SPEAKER_02: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: And blessed be God.
SPEAKER_02: There is one body and one spirit.
SPEAKER_07: There is one Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
SPEAKER_02: One God and all of all.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, Jesus.
SPEAKER_06: All desires come.
SPEAKER_06: And from the secret spirit, cleanse all of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_06: That we may perfectly love you.
SPEAKER_06: And we magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_02: And with the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_02: Father in heaven, who at the baptism of Jesus in the River Jordan proclaimed him your beloved Son and anointed him with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Grant that all who are baptized into his name may keep the covenant they have made and boldly confess him as Lord and Savior, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God in glory everlasting.
SPEAKER_02: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_02: Here is my servant whom I behold, my chosen, in whom my soul delights.
SPEAKER_02: He will not cry or lift up his voice or make it heard in the street.
SPEAKER_02: A bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench.
SPEAKER_02: He will faithfully bring forth justice.
SPEAKER_02: He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands wait for his teaching.
SPEAKER_02: Thus says God the Lord, who created the heavens and stretched them out, who spread out the earth and what comes from it, who gives breath to the people upon it, and who says in spirit to those who walk in it.
SPEAKER_02: I am the Lord, I have called you in righteousness, I have taken you by the hand and kept you.
SPEAKER_02: I have given you as a covenant to the people, and light to the nations, to open the eyes that are blind, to bring out the prisoners from the dungeon, from the prison, those who sit in darkness.
SPEAKER_02: I am the Lord, that is my name.
SPEAKER_02: My glory I give to no other, than all my praise to idols.
SPEAKER_02: See, former things have come to pass, and new things I now declare.
SPEAKER_02: Before they spring forth, I tell you of them.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_02: The psalm appointed for the day is Psalm 29.
SPEAKER_02: Please join me as we read responsively by the half verse.
SPEAKER_02: Ascribe to the Lord you gods.
SPEAKER_02: Ascribe to the Lord glory and scribe to the Lord the glory that is due the holy name.
SPEAKER_06: Worship the Lord and the new glory.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters.
SPEAKER_02: The God of glory thunders.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is upon the mighty waters.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord is a powerful voice.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord is the voice of thunder.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord breaks the cedar trees.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord breaks the ears of Lebanon.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord makes Lebanon skip like a calf.
SPEAKER_05: And like an unwild ox.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord splits the flames of fire.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord shakes the wilderness.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord shakes the wilderness of Kadesh.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of the Lord makes the oak trees writhe.
SPEAKER_02: And the glory is there.
SPEAKER_02: And in the temple of the Lord, the Lord sits enthroned above the flood.
SPEAKER_06: The Lord sits enthroned as honor forevermore.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord shall give strength to the chosen people.
SPEAKER_06: The Lord shall give the people the blessing of the evil.
SPEAKER_08: Peter began to speak to them.
SPEAKER_08: But in every nation, anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him.
SPEAKER_08: You know the message he sent to the people of Israel.
SPEAKER_08: Preaching peace by Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_08: He is Lord of all.
SPEAKER_08: That message spread throughout Judea, beginning in Galilee, after the baptism that John announced.
SPEAKER_08: How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power.
SPEAKER_08: How he went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil.
SPEAKER_08: For God was with him.
SPEAKER_08: We are witnesses to all that he did both in Judea and in Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_08: They put him to death by hanging him on a tree.
SPEAKER_08: But God raised him on the third day and allowed him to appear, not to all people, but to us who were chosen by God as witnesses, and who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_08: He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one ordained by God as judge of the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_08: All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus came from Galilee to John at the Jordan River to be baptized by John.
SPEAKER_02: John would have prevented Jesus, saying, I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus answered, John, let it be so now, for it is proper for us in this way to fulfill all righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: And then John consented.
SPEAKER_02: And when Jesus had been baptized, just as he came up from the water, suddenly the heavens were open to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him.
SPEAKER_02: And a voice from heaven said, This is my son, the beloved, with whom I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Well, reminder that last week we began the season of Epiphany, in which we're invited to consider in what ways would God change the ways we look at the world.
SPEAKER_02: Not just how did God do it in the past, but what's our opportunity for continuing growth and epiphanies?
SPEAKER_02: And today we celebrate the baptism of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: And look, we have to be honest, we don't know what Jesus was thinking because the text doesn't tell us.
SPEAKER_02: What we know, and we say this regularly, that Jesus is like us in every way except without sin.
SPEAKER_02: And we also notice that John is doing a baptism in the Jordan once and for all for the forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_02: Ain't that something?
SPEAKER_02: Baptism once and all for the forgiveness of sin, and Jesus is like us in every way, but without sin.
SPEAKER_02: So why'd he need it?
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna go off the rails for the rest of the time.
SPEAKER_02: So uh I am going to imagine what I think might be going on that I find uh speaks to me where I am, and I want to start, and by the way, if this is not the kind of conjecture you enjoy, there's some really pretty things to look at in the room.
SPEAKER_02: Uh but I do want to start by telling you about kind of where baptism came from.
SPEAKER_02: Uh so we have some evidence that ever since the uh the Hebrew people came back from Babylon, they started to be concerned, uh, frankly, it was stuff that we're concerned about too.
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna use the word residues.
SPEAKER_02: Residues.
SPEAKER_02: Like when you come into contact with something that is kind of hard to live with, it sure would be great to get the residue off of you.
SPEAKER_02: Let me give you the easiest example.
SPEAKER_02: You're a combat veteran and you come back to civilian life, it would be nice to get the residue of the warrior mentality off of you.
SPEAKER_02: Does this make sense?
SPEAKER_02: Because if you don't, you might end up with what we call PTSD.
SPEAKER_02: So uh this is very real.
SPEAKER_02: We struggle with this now.
SPEAKER_02: Veterans continue to struggle with this, and it's just one example.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, there's many other examples.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we see things we wish we hadn't seen, and those images come up in our mind's eye without our bidding.
SPEAKER_02: It would be great if we could get rid of those residues.
SPEAKER_02: I believe that.
SPEAKER_02: So, what was happening a couple hundred years before John the Baptist is that people were taking ritual baths in something called mikvas, and they were doing it to rinse off any kind of residues that they came into contact, whether that was practices that didn't uphold God's will as they understood it, or germs.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it all sort of got mixed in together.
SPEAKER_02: People were doing this up to five times a day.
SPEAKER_02: Again, these are called mikvas, and uh sometimes they were 50-gallon drums, sometimes they were pools into somebody's house, and of course we know that there was no antibacterial soap in them.
SPEAKER_02: This is a symbolic move to rinse this off.
SPEAKER_02: So, what John does is he shows up offering something creative and unique.
SPEAKER_02: He says, let's do this one time for life instead of five times a day.
SPEAKER_02: Very different because look, we all understand that there's rites of renewal, there's things we need to do, like the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_02: We do that every week, and there's rites of passage, right?
SPEAKER_02: Like you tend not to get married every week, right?
SPEAKER_02: You tend not to graduate high school more than one time, right?
SPEAKER_02: These are things in which you pass from one identity to a new one.
SPEAKER_02: And John says, let's make baptism a rite of passage so that you're done worrying about whether or not God delights in you.
SPEAKER_02: Once and for all, we'll do it.
SPEAKER_02: Unique, brand new.
SPEAKER_02: And John does this, he's not John the sprinkler, he's John the Baptist, and Baptist is a Greek word that means dunk or submerge, like you're dying a piece of fabric.
SPEAKER_02: We don't do that in our tradition because we do this for infants, and it is like maybe not in their best interest, health-wise, to submerge them.
SPEAKER_02: However, if you ever want to be dunked, I'll do it.
SPEAKER_02: In my pool, yeah, probably not the lake.
SPEAKER_02: You need a hazmat bath after that.
SPEAKER_02: But we can do that somewhere else if you want that as an experience.
SPEAKER_02: And so Jesus shows up, right, to get this immersion.
SPEAKER_02: And again, it can be confusing.
SPEAKER_02: Why does he, what does he need to repent of?
SPEAKER_02: And look, I just want you to journey with me for a second.
SPEAKER_02: Is it very possible, and I think it is, that Jesus is raised uh by a culture that has a particular way of looking at the world?
SPEAKER_02: I think so, because I was raised that way too.
SPEAKER_02: And um, you know, when you think about this, I learned this when I was a kid and I was doing sports, coaches would say, practice makes that isn't true, practice makes habitual.
SPEAKER_02: If you practice a piece over and over and over again, you'll be able to play it without intense concentration, but it doesn't mean you'll play it correctly.
SPEAKER_02: The truth is, what we practice becomes internalized.
SPEAKER_02: And if you want to know what that looks like in your brain, the more we practice something, the more we start to cope these neuroconnections.
SPEAKER_02: It's called myelin.
SPEAKER_02: We myelate these connections, which become information superhighways in our brain.
SPEAKER_02: That is to say, uh, data travels 50,000 times faster on a myelinated superhighway than it does on a farm-de-market road.
SPEAKER_02: We've all got myelinated responses.
SPEAKER_02: I don't think it's unfair to suggest Jesus had them too.
SPEAKER_02: Some of them serve life.
SPEAKER_02: And some of them don't.
SPEAKER_02: Some of the ones that don't, that are very normal to human experience, tend to end in the word ism.
SPEAKER_02: And I would challenge you to come up with a positive word that ends with ism.
SPEAKER_02: And please don't say optimism because we dismiss optimists as not being realists, and people who are too real, who practice realism, we say really you're just a Debbie Down, right?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, consider the other isms: racism, sexism, age-ism, jingoism.
SPEAKER_02: None of these are good things, and honestly, we're all steeped in them.
SPEAKER_02: All of us are steeped in them.
SPEAKER_02: Denominational ism being another strong one.
SPEAKER_02: We're steeped in.
SPEAKER_02: And we've practiced them as a people of faith or as individuals to the point we've myelinated them, and I don't think it's out of hand to say Jesus had some habits as well.
SPEAKER_02: Now, this is gonna sound heretical, but I do want to share with you, I found the writings of John Wesley to be really helpful.
SPEAKER_02: John Wesley says, ignorance is not a sin, willful ignorance is.
SPEAKER_02: Hope we get the difference.
SPEAKER_02: Keep in mind that in a few chapters, a non-Jewish lady is going to come to Jesus and say, My daughter's sick, will you help her?
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus will say, I don't give crumbs to dogs.
SPEAKER_02: That's a stereotype.
SPEAKER_02: He could have been testing her faith, but he also could have been reflecting the way he was raised.
SPEAKER_02: I was raised with certain stereotypes.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not pointing fingers, I just think this is part of our social experience as human beings.
SPEAKER_02: So, what is it that Jesus has to repent of?
SPEAKER_02: Some of those old myelinated superhighways that are going right off a cliff.
SPEAKER_02: And he would like to be reborn so that he can myelinate superhighways that cross chasms instead of running off them.
SPEAKER_02: I want that.
SPEAKER_02: Well, not all the time.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I would like to drive full speed off a cliff because I've myelinated that pathway in my brain.
SPEAKER_02: But when my brain's really working, I don't want to do that.
SPEAKER_02: So I returned to baptism as well because this is what rebirth looks like.
SPEAKER_02: It looks like how do we transition habits that go nowhere into habits that go where God would take us if we just be willing.
SPEAKER_02: And this is gonna maybe sound super nuts to you, but I do want you to consider what Jesus sees when he comes out the river.
SPEAKER_02: And look, in Mark, everybody sees it, but in Matthew, this is a personal vision.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus is the only one who sees this.
SPEAKER_02: The heavens open up, and he hears a voice You are my son, my beloved, and you am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: I did not have that vision when I was baptized.
SPEAKER_02: I did not.
SPEAKER_02: I suspect many of us have had visions in which the heavens are opened up.
SPEAKER_02: We tend to have them in places that are beautiful, like where the veil between heaven and earth opens.
SPEAKER_02: Lots of people have it at Niagara Falls.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we go there.
SPEAKER_02: We expect to see wonder and beauty so that the veil between heaven and earth could be temporarily lifted.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we have national parks.
SPEAKER_02: We've said it is so normal for people to have the veil lifted here that we're just going to institutionalize this as a holy place.
SPEAKER_02: That's why we have sanctuaries.
SPEAKER_02: Because we say this can be a safe place of beauty where you can find the veil between heaven and earth, hopefully, lifted.
SPEAKER_02: And then hear the voice of Jesus.
SPEAKER_02: And look, I think it would be a mistake if we think this only happened one time in one place.
SPEAKER_02: See, what Matthew does that's rather clever, I think, is to this point in his life, Jesus has done nothing important.
SPEAKER_02: Now we don't know what he did, but it didn't make the story.
SPEAKER_02: So as far as we know, Jesus worked a day job.
SPEAKER_02: But there's no miracle stories before this.
SPEAKER_02: None.
SPEAKER_02: There's no pithy teachings.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus didn't write a book yet that went viral.
SPEAKER_02: As far as we know, he's done nothing.
SPEAKER_02: And this is the moment that changes things.
SPEAKER_02: And I invite you to consider how the change might happen.
SPEAKER_02: I think what Matthew's trying to suggest to us is that God's love for Jesus is not based on what Jesus is going to do at all.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, I would suggest to you that Jesus' ministry is based on the fact that God already loves him instead of he has to curry favor with God.
SPEAKER_02: If I come to God in anxiety, like I'm afraid God is fundamentally disappointed with me.
SPEAKER_02: Or if I think I've got to save souls, or I've got to do this or that, so that God will have more affection from me, then everything I do will be tinged with that anxiety.
SPEAKER_02: Everything will come from a center of anxiety, not of God's peaceful, radical acceptance of who I am.
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to have this vision, Jesus had.
SPEAKER_02: Wouldn't you?
SPEAKER_02: Because I know all too well how anxious I am in my relationship with God from time to time.
SPEAKER_02: God, I'm not blank enough.
SPEAKER_02: Somebody gave me this gift, I'm not worthy of it.
SPEAKER_02: It's comforting for me to think that Jesus wasn't born, always understanding God's radical love of God for him.
SPEAKER_02: That comforts me.
SPEAKER_02: He had to learn to do it.
SPEAKER_02: This may be heretical, this is just what I'm thinking, because the truth is I have to learn to do it too.
SPEAKER_02: And what a gift for ministry if we our center was found in God's radical love for us as we are, instead of for who we could be later.
SPEAKER_02: And Desmond Tutu said this very well.
SPEAKER_02: Part of the problem I think we have spiritually is that we don't understand how low God's standards are.
SPEAKER_02: They are really low.
SPEAKER_02: God's standards are so low that there is nothing you can do to make God love you any less.
SPEAKER_02: And there is nothing you can do to make God love you anymore.
SPEAKER_02: I wish I were saturated in that vision of God.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope you hear why.
SPEAKER_02: And I find it actually inspiring to think that this sense isn't a one-off.
SPEAKER_02: That God looks at Chris Leedy and says, You are my daughter, my beloved, with you I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: And then God looks over at Janie Tolman and says, Janie, you are my daughter, my beloved, with you, I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: And God might even have enough grit to look at me and say, You are my son, my beloved, with you, I am well pleased.
SPEAKER_02: But that is the good news of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: That's the gospel.
SPEAKER_02: That's not where we end, that's where we start.
SPEAKER_02: And from that starting point, don't you see?
SPEAKER_02: The point is we get to enjoy God's favor, not try and correct.
SPEAKER_02: And when we're able to enjoy God's loving glance at us for who we are, then we get to look at other people that drive us crazy and say, somehow God loves you too.
SPEAKER_02: And then we can treat them like God does, with love.
SPEAKER_02: I am sure that people did not, not everybody enjoyed Jesus' sense of humor.
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sure that because I don't know anybody in the world who everybody else enjoys their sense of humor.
SPEAKER_02: I am sure Jesus had weird ways of doing stuff because everybody I know has weird ways of doing stuff, and our personality is not an affront to God, it was created by God.
SPEAKER_02: And God says, I love who you are, you're a gift to the world, and if you can accept that and operate from my love, you'll be an even greater gift to the world, don't you see?
SPEAKER_02: Anxiety is the gift that keeps on giving.
SPEAKER_02: It is.
SPEAKER_02: So why not imagine that Jesus came to the River Jordan to wash that off once and for all?
SPEAKER_02: Boy, I would love to wash the anxiety out of my spiritual life so that it can start to matriculate into every corner of my life.
SPEAKER_02: And that's why I think we hear in the Psalms, you hear this, this is a hurricane that's being described.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of God breaks the cedars of Lebanon, which are like the redwoods or the sequoids.
SPEAKER_02: The voice of God is powerful, and don't hear it as destructive.
SPEAKER_02: God's voice would love to break up all the armor we put in front of the idea that God loves us like we are.
SPEAKER_02: God would like to destroy our defenses for our sake.
SPEAKER_02: That's the power of God, not to tear us down, but to tear down our defenses so that we can live as God would have us live.
SPEAKER_02: Hear this story that Peter tells.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, it's telling.
SPEAKER_02: Right before this story, Peter has had this interaction with a Gentile, somebody who has not earned God's favor because he doesn't have the right practices, he doesn't have the right body, he's not circumcised yet.
SPEAKER_02: That's how the story goes.
SPEAKER_02: And look at Peter's revelation.
SPEAKER_02: Oh, now I get it.
SPEAKER_02: God's not impartial.
SPEAKER_02: That's me.
SPEAKER_02: And I don't have to be.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to be partial about who God chooses to love.
SPEAKER_02: The scriptures are clear.
SPEAKER_02: It's all of us, even when we don't feel like it's us.
SPEAKER_02: So what do we come to the river to do?
SPEAKER_02: I mean, honestly, when you think about water, this is ordinary stuff we do with water.
SPEAKER_02: You've got to have it to grow.
SPEAKER_02: You've got to be hydrated.
SPEAKER_02: Look, sometimes in Texas it just gets really hot.
SPEAKER_02: And it's great to get in some cool water, isn't it, and be refreshed?
SPEAKER_02: And of course, what we all get is that water is instrumental in washing off, well, stuff that gunks up the works.
SPEAKER_02: If I'm honest with you, I don't get as gunked up that I lied to my sixth-grade teacher about a poem I wrote as I do with anxiety and regrets.
SPEAKER_02: Or will people, how will they look at me?
SPEAKER_02: Those are the things that gunk up the works.
SPEAKER_02: And I'd love to wash them off, and this is why we return to baptism.
SPEAKER_02: God, wash that stuff off so that I can enjoy the enjoyment you have of me and for me and with me.
SPEAKER_02: God, it gets hot loving other people.
SPEAKER_02: I mean, people are hard to love sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: You're probably hard to love sometimes.
SPEAKER_02: I'm guessing because I am, right?
SPEAKER_02: It's hard being human.
SPEAKER_02: Boy, God, it gets hot loving people.
SPEAKER_02: Could you please just give us a splash of relief?
SPEAKER_02: This is what we come to baptism for again and again.
SPEAKER_02: God, I need that kind of water in my life so that I can grow and be hydrated and nourished and be a nourishment to other food.
SPEAKER_02: This is what we do.
SPEAKER_02: And we do this, you see, we talk about how it is that we need to myelinate new highways in our life, and the way we do that is through the baptismal covenant.
SPEAKER_02: Pay attention to the words I'm getting ready to ask you to say.
SPEAKER_02: They're saying, look, there's a different way of living than we're living.
SPEAKER_02: Respect the fundamental dignity of every human being.
SPEAKER_02: I'd like to myelinate that pathway in my brain, in my life, in my faith, in my spirituality.
SPEAKER_02: And if we chose to do it together, this is why we use the word covenant.
SPEAKER_02: Well, as we know, laying road work is about the hardest job there is, but with many hands, the work becomes lighter.
SPEAKER_02: And we start to take a farm-to-market road and turn it into a super highway of faith that connects us to God's love in one another.
SPEAKER_02: This is what we're going to do when we renew our baptism.
SPEAKER_02: Now I'm going to warn you, I'm going to splash you with some water.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope you will feel the effect of, well, surprise and invigoration to do this holy work that God is calling us to do.
SPEAKER_02: We just do this once a year.
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what your follow-up work needs to be.
SPEAKER_02: It could be you need to look in the mirror until you see God's delight in your body and visage.
SPEAKER_02: Because I can tell you that at least 90% of Americans have body shame.
SPEAKER_02: And when we operate from body shame, guess what we give other people?
SPEAKER_02: Body shame.
SPEAKER_02: It is the gift that keeps on giving.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you need to anoint your mirror with oil so that it will do what God does and show you the beautiful child of God you already are, even if you have a wart or a mole or hairs growing out of your ears, like I do.
SPEAKER_02: But it's not because we're fallen.
SPEAKER_02: God finds that stuff beautiful.
SPEAKER_02: And we get to as well.
SPEAKER_02: And here's our chance to say, God, I'd like to wash up all the stuff that's gunking up the works so I can see me and my spouse and my crazy Uncle Steve the way you do.
SPEAKER_02: Because then I can love them like you do.
SPEAKER_02: And then I can enjoy this one life you've given me now, and I don't have to wait until I die.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the whole point.
SPEAKER_02: We don't have to wait to enjoy God's favor.
SPEAKER_02: We get to do it now.
SPEAKER_02: So why don't you stand with me as you're able, and we're going to reaffirm our baptismal covenant.
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in God the Father?
SPEAKER_02: I believe in God the Father, Almighty, and Earth.
SPEAKER_02: Even Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
SPEAKER_02: I believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_06: He doesn't see the power of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_06: And everyone.
SPEAKER_02: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_02: I believe in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_05: The communion of the sins.
SPEAKER_05: The forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
SPEAKER_02: Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers?
SPEAKER_02: I will with thyself.
SPEAKER_02: Will you persevere in resisting evil?
SPEAKER_02: And whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
SPEAKER_06: I will without self.
SPEAKER_02: Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
SPEAKER_02: I will with thyself.
SPEAKER_02: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
SPEAKER_02: I will with thyself.
SPEAKER_02: And will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
SPEAKER_02: I will with myself.
SPEAKER_02: Now stand or sit as you feel comfortable, and if you put a big X over your face, I won't disperge you with this water.
SPEAKER_02: But otherwise, I hope you will feel with each tiny splash God's love for you.
SPEAKER_02: The prayers of the people are to be found in your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_02: On page three hundred and twenty-eight.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty and ever-living God, who in thy holy word has taught us to make prayers and supplications and to give thanks for all men, receive these our prayers which we offer unto thy divine majesty, beseeching thee to inspire continually the universal church with the spirit of truth, unity and concord, and grant that all those who do confess thy holy name may agree in the truth of thy holy word and live in unity and godly love.
SPEAKER_00: Give grace, O Heavenly Father, to all bishops and other ministers, that they may, both by their life and doctrine, set forth thy truth and lively word, and rightly and duly administer thy holy sacraments.
SPEAKER_00: And to all thy people, give thy heavenly grace, and especially to this congregation here present, that, with meek heart and due reverence, they may hear and receive thy holy word, truly serving thee in holiness and righteousness all the days of their life.
SPEAKER_00: We beseech thee also so to rule the hearts of those who bear the authority of government in this and every land, that they may be led to wise decisions and right actions for the welfare and peace of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Open, O Lord, the eyes of all people to behold thy gracious hand in all thy works, that, rejoicing in thy whole creation, they may honor thee with their substance and be faithful stewards of thy bounty.
SPEAKER_00: And we must humbly beseech thee, of thy goodness, O Lord, to comfort and succor all those who in this transitory life are in trouble, sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity.
SPEAKER_00: And we also bless thy holy name for all thy servants to part of this life in the faith and fear, beseeching thee to grant them continual growth in thy love and service, and to grant us grace, so to follow the good example of Saint Thomas and of all thy saints, that with them we may be partakers of thy heavenly kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: Grant these our prayers, O Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our only mediator and advocate.
SPEAKER_02: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
SPEAKER_02: Gracious God, our since every and too deep to undo.
SPEAKER_05: For real trouble, for our heart can no longer bear, and what has become for us the consuming fire of judgment.
SPEAKER_06: Open for us to be churning, but we can be changed, and grant us grace to grow more and more in your likeness's image.
SPEAKER_02: Through Jesus Christ, the Lord of the world.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Almighty and Merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And now the peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_02: Good morning, and thank you for worshiping with us at St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas today.
SPEAKER_02: If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in the room right behind the one we're sitting in, we call it the Narthic, that's where the bulletins were.
SPEAKER_02: We have some little cards that say welcome, and we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out and just put it in that little basket so that we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_02: And thank you for worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_02: There are a few announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_02: You'll see most of these in the e-news.
SPEAKER_02: You'll also see them on the little handout out there.
SPEAKER_02: But it is good to know kind of what happened this week.
SPEAKER_02: So I just have to tell you, I was absolutely thrilled that more than 50 of us went over to Congregation Sharha Shalom to get an introduction to the synagogue by Rabbi Federer.
SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
SPEAKER_02: As he said, it is so critical that we understand, that we understand, and what a place of vulnerability to let a lot of non-practitioners into your safe space.
SPEAKER_02: So it was truly lovely.
SPEAKER_02: And I hope you will take advantage.
SPEAKER_02: We're going to do this two more times.
SPEAKER_02: February 1, we're going to go to the Coptic Orthodox Church.
SPEAKER_02: That's the one right off of Clear Lake City with the gold domes.
SPEAKER_02: And we'll get a tour there as well because the architecture is different from ours, and so are some of the objects in the room.
SPEAKER_02: And the priest will guide us through some of the differences.
SPEAKER_02: And also the week after that, we'll be headed to the Clear Lake Islamic Center.
SPEAKER_02: That's right over by the Unitarian Church off of El Kamino.
SPEAKER_02: And uh Imam Ibrahim will guide us through what happens in the mosque, right?
SPEAKER_02: And so I hope you'll make time for this.
SPEAKER_02: You'll also notice in a couple of weeks I'll have a Sunday morning session between services introducing you to Islam so we can go in with some foundation, right?
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to leave you blank on that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm really also delighted to tell you that yesterday we we hosted a funeral for Andrew Smith, which was really, really lovely.
SPEAKER_02: And many of you were not here, but 147 people were.
SPEAKER_02: And what's really, really lovely that I appreciate about you all, whether you're here or not, is that we do this for people when they need it.
SPEAKER_02: And no one has to earn a funeral.
SPEAKER_02: We need them.
SPEAKER_02: We do them.
SPEAKER_02: And so thank you for supporting that ministry of being there when people are in need.
SPEAKER_02: Upcoming.
SPEAKER_02: Reminder that next week between services, we will have our second meeting about the pipe organ.
SPEAKER_02: And this meeting will be streamed, it'll be live.
SPEAKER_02: You can join on Zoom, and hopefully it'll be recorded.
SPEAKER_02: Last time we hit record and it didn't work.
SPEAKER_02: But we hopefully will iron that out because.
SPEAKER_02: Reminder: We're having these meetings because the scope and the cost of the organ have exceeded what we initially thought.
SPEAKER_02: So we want to give you all the data so that we can make a decision about what's the best way to proceed.
SPEAKER_02: So the meeting, this this meeting is lots of room for any question that you may have about the pipe organ, how it'll sound, what it'll do, why we would want one, what it does for ministry, etc.
SPEAKER_02: That'll be next week.
SPEAKER_02: Two weeks from today is the parish annual meeting, and that'll be in-between services and reminder.
SPEAKER_02: This is a really important time.
SPEAKER_02: We just do it once a year.
SPEAKER_02: This is where we get to approve our budget.
SPEAKER_02: We get to elect our vestry members.
SPEAKER_02: That's like the board of directors here at the church.
SPEAKER_02: We have five.
SPEAKER_02: You'll find those bios out there on the little table.
SPEAKER_02: Our delegates to diocesan council, so the diocese has like a vestry.
SPEAKER_02: We send people to be vestry every year for the diocese.
SPEAKER_02: And we're going to vote about the pipe organ as well.
SPEAKER_02: If you're not going to be here, we can do an electronic ballot because this is all very important stuff, and that's two weeks from today between services.
SPEAKER_02: I think uh the other thing I want to remind you of is that our school gala invitations might have gone out this week.
SPEAKER_02: You might have received one.
SPEAKER_02: And this is our biggest fundraiser to support financial aid for our school.
SPEAKER_02: And you've heard me say this before.
SPEAKER_02: Private schools are having a tough time, and ours is no exception, but I personally believe and have seen the benefit within my own family and the families we have.
SPEAKER_02: This is good ministry we're doing.
SPEAKER_02: So we want to give this every chance we can in uncertain times.
SPEAKER_02: That's that's it, that's the easiest way to say it.
SPEAKER_02: And so you'll find an invitation.
SPEAKER_02: If there's anything you want to contribute, maybe you've got tickets or you want to make a cake we can auction off.
SPEAKER_02: Please talk to me about that.
SPEAKER_02: But I I just want to introduce to you that those are coming out, and that'll be February the 18th.
SPEAKER_02: That might be it for today.
SPEAKER_02: Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_03: Exalted beauty, three wise lands, exalted with someone.
SPEAKER_02: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_02: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.
SPEAKER_02: So come.
SPEAKER_02: You who have much faith and you who have little.
SPEAKER_02: You who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_02: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_02: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_02: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_02: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_02: It is very meat, right in our bound in duty, that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father Almighty, everlasting God.
SPEAKER_02: Because in the mystery of the word made flesh, thou hast caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give a knowledge of thy glory in the face of thy Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and singing.
SPEAKER_02: All glory be to thee, Almighty God, our Heavenly Father, for that thou of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son, Jesus Christ, to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption, who may there, by his one oblation of himself, once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world.
SPEAKER_02: And then institute, and in his holy gospel, command us to continue a perpetual memory of that his precious death and sacrifice until his coming again.
SPEAKER_02: For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_02: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_02: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_02: Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_02: And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the New Testament, which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.
SPEAKER_02: Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_02: Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people, according to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, do celebrate and make here before thy divine majesty with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.
SPEAKER_02: And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us.
SPEAKER_02: And of thy almighty goodness vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with thy word and Holy Spirit these thy gifts and creatures of bread and wine, that we, receiving them according to thy Son, Jesus Christ's holy institution, in remembrance of his death and passion, may be partakers of his most blessed body and blood.
SPEAKER_02: And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, most humbly beseeching thee to grant that by the merits and death of thy Son, Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we and all I hope, Church, may obtain remission of our sin and all other benefits of his passion.
SPEAKER_02: And here we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee, humbly beseeching thee that we and all others who shall be partakers of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him.
SPEAKER_02: And although we are unworthy through our manifold sins to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this, our bound in duty and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: By whom and with whom and in him.
SPEAKER_02: In the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_05: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done, honored 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.
SPEAKER_05: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_05: For thine kingdom, the power and glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, let us keep peace.
SPEAKER_02: These are the gifts of God for you, the beloved of God.
SPEAKER_02: Behold who you are and become the gifts you receive.
SPEAKER_02: Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.
SPEAKER_05: Now before the people, for given you, renewed, that we may reclaim your love for the world and continue to live with our life as Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we have to dare to be fools for Christ.
SPEAKER_02: And that means that sometimes we have to be willing to give food to people who don't really need or seem to deserve it.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we have to be willing to work with some people who might even exploit us.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this is as close as we can come to an experience of self-emputing.
SPEAKER_02: It is the experience of being useless in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Alleluia, Alleluia.
SPEAKER_02: Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks before.