that for you.
SPEAKER_07: Passover, you sacrifice a lamb.
SPEAKER_07: That is, you give up something precious to you: meat, milk, wool for years.
SPEAKER_07: You give it up so that you can have the calories right now because you're going out of bondage.
SPEAKER_07: God's delivering you right now.
SPEAKER_07: And you need energy for that.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus is a Paschal Lamb because he says, get out of that crap you've been living in.
SPEAKER_07: I'll even give you some energy to do it.
SPEAKER_07: Get out of there.
SPEAKER_07: Don't stay there.
SPEAKER_07: I love you too much.
SPEAKER_07: Now, I just want to give you one other thought because I read it just this week and I thought it was really lovely.
SPEAKER_07: This is a Sufi story.
SPEAKER_07: A Sufi master says, you know, we all hang from a rope.
SPEAKER_07: This is a visual, right, that is equidistant.
SPEAKER_07: So everybody's got the same length rope that they hang from God.
SPEAKER_07: And anytime we go awry, well, it's like we snap the rope.
SPEAKER_07: But when we repent, God ties a knot.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, you realize the more knots you tie, the shorter that rope gets, right?
SPEAKER_07: And God loves tying knots.
SPEAKER_07: This is what the Sufi master says.
SPEAKER_07: God loves tying knots.
SPEAKER_07: God, I hope, will tie knots instead of cut ropes.
SPEAKER_07: That's the walk to a manus.
SPEAKER_07: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one God, the Father the Almighty, maker of the heaven and earth, of all days and unseen.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one Lord creature Christ, the only Son of God, eternally the Father, I combat, I from the day, through the God, the day, of the being of the Father, through all things were made, for the heart of age, became heaven, I'm the spirit, it became part of the bird, and the big man, for the third five to the five, the upper hand was very on the third day from the end, the fourth, he extended, and right hand of the fire, people come again for dead, and one of the end.
SPEAKER_05: We will leave the holy spirit for the five.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one holy bathroom of the church.
SPEAKER_05: We don't have to give us the sin.
SPEAKER_05: We live to the dead, and life.
SPEAKER_07: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
SPEAKER_07: Holy God, creator of all the days, delivering.
SPEAKER_05: For we are in separation, for we have separate relationships, twelve with each other and with you.
SPEAKER_05: And make us new creations through the power of the love of Christ.
SPEAKER_05: In whose name we pray.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Friends, hear this good news: God loves tying knots.
SPEAKER_07: The love of God is beyond measure, and you are included in that love.
SPEAKER_07: So know that you are forgiven.
SPEAKER_07: And thus free to love and serve.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: It is inconvenient to stand up, but it is important to embody with our body what we say with our words.
SPEAKER_07: That worked.
SPEAKER_07: Now we stand ready, accepted, loved before God.
SPEAKER_07: Now we're able to say fully, the peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_03: Also with you.
SPEAKER_01: Well, as you know, the king will be crowned on May the Day.
SPEAKER_01: Now I can't let something fantastic like that go without having an event here.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to do a fundraiser.
SPEAKER_01: But the fundraiser is about the coronation of King Charles with his own scandal.
SPEAKER_01: Obviously.
SPEAKER_01: And the future of the monarchy.
SPEAKER_01: Because he has waited his whole life for the job.
SPEAKER_01: And now he's got the job.
SPEAKER_01: Well, almost he is king already.
SPEAKER_01: But this is the most religious ceremony that we have.
SPEAKER_01: He is going to be blessed by God.
SPEAKER_01: It is going to be something that you have never seen before.
SPEAKER_01: If you were around when Her Majesty was actually crowned.
SPEAKER_01: Well, you can watch it on YouTube if you like.
SPEAKER_01: I think I've watched several times, and I didn't watch her father's as well, which is a powerful.
SPEAKER_01: The British have a tradition that when anything happens with the royal family make it difficult.
SPEAKER_01: She said she didn't want it to be married.
SPEAKER_01: And her sister said, You've got to, it's on the tea towel.
SPEAKER_01: So there's no getting out of it now.
SPEAKER_01: It's on the tea towels.
SPEAKER_01: Please, please come on Thursday, May the 4th, at 5 p.m.
SPEAKER_01: Bring your friends.
SPEAKER_01: This is not just a ladies' hat and pearl thing.
SPEAKER_01: We're all going to be enjoying it, and there will be wine and cheese to follow.
SPEAKER_01: And we will take credit cards at the door for$20 or more, if you can.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you.
SPEAKER_07: And I just want to make sure you know this is something Kathy taught me.
SPEAKER_07: You know, in the Hebrew Bible, when a king is coronated, it is not with a crown, they're anointed with oil by a prophet.
SPEAKER_07: And I don't know if you realize that King Charles will be anointed with oil by the Archbishop of Canterbury in a separate ceremony.
SPEAKER_07: So they get the crown and they get oil on their head.
SPEAKER_07: So I learned that from Kathy, which is really cool.
SPEAKER_07: That's a way in which the monarchy keeps up this biblical tradition as well.
SPEAKER_07: So, as always, events are not only for us, but they're for the community, for your families and friends.
SPEAKER_07: And so we'll hopefully be a fun evening.
SPEAKER_07: Welcome to our visitors and guests.
SPEAKER_07: If you're new to us or haven't done this before, we have some little cards in the room right behind the one we're sitting in that say welcome.
SPEAKER_07: And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out so we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_07: And they just go in the little blue basket if you had a chance.
SPEAKER_07: And thank you for worshiping with us.
SPEAKER_07: Couple other things I want to highlight for you.
SPEAKER_07: One is that two days after the royal talk, that's May 6th, that's a Saturday, that will be the first Saturday of May.
SPEAKER_07: So that will be our next fresh food distribution from 7:45 a.m.
SPEAKER_07: till 9.30, just out here in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_07: You don't have to sign up in advance.
SPEAKER_07: You can just show up.
SPEAKER_07: And again, we are always grateful for other hands.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, whether they go to church here or want to go to church here or not.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, this is what we do to share life with our community.
SPEAKER_07: So it's a beautiful opportunity for anybody.
SPEAKER_07: Um I also want to let you know, I won't be here next week.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, so you'll have David Deerman.
SPEAKER_07: He's the um former head of school at Trinity and Galveston and the son-in-law of Craig Morgan.
SPEAKER_07: So if you're looking for a good sermon, come next week.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, and you'll enjoy David, who's been here before.
SPEAKER_07: Lovely guy.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, while I'm out, my email will tell you who to contact if you have an emergency.
SPEAKER_07: Um, but but I'll be I'll be out for about 10 days and look forward to rejoining you on the back end of that.
SPEAKER_07: Um, one last thing I want to hold up to you is uh since coming back from my sabbatical with the National Outdoor Leadership School, uh I've been um pursuing offering outdoor renewal trips through the diocese.
SPEAKER_07: And I think I mentioned to you a few months ago that the Diocese of Texas uh gave me a grant of$10,000 to buy equipment and to get a couple of trips going to do outdoor renewal for clergy, for clergy spouses, for lay people.
SPEAKER_07: So I'm getting ready to do my first clergy trip to Zion.
SPEAKER_07: I won't miss a Sunday doing it.
SPEAKER_07: We're gonna do that in about three weeks.
SPEAKER_07: But if you look at your e-news, I'm offering an outdoor renewal trip uh for the parish, and um it is it is gonna fill up, it is, um, but I'm giving you first dibs before I fill it with clergy and spouses.
SPEAKER_07: So even though it's in November, we'll be doing a five-day backpacking trip in Arkansas.
SPEAKER_07: It's okay if you've never done it before.
SPEAKER_07: I have all the stuff you need.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, if if you know your own body, uh you know maybe a little bit what you're capable of, but you don't need to be a pro to do this.
SPEAKER_07: So if you have any interest, uh, we'd be grateful to talk to you about it.
SPEAKER_07: And I'd rather fill it with people from here than people from the diocese, this go.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, so I'm telling you about it first.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and you may say, I've never thought about doing that.
SPEAKER_07: I don't have anything I need.
SPEAKER_07: I got most of what you need.
SPEAKER_07: You'll need your own clothes, but I got most of the stuff, hence the grant.
SPEAKER_07: So uh we'd be grateful to talk to you about that opportunity.
SPEAKER_07: This is not meant to be the only one, it's meant to be a couple of these a year to benefit you spiritually and invite you to a pattern of life that I've really enjoyed.
SPEAKER_07: So um just keep your eyes out for that if that's of interest to you.
SPEAKER_07: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_07: As Christ oh, yep, Bob.
SPEAKER_07: Oh, Bob wanted me to remind you.
SPEAKER_07: If you're using a hearing device, one of our hearing-assisted devices, we've got kind of a hardware problem.
SPEAKER_07: Uh we're gonna fix it.
SPEAKER_07: But if you're using one of those devices or have, Bob would be really grateful if you could uh have a moment with him, particularly between services next week, so that as we look to not only replace what we have, but upgrade it to fit your needs, we know what you need, what you use, and we can match the new thing to do that.
SPEAKER_07: I hope that makes sense.
SPEAKER_07: There's a lot of technology now that will allow you to automatically sync what we're doing through your phone-based hearing aids, or you can use one of our devices.
SPEAKER_07: So we want to we want to honor what you got and make this as intelligible as you can.
SPEAKER_07: I think I'm a better preacher when you can't understand me, but uh we've we we still have a nice Eucharistic prayer, so we want to we want to do that.
SPEAKER_07: So, next week between services if you're using a hearing device.
SPEAKER_07: Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_07: All things come of you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_05: And of your own have we given you.
SPEAKER_07: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come.
SPEAKER_07: You who have much faith, and you who have little.
SPEAKER_07: You who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_07: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_07: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_07: And he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_07: Our service continues on page 372 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_07: Page 372.
SPEAKER_07: As you're turning there, it occurs to me to mention there are eight Eucharistic prayers that are authorized.
SPEAKER_07: We use prayer D.
SPEAKER_07: It's the oldest of all of the Eucharistic prayers in the prayer book.
SPEAKER_07: It's also the longest.
SPEAKER_07: We use it during Easter and Christmas here.
SPEAKER_07: That's pretty normal that we do it during those festival seasons.
SPEAKER_07: And you'll notice the prayers of the people are included in that Eucharistic prayer, they're not separate.
SPEAKER_07: So just pointing out, we have eight forms we use.
SPEAKER_07: Easter and Christmas, we use this one.
SPEAKER_02: We gift up your hoods.
SPEAKER_02: We give them to the let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_02: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
SPEAKER_06: It is truly right, glorify you, Father, and to give you thanks, for you alone are called living and true, dwelling in light, inaccessible from before time and for ever, fountain of life and source of all goodness.
SPEAKER_06: You made all things and filled them with your blessing.
SPEAKER_06: You created them to rejoice in the splendor realm of your radiance.
SPEAKER_06: Count vessel of angels stand for you to serve you who night and day, and beholding the glory of your presence, they offer you unceasing praise, joining with them and giving voice to every creature under heaven, then we acclaim you and glorify your whole name as we sing.
SPEAKER_07: Mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.
SPEAKER_07: You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might shepherd and serve all your creatures.
SPEAKER_07: When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.
SPEAKER_07: In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.
SPEAKER_07: Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_07: Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_07: Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_07: To the poor, he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.
SPEAKER_07: To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave, destroyed death, and made the whole creation new.
SPEAKER_07: And that we might live no longer for ourselves, but for the one who died and rose for us, God sent the Holy Spirit, God's own first gift for those who believed, to complete Jesus' work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.
SPEAKER_07: When the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_07: Supper with them he took bread.
SPEAKER_07: And when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_07: This is my body, all that I am, which is given to build you up.
SPEAKER_07: Whenever you eat bread, remember me.
SPEAKER_07: After supper, Jesus took a cup of wine, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_07: This is my blood, my life force, given to nourish your own.
SPEAKER_07: Whenever you drink wine, remember me.
SPEAKER_07: Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption.
SPEAKER_07: Recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory and offering to you from the gifts you've given us this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.
SPEAKER_05: We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we praise you, Lord our God.
SPEAKER_07: Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people, the bread of life and cup of salvation, the body and blood of your Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Grant to all who share this bread and this cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your name.
SPEAKER_07: Remember, Lord, your one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, redeemed by the blood of your Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace.
SPEAKER_07: Remember, Andy, Hector, Kay, and Jeff, our bishops, Craig, Jim, and Mike, and the priests in our community, and all who minister in your church.
SPEAKER_07: Remember all your people and those who seek your truth.
SPEAKER_07: The congregation is invited to name their celebrations or petitions silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_07: Remember all who have died in the peace of Christ, and those whose faith is known to you alone.
SPEAKER_07: Bring them into the place of eternal joy and light, and grant that we might find our inheritance with Thomas, the Blessed Virgin Mary, Cleopus, with matriarchs, patriarchs, prophets, apostles, and martyrs, with all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past.
SPEAKER_07: We praise you in union with them and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_06: Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, all honor and glory are yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, for ever and him.
SPEAKER_05: 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, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_05: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but of deliverance from people, for thine kingdom and the power and the glory forever and everyone.
SPEAKER_03: One quick cut on one for one.
SPEAKER_03: One big way I had one of the people.
SPEAKER_07: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_07: God of creation.
SPEAKER_07: We have our soul and body.
SPEAKER_07: Both and we hold everyone to God.
SPEAKER_07: And let's go for my own.
SPEAKER_05: And the world.
SPEAKER_05: And the body who lie on the dark of the days.
SPEAKER_05: With the radiance of your glory.
SPEAKER_07: I am.
SPEAKER_07: Keep your eyes wide open, your hands willing, your hearts generous, your ears attentive, your senses awake, your feet light, your hope alive, and your faith alight.
SPEAKER_07: Go and shine wherever you may be, or go and embrace with tenderness all of life with its sorrows and joys.
SPEAKER_07: Go and know what divinity expects and what your sisters and brothers seek.
SPEAKER_07: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you this day and remain with you forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.