SPEAKER_03: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be God's family, now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_03: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee, and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: It is the seventh day of Hanukkah right now.
SPEAKER_03: It'll be the eighth day when it gets dark tonight, so we'll flight the Hanukkiya.
SPEAKER_03: Be with you.
SPEAKER_03: And also with you.
SPEAKER_03: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God, you poured upon us the new light of your incarnate word.
SPEAKER_03: Grant that this light enkindled in our hearts may shine forth in our lives through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_01: A reading from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_01: I will greatly rejoice in the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: My whole being shall exult in my God.
SPEAKER_01: For God has clothed me with the garments of salvation.
SPEAKER_01: God has covered me with the robe of righteousness.
SPEAKER_01: As a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, as a bride adorns herself with her jewels.
SPEAKER_01: For as the earth brings forth its juice, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up, so the Lord God will cause righteousness and praise to spring up before all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: For Zion's sake, I will not keep silent, and for Jerusalem's sake, I will not rest, until her vindication shines out like the dawn, and her salvation like a burning torch.
SPEAKER_01: The nations shall see your vindication, and all the kings your glory.
SPEAKER_01: And you shall be called by new name that the mouth of the Lord will give.
SPEAKER_01: You shall be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand of your God.
SPEAKER_01: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_01: The psalm appointed is Psalm 147.
SPEAKER_01: Worship the Lord, O Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_01: For God has strengthened the bars of your gates.
SPEAKER_01: God has established peace on your borders.
SPEAKER_01: God's command is sent out to the earth.
SPEAKER_01: God gives snow like wool.
SPEAKER_01: God scatters hail like breadcrumbs.
SPEAKER_01: God's word is sent forth and melts them.
SPEAKER_01: God's word is declared to Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has not done so to any other nation.
SPEAKER_00: Now before faith came, we were imprisoned and guarded under the law until faith would be revealed.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore the law was our disciplinarian until Christ came, so that we might be justified by faith.
SPEAKER_00: But now that faith has come, we are no longer subject to a disciplinarian.
SPEAKER_00: But when the fullness of time had come, God sent his son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as children.
SPEAKER_00: And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, Abba, Father, so you are no longer a slave, but a child.
SPEAKER_00: And if a child, then also an heir, through God.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_03: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
SPEAKER_03: He was in the beginning with God.
SPEAKER_03: All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.
SPEAKER_03: What has come into being in him was life.
SPEAKER_03: The life was the light of all people.
SPEAKER_03: The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
SPEAKER_03: There was a man sent from God whose name was John.
SPEAKER_03: He came to witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him.
SPEAKER_03: He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.
SPEAKER_03: The true light which enlightens everyone was coming into the world.
SPEAKER_03: He was in the world, and the world came into being through him, yet the world did not know him.
SPEAKER_03: He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him, but to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of a human being, but of God.
SPEAKER_03: And the word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory.
SPEAKER_03: The glory is of a father's only son, full of grace and truth.
SPEAKER_03: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know if you uh remember reading Plato back in high school or college, but John is really pulling off some Platonic philosophy here.
SPEAKER_03: So just to ease you into it for a second so you can see, I think, what John's trying to do, that word word, in Greek, that's the word logos.
SPEAKER_03: And usually we translate that as like study of or words about.
SPEAKER_03: Like geologos, geology, we usually say, oh, that's the study of the earth.
SPEAKER_03: Biologi, the study of life, right?
SPEAKER_03: This is like kind of how we use the word.
SPEAKER_03: But in Platonic thought, it doesn't just mean words about, or it doesn't just mean the study of.
SPEAKER_03: Plato said that ancient Greek religion, you know, like with Zeus and Hera, he said it was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_03: He said the gods are not even like more virtuous than human beings.
SPEAKER_03: So all that's just made up in fantasy.
SPEAKER_03: No.
SPEAKER_03: Plato says, if you want to know where the world comes from and what's truly powerful, it goes like this.
SPEAKER_03: Uh first there are these things called the forms.
SPEAKER_03: And Plato said, forms, this is kind of like a genus, if you think through your taxonomy you learned in biology.
SPEAKER_03: Like every horse, and there's a quarter horse, and there's an Arabian, and there's a thoroughbred, they're slightly different, but they all have this quality of hoarseness.
SPEAKER_03: It's the same with dogs, right?
SPEAKER_03: Imagine a chihuahua and a great dane.
SPEAKER_03: I mean, they're quite different, but they have this dogness.
SPEAKER_03: And Plato said this is the form.
SPEAKER_03: So the form is sort of the category that gives the individuals.
SPEAKER_03: Well, the forms, says Plato, all come from the virtues.
SPEAKER_03: And the virtues all come from the logos.
SPEAKER_03: So in Platonic thought, the logos is the universal creative ordering principle that permeates existence.
SPEAKER_03: So biology is not actually the study of life in Plato's dialogue.
SPEAKER_03: Biology is how the universal creative ordering principle is revealed or made manifest in living things.
SPEAKER_03: Geology is not the study of the planet, it's how the universal creative ordering principle behind everything that has material is made manifest in the earth itself.
SPEAKER_03: So sometimes we can kind of cross-pollinate things and say, oh, in the beginning was the word, and that's like the Bible.
SPEAKER_03: No, the scripture is really clear.
SPEAKER_03: The Logos is Jesus.
SPEAKER_03: The universal ordering creative principle behind everything that is material and immaterial, the Logos was not only with God, the Logos is God.
SPEAKER_03: God is the creator that permeates every part of creation and is therefore manifest in every part of creation.
SPEAKER_03: And this is part of what we celebrate in this Christmas story, is we say, oh, the God who made the wood and the slate and the porcelain and the quarks and the gluons and the protons is also made manifest not just in one human being, but in each and every human being.
SPEAKER_03: Look at how people drive, it's because people are inherently wicked and evil.
SPEAKER_03: Like it's very tempting to make these categorical thoughts.
SPEAKER_03: And here's this story we come back to every year that says, it's fine that you have those feelings, they're just not true.
SPEAKER_03: So I have feelings all the time.
SPEAKER_03: Like I get really mad over nothing, and that feeling is really strong.
SPEAKER_03: It's just not true.
SPEAKER_03: It's real, it's not true.
SPEAKER_03: I have feelings about other people are base and wicked and evil because they don't think exactly like I do.
SPEAKER_03: Those are real feelings.
SPEAKER_03: They're just not true.
SPEAKER_03: Here's a story that says here's the truth.
SPEAKER_03: God put on human experience.
SPEAKER_03: Remember that.
SPEAKER_03: We're not estranged from God because we're human.
SPEAKER_03: No, no, no, no.
SPEAKER_03: This is a story about overcoming any estrangement.
SPEAKER_03: And I think that's why we come back to it every year.
SPEAKER_03: Because we come on Christmas Day and we say, oh, that's really cool.
SPEAKER_03: God was manifest in a human being.
SPEAKER_03: And then what do you know?
SPEAKER_03: I usually forget pretty fast when I'm talking with a coworker I don't like.
SPEAKER_03: That doesn't happen here very often.
SPEAKER_03: I like my co-workers, all three of them.
SPEAKER_03: But you I hope you understand what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_03: I easily, easily forget this lesson that God is incarnate in human experience.
SPEAKER_03: Being human does not mean something lower than God.
SPEAKER_03: This is a story about God permeating everything.
SPEAKER_03: And we get to hear this lovely physics lesson in John that talks about how darkness does not overcome light.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm pretty lucky in this parish that we've got a couple of astrophysicists who've told me a little bit about light.
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't want to bore you with the story, but you know, our the human eye can only register about this much light on the spectrum.
SPEAKER_03: Just an example of light you don't see that you know is real is your microwave, right?
SPEAKER_03: You put things in a microwave and you hit a button and the food's hot.
SPEAKER_03: Now you might be thinking, I see the microwave, there's a light on in it.
SPEAKER_03: That's not doing the cooking, that's just so you can see the light, right?
SPEAKER_03: But microwave is light you don't see.
SPEAKER_03: So is infrared.
SPEAKER_03: Your eye can't detect it, but it's very real.
SPEAKER_03: And there's this really interesting uh quantity in physics, right, which says, like, anybody ever been in a cave, like Mammoth Cave, and you go in there and they're like, hey, we're gonna experience absolute darkness, so put your watch in your pocket and put your phones down and turn out the lights.
SPEAKER_03: It seems really dark, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_03: And of course it's not.
SPEAKER_03: It just doesn't have any visible light.
SPEAKER_03: Mammoth Cave is absolutely teeming with light.
SPEAKER_03: Infrared, microwaves, radio waves, like short waves.
SPEAKER_03: Even the darkest place in intergalactic space is absolutely full of light.
SPEAKER_03: I know that's enigmatic because, again, we don't perceive it with our eye.
SPEAKER_03: But there's no less light in Mammoth Cave than there is right here.
SPEAKER_03: It's just not visible.
SPEAKER_03: And here is a story we return to every year that says, hey, sometimes there's dark places in life.
SPEAKER_03: And it doesn't seem, well, like God's present.
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't seem like there's a lot of light there.
SPEAKER_03: And the story of the incarnation is the light shines in the darkness.
SPEAKER_03: Even if it's not perceptible to our eye, God has made it so.
SPEAKER_03: That there can indeed be light.
SPEAKER_03: Even in labor pains.
SPEAKER_03: That's a stretch, right, ladies?
SPEAKER_03: Because it's painful.
SPEAKER_03: And God has suffused it with God's presence.
SPEAKER_03: This is the story of Christmas.
SPEAKER_03: And not that it had been once upon a time long ago, and that's a neat story.
SPEAKER_03: It's our invitation to find it over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_03: And I just keep thinking about like what Walt Whitman and William James have said that really the object of the spiritual and mystical life is to find infinity in a grain of sand.
SPEAKER_03: And this is the story of the incarnation.
SPEAKER_03: Infinity showed up in one human child, which is like a grain of sand when you think about how many people have ever lived and will continue to live, right?
SPEAKER_03: We found infinity there, and now our work is to find it in the next child that's born today.
SPEAKER_03: And when we get a little bored to find infinity in boredom.
SPEAKER_03: And even in dark places, to say, God, I don't see any light.
SPEAKER_03: But I'm gonna choose to trust that you're here anyway.
SPEAKER_03: And that you can, in fact, make light visible in places where it is not.
SPEAKER_03: And God, this is my prayer as best as I can do it.
SPEAKER_03: I don't always do it.
SPEAKER_03: If I could take part in making your light visible, I'd like to try today.
SPEAKER_03: This is again why we continue to light this Hanukkah, because the story of the Hanukkah is one day's oil made eight days' light, and so we're reminded that even small lights, and look, they'll be all burned down before we leave, right?
SPEAKER_03: But in God, a little bit of light goes a long way.
SPEAKER_03: Like at least eightfold.
SPEAKER_03: At least.
SPEAKER_03: And if you lit a candle on Christmas Eve, we did this last night, it's just a practice of that.
SPEAKER_03: We light one candle, and then we light everybody's candles.
SPEAKER_03: And isn't that how faith and community life work?
SPEAKER_03: One light.
SPEAKER_03: It goes a long way.
SPEAKER_03: Probably longer and brighter than you ever knew or imagined it would.
SPEAKER_03: And that's the joy and mystery of not only Christmas, but our faith journey together.
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, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, eternal God the Father, God of God, Father and Lord, true God, true God, begotten the high, Al-Bather, who give all things for him, for us and for our salvation, he and now in heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit, given our heart and our safety of God, besides,
unknown: Third day of God from the words of the spirit, except in heaven, and seed that prior and the Father.
unknown: You will come in the glory to judge the heaven, and it's in the moment.
SPEAKER_05: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and our life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son, with the Father and the Son, who has worshiped the glorified, and so on the cross.
unknown: We believe in the Holy Lord, the Catholic Solid Church.
unknown: We all have attitude forgiveness of sins.
unknown: We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
SPEAKER_03: God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives.
SPEAKER_03: We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created.
SPEAKER_03: We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.
SPEAKER_03: Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_03: I do hope that this is a lovely holiday for you as you go forward.
SPEAKER_03: And just a couple announcements to bring to your attention.
SPEAKER_03: One is that if you come next week, we're going to have a new table.
SPEAKER_03: We had a memorial gift, and the artist has been working at this for a long time and is going to finish.
SPEAKER_03: So this is like one of the last times we're going to have Eucharist on this table, which is kind of a bittersweet moment because it's been here a long time.
SPEAKER_03: And it's super lovely.
SPEAKER_03: But then would you be surprised when you come in next week and it looks really different?
SPEAKER_03: Because it's it's going to look really different.
SPEAKER_03: So there, told you.
SPEAKER_03: And uh I also uh just wanted to raise to you because these are holidays and sometimes we're moving around, but um really really excited that uh to announce that we're gonna be taking a small tour here in January and February of some some other of our faith brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_03: And so the first one is on January the 11th, that's a Wednesday night, and we're gonna meet over at uh Congregation Harsh Alone.
SPEAKER_03: That's a conservative synagogue here, right off of El Camino and El Dorado.
SPEAKER_03: And Rabbi Stuart Federo is going to physically walk us around the synagogue and talk through why it's built the way it's built and what this does and how the liturgy goes.
SPEAKER_03: And he's also dedicated his time to ask any questions you have about Judaism.
SPEAKER_03: I'll warn you he doesn't like questions about what does Jesus mean for Jewish people.
SPEAKER_03: Like you might want to not ask that question, but he'll handle any other question really, really well.
SPEAKER_03: And so that's the first of a couple of these.
SPEAKER_03: We'll also be going over to the Coptic Church that's new.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe you've seen it, it's got the gold domes.
SPEAKER_03: We'll be doing that later in January and uh to the Islamic Center as well, among hopefully a couple other tours.
SPEAKER_03: Last year these people came here and talked to us, which was lovely.
SPEAKER_03: So we want to return the favor and also see how the architecture and the building supports their faith tradition.
SPEAKER_03: So I just want to raise that up to you as an opportunity.
SPEAKER_03: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_03: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_03: And of your own have we given to you.
SPEAKER_03: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come.
SPEAKER_03: You who have much faith and you who have little, 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, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_02: He gives up your house.
SPEAKER_02: Let us give thanks to the food of God.
SPEAKER_02: It is right to give God thanks and praise.
SPEAKER_02: It is truly right to glorify you, Father, and to give you thanks, for you alone, O God, living and true, dwelling in light, inaccessible from the four time and forever.
SPEAKER_02: Fountain of life and source.
SPEAKER_02: You made all things and filled them with your blessing, you created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance.
SPEAKER_02: Countless rounds of angels stand before you to serve you 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.
SPEAKER_02: We acclaim you and glorify your name as we say.
SPEAKER_03: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
SPEAKER_03: Hosanna and the highest.
SPEAKER_03: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power.
SPEAKER_03: Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.
SPEAKER_03: In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.
SPEAKER_03: Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_03: Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_03: Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_03: To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.
SPEAKER_03: To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, and rising from the grave destroyed death and made the whole creation new.
SPEAKER_03: 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 believe to complete Jesus' work in the world, and bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.
SPEAKER_03: When the hour had come for him to be glorified by you, his heavenly Father, having loved his own who were in the world, Jesus loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_03: So at supper with them he took bread.
SPEAKER_03: And when he given thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_03: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_03: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_03: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_03: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_03: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_03: Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption.
SPEAKER_03: 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 for the gifts you've given us, this bread and this cup, we praise you and we bless you.
SPEAKER_03: We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, we pray that in your goodness and your mercy, your Holy Spirit might 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 the cup of salvation, the body and blood of your Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Grant that 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_03: Remember, Lord, your one holy Catholic and apostolic church, redeemed by the love of your Christ.
SPEAKER_03: Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace.
SPEAKER_03: Remember all bishops and other ministers, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, in the diocesan cycle of prayer, St.
SPEAKER_03: Paul's Katie, St.
SPEAKER_03: Philip the Evangelist Houston, St.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen's Houston, and St.
SPEAKER_03: Thomas Houston, for Michael, our presiding bishop, for Mike, Jim, and Craig, the priests in our community.
SPEAKER_03: Remember all your people and those who seek your truth, especially Miriam, Robert, Kay, Pat, Isabel, Phil, Terry, Rich, Billy, and Joe.
SPEAKER_03: And the congregation is invited to name any prayers or petitions silently or allowed.
SPEAKER_03: Remember all who died in the peace of Christ, and bless those whose faith is known to you alone.
SPEAKER_03: Bring them into the place of eternal joy and light.
SPEAKER_03: And grant that we might find our inheritance with St.
SPEAKER_03: Thomas and all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past.
SPEAKER_03: We praise you in union with them, and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: 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, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: 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, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_03: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_03: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
SPEAKER_03: These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.
SPEAKER_03: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_03: Loving God, I give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food and the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.
SPEAKER_03: Now send us for the people, forgiven, healed, renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we have to dare to be fools for Christ, and that means that sometimes we have to be willing to give food to people who don't really need or deserve it.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we have to be willing to work with some people who might even exploit us.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe this is as close as we can come to an experience of self-emptying.
SPEAKER_03: It is the experience of being useless in the presence of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this Christmas tide and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.