SPEAKER_07: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_07: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: Grant us, O Lord, to trust in you with all our hearts.
SPEAKER_07: For as you always resist the proud who confide in their own strength, so you never forsake those who make their boast of your mercy.
SPEAKER_07: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: As you're being seated, our children are invited to children's church with Mr.
SPEAKER_07: Alex in the back.
SPEAKER_00: So I went down to the potter's house, and there he was working at his wheel.
SPEAKER_00: The vessel he was making of clay was oiled in the potter's hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as it seemed good to him.
SPEAKER_00: Then the word of the Lord came to me.
SPEAKER_00: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as the potter has done?
SPEAKER_00: says the Lord, just like the clay in the potter's hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel.
SPEAKER_00: At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it.
SPEAKER_00: But if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it.
SPEAKER_00: And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it.
SPEAKER_00: But if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it.
SPEAKER_00: Now therefore say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, thus says the Lord, look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you.
SPEAKER_00: Turn now all of you from your evil way and amend your ways and your doings.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: You trace my journeys and my resting places.
SPEAKER_00: Indeed, there is not a word on my lips.
SPEAKER_00: You press upon me behind and before.
SPEAKER_00: Such knowledge is too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_00: For you yourself created my inmost parts.
SPEAKER_00: I will thank you because I am marvelously made.
SPEAKER_00: My body was not hidden from you.
SPEAKER_00: Your eyes beheld my limbs, yet unfinished in the womb.
SPEAKER_00: All of them were written in your book.
SPEAKER_00: How deep I find your thoughts, O God.
SPEAKER_00: If I were to count them, they would be more in number than the sand.
SPEAKER_05: To Philimon, our dear friend and co-worker, to Opiah, our sister, to Archibis, our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house.
SPEAKER_05: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: When I remember you in my prayers, I always thank my God because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_05: I pray that the sharing of your faith may become effective when you perceive all the good that we may do for Christ.
SPEAKER_05: I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother.
SPEAKER_05: For this reason I am bold enough in Christ to command you to do your duty, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love.
SPEAKER_05: And I, Paul, do this as an old man, and you now also as a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_05: I am appealing to you for my child, Onemis, whose father I have become during my imprisonment.
SPEAKER_05: Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed both useful to you and to me.
SPEAKER_05: I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you.
SPEAKER_05: I wanted to keep him with me so that he might be of service to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel.
SPEAKER_05: But I prefer to do nothing without your consent, in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced.
SPEAKER_05: Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back forever.
SPEAKER_05: No longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother.
SPEAKER_05: Especially to me, but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord?
SPEAKER_05: So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me.
SPEAKER_05: If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to my account.
SPEAKER_05: I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand.
SPEAKER_05: I will repay it.
SPEAKER_05: I say nothing about your owing me, even your own self.
SPEAKER_05: Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Refresh my heart in Christ.
SPEAKER_05: Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I say.
SPEAKER_05: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_05: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_07: Now large crowds were standing with Jesus, and he turned and said to them, Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_07: Whoever does not carry the cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
SPEAKER_07: For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost to see whether he has enough to complete it?
SPEAKER_07: Otherwise, when he's laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him, saying, Well, this fellow began to build and was not able to finish.
SPEAKER_07: Or what king going out to wage war against another king will not sit down first and consider where whether he is able with 10,000 to oppose the one who comes against him with twenty thousand?
SPEAKER_07: If he cannot, then, while the other is still far away, he sends a delegation and asks for the terms of peace.
SPEAKER_07: So therefore, none of you can become my disciple if you do not give up all your possessions.
SPEAKER_07: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: It's okay if you're not.
SPEAKER_07: I'm going to tell you there's a scene from the show that I run my head around several times this week upon these readings.
SPEAKER_07: Um, or even if you haven't, King George, of course, is mad.
SPEAKER_07: And um, he sort of steals the show a couple of times with these kind of kooky songs.
SPEAKER_07: And the first one is really all about the kind of love King George has for the United States.
SPEAKER_07: Goes like this.
SPEAKER_07: They say the price of my love is not a price you're willing to pay.
SPEAKER_07: You cry in your tea which you hurl in the sea when you see me go by.
SPEAKER_07: Why so sad?
SPEAKER_07: Remember, we made an arrangement when you went away, now you're making me mad.
SPEAKER_07: Further down, when push comes to shove, I'll send a fully armed battalion to remind you of my love.
SPEAKER_07: Or you'll be back like before.
SPEAKER_07: I'll fight the fight with you and win the war for your love.
SPEAKER_07: I will fight you for your love.
SPEAKER_07: I will fight you for your praise, because when push comes to shove, I'll kill your friends and family to remind you of my love.
SPEAKER_07: What's funny is we laugh about that because we know it's ridiculous, and most of us think of God that way.
SPEAKER_07: Most of us think that God will beat the hell out of us if we don't get it right.
SPEAKER_07: And we've accepted that that's what love is like, and friends were wrong.
SPEAKER_07: When we hear these scriptures, it is so easy to make God like King George.
SPEAKER_07: I'll prove how much I love you.
SPEAKER_07: I'll put you in hell forever.
SPEAKER_07: I'll prove how much I love you when you make me mad, I'll get you a speeding ticket.
SPEAKER_07: You get speeding tickets when you speed.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe I'll just talk to myself.
SPEAKER_07: I've grown up with a spirituality in which I'm worried about God instead, instead, of an opportunity to hear what the psalm does for us today.
SPEAKER_07: I want to call your attention to the psalm.
SPEAKER_07: It really confirms my bias of being afraid of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Indeed, there's not a word on my lips, but you, O Lord, know it all together.
SPEAKER_07: He's making a list.
SPEAKER_07: Checking it twice.
SPEAKER_07: Well, God already knows you're naughty.
SPEAKER_07: So we're just gonna add all the naughty words from your lips.
SPEAKER_07: You press upon me behind and before, and you lay your hand upon me.
SPEAKER_07: Now, if I was writing the psalm in verse five, I would write, such knowledge is too terrifying for me.
SPEAKER_07: Such knowledge is too terrifying for me.
SPEAKER_07: Which is how I know I got God wrong, because look what the psalmist says.
SPEAKER_07: You know everything I'm gonna say, even at my worst.
SPEAKER_07: And that knowledge is too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_07: Too wonderful for me.
SPEAKER_07: Now, if you're a lady, the odds are 90% in favor, you have body shame issues.
SPEAKER_07: Body shame, 90% of women, and the other 10%, I don't know.
SPEAKER_07: Men, uh, the count is above 60% now.
SPEAKER_07: Body shame.
SPEAKER_07: Your eyes beheld my limbs.
SPEAKER_07: Yet I'm fashioned in the womb, all of them were written in your book.
SPEAKER_07: I will thank you because I'm marvelously made.
SPEAKER_07: Interesting.
SPEAKER_07: How many of you, when you walk by the mirror, look at the image and say, Good job, God.
SPEAKER_07: I invite you to pray that prayer this week.
SPEAKER_07: It's in the Psalms.
SPEAKER_07: Right there.
SPEAKER_07: I got a crooked smile.
SPEAKER_07: God's happy with it.
SPEAKER_07: Usually when I look at the mirror, I think, boy, I wish that thing were even instead of good job.
SPEAKER_07: God.
SPEAKER_07: It doesn't matter if you know why God enjoys your body.
SPEAKER_07: The scriptures say God does.
SPEAKER_07: And there's this new way of praying in which we join God in being pleased with what God has made.
SPEAKER_07: If you've ever prayed that way before, I invite you to do it.
SPEAKER_07: You may have to stare yourself down.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, really, stare yourself down.
SPEAKER_07: My dermatologist calls these things I'm getting barnacles on the body of life.
SPEAKER_07: Anybody else getting barnacles?
SPEAKER_07: They used to be like freckles.
SPEAKER_07: Now they have like mass.
SPEAKER_07: God said, I made those marvelously.
SPEAKER_07: You don't like them, that's too bad, because I do.
SPEAKER_07: Boy, what an invitation to change the way we think.
SPEAKER_07: Now you might be saying, but Mike, look at the scriptures.
SPEAKER_07: God's tough.
SPEAKER_07: You gotta hate folk.
SPEAKER_07: It was really helpful for me to read this quote from Ellie Bell.
SPEAKER_07: Many of you know him.
SPEAKER_07: He penned the book Night.
SPEAKER_07: Elie Wiesel was in Auschwitz-Birkenau and survived.
SPEAKER_07: And Eli Wiesel said, you know, we often think that the opposite of love is hate, and in fact, we're wrong.
SPEAKER_07: Eli Wiesel says the opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference.
SPEAKER_07: Indifference.
SPEAKER_07: Perhaps it's the case that hate is a reaction to the love we want being rejected.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you've never heard this in church before.
SPEAKER_07: It's okay if I'm wrong, but I think it's probably okay if you hate God sometimes.
SPEAKER_07: Because I think that means there's love that you're missing and you don't know what's going on.
SPEAKER_07: And let me give you some relief.
SPEAKER_07: God's powerful enough that God can handle your love or your hate or your indifference.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, none of those things are going to make God act like mad King George.
SPEAKER_07: None of them.
SPEAKER_07: Because if we know that King George is crazy, and we do, why would we think that God is crazy in that way?
SPEAKER_07: Now I want to put before you, and I've shared this story, it came from a book I read called Group.
SPEAKER_07: It's about this lovely Jewish psychiatrist whose name's Dr.
SPEAKER_07: Rosen.
SPEAKER_07: And the lady in the book goes to group lessons, and about a hundred pages into the book, uh, she says to Dr.
SPEAKER_07: Rosen in group, Dr.
SPEAKER_07: Rosen, I love you.
SPEAKER_07: You have changed my life.
SPEAKER_07: And Dr.
SPEAKER_07: Rosen goes, like this.
SPEAKER_07: And she says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_07: He says, Oh, unfolding your love into my heart.
SPEAKER_07: So it'll stay there.
SPEAKER_07: 100 pages later, Dr.
SPEAKER_07: Rosen tells her to do a thing.
SPEAKER_07: She doesn't like it.
SPEAKER_07: She does it, it didn't go like she expected.
SPEAKER_07: She comes to group and says, I hate you.
SPEAKER_07: He goes like this.
SPEAKER_07: She says, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_07: She says, Oh, you can only hate somebody you love, so I'm folding that into my heart.
SPEAKER_07: Boy, I want to worship a God that's like that.
SPEAKER_07: Don't you?
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes I want to suggest we can hear these words so literally we forget that they're pointing us to something greater than they are.
SPEAKER_07: God is not interested in you hating life itself.
SPEAKER_07: The truth is, I think stuff gets in the way of God's primary intent, which is that we enjoy our lives.
SPEAKER_07: And man, I hate that stuff.
SPEAKER_07: For years and years, I mean, even kind of recently, I'd be on an airplane and there'd be turbulence.
SPEAKER_07: My first thought was, I better get right with the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: We're gonna crash, I'm gonna die, I better confess and get forgiven right now.
SPEAKER_07: Years of church-induced trauma took me there.
SPEAKER_07: I hate that life.
SPEAKER_07: I hate it because it's wrong and it gets in the way of who God is.
SPEAKER_07: I had this conversation with my mom this summer.
SPEAKER_07: We were talking about politics.
SPEAKER_07: I should know better than to do that, but I still do it.
SPEAKER_07: It got a little intense.
SPEAKER_07: Finally, I said, Mom, I just don't understand how someone so good as you can be so wrong.
SPEAKER_07: She did what you did, right?
SPEAKER_07: She did what you did.
SPEAKER_07: It's kind of nice to air it like that.
SPEAKER_07: Of course I don't hate my mother.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes I hate her politics.
SPEAKER_07: And I hate them because of where they take her.
SPEAKER_07: And I want what's best for her.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus says, this rather curious thing.
SPEAKER_07: Count the cost.
SPEAKER_07: Now, Dee Hicks and Phil Hicks were here at 8 o'clock this morning.
SPEAKER_07: They celebrated 42 years of marriage this week.
SPEAKER_07: I'm only at 18.
SPEAKER_07: I've had a couple of kids.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you're different from me, but there was no way I could count the cost of marriage or being a parent ahead of time.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, strictly speaking, this scripture's not doable.
SPEAKER_07: How do you know what your kids are going to do?
SPEAKER_07: Thank God there were things I swore I'd never do that I have found myself doing for the sake of our relationship.
SPEAKER_07: Thank God for that.
SPEAKER_07: But if you'd asked me to count the cost before they were born, I'd said, no way I would ever do those things.
SPEAKER_07: No way.
SPEAKER_07: And it has grown my heart to do those things I swore off.
SPEAKER_07: You've been married more than two years?
SPEAKER_07: I think you'd get this.
SPEAKER_07: We don't successfully love our partners in spite of their flaws.
SPEAKER_07: No, if we're gonna make it, we love them because of their flaws.
SPEAKER_07: How can you count that cost ahead of time?
SPEAKER_07: I was baptized as an adult.
SPEAKER_07: I was 10 years old.
SPEAKER_07: Gave my life to the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: I had no idea the cost of that.
SPEAKER_07: Did you?
SPEAKER_07: No, and this is where I think Jesus is guiding us.
SPEAKER_07: You don't know where love is going to take you.
SPEAKER_07: And quite honestly, a lot of times it's going to take you to some rough places.
SPEAKER_07: It's going to take you to such rough places, in fact, you might end up carrying a two by four across your back and marching out to a post that's been put in the ground and hanged off that post inches from the ground.
SPEAKER_07: That's called carrying your cross.
SPEAKER_07: Now we hear this sometimes, unfortunately, and we think, oh, Jesus is saying we're just called to suffer.
SPEAKER_07: Suffering's good, it's how we prove we love somebody, we show them we suffer.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you haven't heard this in church.
SPEAKER_07: If you only hear this today, hear this.
SPEAKER_07: If you're up on a cross for somebody else and there's no life coming out of it, get down.
SPEAKER_07: Get down.
SPEAKER_07: God's not interested in your self-righteousness and God's not interested in your suffering.
SPEAKER_07: No, we choose suffering when we choose to open ourselves to somebody else in love, never knowing where love's going to take us and what it's going to demand of us.
SPEAKER_07: And that's why Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Social Workers, you know this.
SPEAKER_07: She said, love is a terrible thing to ask, but it's the only way.
SPEAKER_07: This is what I hear Jesus asking out of us.
SPEAKER_07: We know some of the cost in advance.
SPEAKER_07: We know love is gonna bother us sometimes.
SPEAKER_07: And we hop in not knowing where it's gonna take us all the time.
SPEAKER_07: And we're asked not to do that just for our children and our spouses, and frankly, for the way we react when we look in the mirror, we're asked to do that for all of God's family.
SPEAKER_07: And that means sometimes we hate the junk that gets in the way.
SPEAKER_07: And hate is just a signal in your brain that says something's off.
SPEAKER_07: And just maybe I can do something about it.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe.
SPEAKER_07: Now, you may hear this passage in Jeremiah and think, ah, but look, God's cooking up evil if you get it wrong.
SPEAKER_07: That sounds like King George to me.
SPEAKER_07: Uh so the best I can do is this.
SPEAKER_07: When the clay doesn't do what the potter wants, who has to fix it?
SPEAKER_07: Well, the clay, it should be moist and compliant.
SPEAKER_07: The clay shouldn't be such a pain.
SPEAKER_07: The clay should do whatever the potter wants.
SPEAKER_07: Except that wouldn't even be a good analogy.
SPEAKER_07: You know who's in charge of the pottery wheel, the potteries.
SPEAKER_07: And if the clay's got stuff in it, who's got to massage it out?
SPEAKER_07: The potter.
SPEAKER_07: Good potters, I mean the ones who make fine art, they don't make any two the same.
SPEAKER_07: Because they realize what the clay can bear.
SPEAKER_07: And they accommodate their design to fit what the clay can do.
SPEAKER_07: Show the gods like that.
SPEAKER_07: You ever had more than one kid?
SPEAKER_07: Good luck if you treated them the same.
SPEAKER_07: I mean it, good luck if you treated them the same.
SPEAKER_07: No, we understand as parents, as potters, what the vessel can hold, and we don't impose a shape on them that is uniform except to our own peril and theirs.
SPEAKER_07: Surely God, the master potter, who is all powerful, is strong enough to fix whatever mistakes you make.
SPEAKER_07: I didn't grow up believing that.
SPEAKER_07: And I hate it that I don't always trust that.
SPEAKER_07: We get to hear this interesting thing that Paul does.
SPEAKER_07: We've read this whole letter to Philemon.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, you've heard me talk about Southernisms before, and boy, this is about as southern passive aggressive as it gets.
SPEAKER_07: Just to be clear, what's happening?
SPEAKER_07: This is a letter written to a guy called Philemon about a runaway slave called Anesimus.
SPEAKER_07: So Anesimus ran away from his master, penalty's death, went to Paul in prison, Paul put him to work.
SPEAKER_07: And now Paul is sending an Estimus home to his slave owner.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes it helps to remember these letters that we read in the New Testament.
SPEAKER_07: They weren't privately read, they were read out loud, like what we're doing right now.
SPEAKER_07: So Paul makes this request in the presence of an audience.
SPEAKER_07: Notice the kind of stuff he does.
SPEAKER_07: You don't have to obey me, but you owe me your whole life, so you should.
SPEAKER_07: I know you'll do the right thing and let him go, so I won't command you, even though I could.
SPEAKER_07: You love God and you've got all kinds of power, and that's why I know you'll do the right thing here.
SPEAKER_07: It's a little bit of a tough passage because if you know anything about the history of slavery in the United States, people on both sides of the issue use this passage.
SPEAKER_07: Pro-slavery people said, look, he sent him back into slavery.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, abolitionists said, no, no, no, like you're not reading it carefully.
SPEAKER_07: Paul doesn't do what I wish he'd done.
SPEAKER_07: Paul doesn't speak out against the institution.
SPEAKER_07: He doesn't.
SPEAKER_07: Do you notice that?
SPEAKER_07: He doesn't say slavery's wrong and evil, never do it again.
SPEAKER_07: Does not say that.
SPEAKER_07: He does something.
SPEAKER_07: Uh by the way, I want to say, I'm grateful for the people who do that because it's important.
SPEAKER_07: But Paul gives us, I think, an interesting other piece.
SPEAKER_07: It doesn't stand alone well, but it gives us an interesting piece.
SPEAKER_07: He says, Yeah, I'm sending Onesimus back as your slave, and you're going to treat him like he's your brother.
SPEAKER_07: Well, doesn't that undo the institution of slavery?
SPEAKER_07: I will admit, I'm the younger brother, and sometimes I felt like my brother thought I was his slave.
SPEAKER_07: But I only say that jokingly.
SPEAKER_07: This is real.
SPEAKER_07: This is a real situation, right?
SPEAKER_07: How do you treat your brother authentically as if he were a piece of property?
SPEAKER_07: My answer is I don't think you can.
SPEAKER_07: How do you treat your master, if you're an SMS, as if she or he were your brother and sister?
SPEAKER_07: What Paul is trying to do, I think, is this phrase that we hear sometimes, you can't legislate morality.
SPEAKER_07: Have you ever heard that?
SPEAKER_07: And in some ways it's true.
SPEAKER_07: You can impose consequences for people who don't honor laws, but you can't always change their heart.
SPEAKER_07: So Paul, I see, is sidestepping legislating morality and saying, change your heart.
SPEAKER_07: The truth is, if we waited for people's hearts to change, we'd still have slavery in the United States.
SPEAKER_07: So sometimes we can't wait.
SPEAKER_07: But let's not pretend like making a law changes our hearts.
SPEAKER_07: And here Paul does this thing that he does with husbands and wives, slaves and masters, Jews and Greeks.
SPEAKER_07: He says, fine, you want to keep social stratification in place?
SPEAKER_07: Keep it.
SPEAKER_07: As long as you treat each other like your brothers.
SPEAKER_07: Paul says these curious bits through Anna's letters, like, wives obey your husbands, and then he turns around and says, Husbands, you better love your wives.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we think, oh, look, Paul's reinforcing social hierarchy.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, he's calling to the carpet.
SPEAKER_07: Because husbands did not have to love their wives.
SPEAKER_07: Husbands were able to treat their wives like chattels.
SPEAKER_07: And Paul says, Not for you.
SPEAKER_07: God hates when you do it.
SPEAKER_07: And God hates it because God loves you that much.
SPEAKER_07: And that stuff gets in the way.
SPEAKER_07: Hear the difference.
SPEAKER_07: God doesn't hate you.
SPEAKER_07: And God doesn't hate me.
SPEAKER_07: God loves us so much that God hates the junk we put in the way of the joy God intends.
SPEAKER_07: In marriage?
SPEAKER_07: With people we know well, with people we don't know.
SPEAKER_07: Between employers and employees.
SPEAKER_07: You're an employer at a Fortune 500 company.
SPEAKER_07: Treat your employees like a brother.
SPEAKER_07: My dad taught me not to do business with my family.
SPEAKER_07: Because it's messy.
SPEAKER_07: Because it's hard.
SPEAKER_07: Because you can't cut family off as easily as you can cut off strangers, and that's exactly what God has in mind, don't you see?
SPEAKER_07: That's what God has in mind.
SPEAKER_07: Now, some early theologians wrote this interesting bit.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we think, says this early theologian, that the cross was God's plan B.
SPEAKER_07: We were so messed up that God had to send Jesus to fix it, and God's actually pretty put out by it.
SPEAKER_07: Because it turns out God doesn't like us all that much, but you know, God's got to keep God's word.
SPEAKER_07: And this early, early, early theologian said, actually, the cross is there to reveal how much God has always and already loved us.
SPEAKER_07: That God will submit to our worst decisions.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you've never heard this in church.
SPEAKER_07: It was a dreadful thing what we did to Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: It was dreadful.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you've never heard this in church either.
SPEAKER_07: I wonder what would have happened if we hadn't done that.
SPEAKER_07: What if we'd said, you're right.
SPEAKER_07: We're going to change our ways.
SPEAKER_07: I think that would have been nice.
SPEAKER_07: And God shows how far God will go, even at our worst, to be in love with us.
SPEAKER_07: And what God will put up to be in love with us.
SPEAKER_07: Now we all understand that there's boundaries and there's times for our own safety.
SPEAKER_07: We need distance.
SPEAKER_07: I hope you hear me saying this.
SPEAKER_07: There are times when we need distance.
SPEAKER_07: But even as we tend to our own safety, I think the scriptures call us to really consider whether or not we can't join God in loving the unlovable.
SPEAKER_07: Even people who hurt us.
SPEAKER_07: Keep your distance.
SPEAKER_07: Keep your safety.
SPEAKER_07: Because God loves you too.
SPEAKER_07: And what's happening in this place?
SPEAKER_07: We usually call our heart.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, we understand that's just a word for that part of our brain, right?
SPEAKER_07: That means where we have feelings, sensations, and where our being is centered.
SPEAKER_07: What's happening there?
SPEAKER_07: And would we, would we, as God shapes each and every one of us into the vessel God has in mind?
SPEAKER_07: Would we not be willing to join God in doing that for one another?
SPEAKER_07: Love is a terrible thing to ask.
SPEAKER_07: But it is not the only the only way.
SPEAKER_07: It is God's way.
SPEAKER_08: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_08: I mean, God, we come in the glory to the dead, and speak of our man.
SPEAKER_08: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord in our life.
SPEAKER_08: We were the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_08: We have soul for the prophets.
SPEAKER_08: We believe in one after the church.
SPEAKER_08: We all have to further sins.
SPEAKER_08: We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life before to come.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: For our families, for all people in their daily life and work.
SPEAKER_03: For this community, the nation, and the world.
SPEAKER_03: For St.
SPEAKER_03: Thomas the Apostle School.
SPEAKER_03: For the just and proper use of your creation.
SPEAKER_08: For God, fear, and fresh.
SPEAKER_03: For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble.
SPEAKER_08: For the love and truth, for Christ and me.
SPEAKER_03: For the peace and unity of the Church of God, for all who are all who come and gospel, and all who speak for truth.
SPEAKER_03: For all bishops, priests, and deacons, for the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, and Craig, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, Kay, and Scott, our bishops, in a diocesan cycle of prayer at St.
SPEAKER_03: Mary's Cyprus, St.
SPEAKER_03: Stephen's Huntsville, and Trinity the Woodlands, and for Michael, our presiding bishop.
SPEAKER_03: For the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially Chris, Sue, Kevin, Jan, Christine, Philip, Nick, Emmett, John, Mary.
SPEAKER_03: Mary and those the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_03: We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life.
SPEAKER_03: We will exalt you, O God, our King.
SPEAKER_03: We pray for all who have died, especially Barb, Barbara, and Esau, that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, let your loving kindness be upon them.
SPEAKER_03: We pray to you also for the forgiveness of our sins.
SPEAKER_07: Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father, and your compassion forgive us our sin, known and unknown, things done and left undone, and so uphold us by your Spirit, that we may live and serve you in newness of life to the honor and glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: 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_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_07: There's a number of uh announcements I want to call to your attention, uh, but one of them is about the red book in front of you.
SPEAKER_07: What I love about this book is that it is able to uh boost my consideration for the same kind of folks God considers.
SPEAKER_07: And so I invite you, if you're interested, to join me on page 261.
SPEAKER_07: There's a prayer for Labor Day.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we forget that folks didn't always have a day off, and that that took a lot of effort to get a day of rest.
SPEAKER_07: So, here's a prayer for the right use of Labor Day.
SPEAKER_07: You can join me out loud or pray silently or just close your eyes as you like.
SPEAKER_07: But this is prayer 25 for Labor Day.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty God, you have so linked our lives one with another that all we do affects for good or ill all other lives.
SPEAKER_07: So guide us in the work we do, that we may not do it not for self alone, but for the common good.
SPEAKER_07: And as we seek a proper return for our own labor, make us mindful of the rightful aspirations of other workers, and arouse our concern for those who are out of work.
SPEAKER_07: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: One of the reasons I love the prayer book is that it puts in words feelings I would be loath to express.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes the words fail me, and the book is great at expanding how I pray.
SPEAKER_07: That's why we have different prayers of the people.
SPEAKER_07: So we don't forget folks who are incarcerated.
SPEAKER_07: So we don't forget folks who are lonely.
SPEAKER_07: So I hope you find this a support to your prayer life.
SPEAKER_07: Um, hey, a couple announcements to call to your attention, but it is the first Sunday of September.
SPEAKER_07: So if you were born this fine month, I invite you to come forward so that we can celebrate your birthday and ask God's blessing.
SPEAKER_07: As you're coming up, our practice is to name, take, well, to say our name and uh the date of our birth and either where we were born, when we were born, or both of those.
SPEAKER_06: Hal Snap, September 11th, 1972, San Jose, California.
SPEAKER_00: Joy Snap, September 5th, 1972, Lake Charles, Louisiana, and I'm tomorrow.
SPEAKER_01: Alex Hillis, uh, September 4th, today.
SPEAKER_01: Uh um 1991, Houston, Texas.
unknown: Okay.
SPEAKER_02: Louis Delgado, September 6, 1950, in Orlando, Florida.
SPEAKER_04: Sandra Lenton, St.
SPEAKER_04: Mary's Galveston, Texas, September 17th, 1937.
SPEAKER_03: Eddie Talisha, uh, September 23rd, born in St.
SPEAKER_07: Joseph, Houston, Texas.
SPEAKER_07: And she's not here, but our oldest parishioner, Kitty Carmen, is turning 99 this month.
SPEAKER_07: So let's have a blessing for our birthdays.
SPEAKER_07: God, we know every year, every moment of our lives is firmly in your hands.
SPEAKER_07: Look with continued favor, we pray on these, your children, as they begin another year.
SPEAKER_07: Grant that they would continue to trust in your goodness of and love all the days of their lives.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: It's lovely to see.
SPEAKER_07: Now, it's also first of the month, so are there any anniversaries we want to celebrate and bless for September?
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: And uh, like wedding anniversaries.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, uh, well, a few announcements to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_07: This is a busy week because we're kind of getting started with the fall, and that goes alongside school normally, and so it does this year too.
SPEAKER_07: So um, last time I'm gonna announce this on a Sunday morning, but we're gonna keep doing it.
SPEAKER_07: Tuesday mornings is a men's Bible study, it's a lectionary Bible study.
SPEAKER_07: So we read the text for this coming week.
SPEAKER_07: Um and I've got to say, we also get closer together.
SPEAKER_07: It's a great way, frankly, to make friends in some loving, trusting ways.
SPEAKER_07: So that happens 6 in the morning to 7 in the morning on Tuesdays.
SPEAKER_07: It's gonna keep happening, but I'm gonna quit announcing it.
SPEAKER_07: Um this Wednesday, we're starting a 30-week study called Christian Believer.
SPEAKER_07: It goes from 9 to 10:30.
SPEAKER_07: We're gonna do it in person, although you can also zoom link in your e-news and you can zoom in.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, so technologically speaking, we'll have everybody visible on the screen, even if you're remote.
SPEAKER_07: We record these things in case you can't be there or in case you have trouble sleeping, and we'll put them up a couple of days later.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, but I commend this to you if you're interested and think, oh, I didn't tell you not too late.
SPEAKER_07: Um, but after Wednesday you probably will be.
SPEAKER_07: So we're gonna meet here Wednesday at from 9 to 10:30.
SPEAKER_07: The other thing that's happening Wednesday, and it's not normal for us, normally we'll do this on Saturdays, but because of Labor Day, the food bank was closed yesterday.
SPEAKER_07: This Wednesday we're going to have our Galveston fresh food distribution out here in the parking lot, 3.30 to 5.30, and that's rain or shine, right?
SPEAKER_07: Because even if it's raining, people need food.
SPEAKER_07: So uh what we actually maybe we hope it's raining because it won't be so hot.
SPEAKER_07: Anyway, you if you show up at 3.30, we'll get everything set up and we'll be done packed up by 5.30.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, and again, normally we'll be on the first Saturday.
SPEAKER_07: Speaking of Saturday, I thought you there's a lot going on, there's a DOK retreat.
SPEAKER_07: And Ellen, is it too late?
SPEAKER_07: Is it all signed up?
SPEAKER_07: Well, it's too late.
SPEAKER_07: So if you didn't sign up, too bad, but the book is still really good.
SPEAKER_07: And if you did, I hope you enjoy it, and I'll be there at new time.
SPEAKER_07: Um, next Sunday, we're going to start a series that has two purposes.
SPEAKER_07: It's for confirmation, but it's also for people who say, I really wish I knew more about the Episcopal Church.
SPEAKER_07: And what do you know?
SPEAKER_07: Those go hand in hand.
SPEAKER_07: So we're going to meet eight times starting next week between services, in person.
SPEAKER_07: We will also record these.
SPEAKER_07: And this helps us get ready for when Bishop Monterosso comes to do confirmation on December the 4th.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you don't know what confirmation is.
SPEAKER_07: If that's you and you're interested at all, let's talk about it.
SPEAKER_07: Another thing that Bishop Monterosso does reaffirmation of vows.
SPEAKER_07: So maybe you got confirmed when you were 13, and you say, boy, I didn't know how to count the cost.
SPEAKER_07: But now that I know a little bit more, I'd like to reaffirm my vows.
SPEAKER_07: You get to do that with the bishop if you'd like.
SPEAKER_07: And by the way, I know a priest who will do that with your wedding vows.
SPEAKER_07: If you ever want to reaffirm your wedding vows, I know a priest who loves doing that, it's me.
SPEAKER_07: So just let me know.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, so that's a lot that's going on this week.
SPEAKER_07: A couple of things that are really, really helpful to see are out there on the table.
SPEAKER_07: So one thing, Alex has worked really hard to do this to get us a master calendar, and there's a printout.
SPEAKER_07: This has everything that's happening every day on campus, and it's this one's not color-coded, but online it is.
SPEAKER_07: So if you go to our webpage, we've reinvented the widget so that now it displays everything we do and where it is.
SPEAKER_07: And we get a printout this week, but you'll always want to go to the website for that because it's color-coded.
SPEAKER_07: And um, the other thing we're doing right is we have this little piece that has all the stuff that's going on.
SPEAKER_07: I've highlighted several things on there, not to waste your time, but sometimes it just helps to hear a little over and above.
SPEAKER_07: So there's another thing happening next Tuesday for the ladies.
SPEAKER_07: The ECW, Marie McNair and um Linda Steis and Arlene McDonald are putting together a three session for now workshop called Covering Your Assets.
SPEAKER_07: This is for the women of the church.
SPEAKER_07: It's gonna start a week from Tuesday, and it's designed to meet you at any stage of life that you're in, which is why I appreciate it.
SPEAKER_07: So if you're 25 or if you're 95, um, I've looked through this planning, it's really thoughtful, and I just commend it to you.
SPEAKER_07: This is by women, for women, with women.
SPEAKER_07: So I commend this to you.
SPEAKER_07: You'll you'll see more about it in the bulletin, but it looks like a very fine program and it's very thoughtfully put together.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, I think there's three other things.
SPEAKER_07: I know this is long.
SPEAKER_07: You're thinking, wow, the sermon was already long and it keeps going.
SPEAKER_07: Uh but it's nice to be a part of a small church that has so much going on, isn't it?
SPEAKER_07: I mean, it's really, really lovely.
SPEAKER_07: A couple of things.
SPEAKER_07: Reminder, Alex had a baby this summer, well, Megan did, and they declined having a baby shower.
SPEAKER_07: But today's our last day we're collecting to establish a 529 plan for their new son, Aiden.
SPEAKER_07: So if you'd like to help contribute to a 529 college plan, uh, see me, or you can put a check in the box out here.
SPEAKER_07: And in the memo, just write Alex College or Aiden College, and we'll lump that all together and gift it to them to celebrate the new member of their family this week.
SPEAKER_07: Um, I mentioned this to you last week.
SPEAKER_07: Three weeks from today begins the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur that our Jewish brothers and sisters celebrate every year.
SPEAKER_07: You may know nothing about them.
SPEAKER_07: If you're curious, there's a great book.
SPEAKER_07: It's in the E-news.
SPEAKER_07: It's called This Is Real and You Are Completely Unprepared.
SPEAKER_07: If you ever wondered why do Christian people observe the season of Lent, this book will explain to you that we got the idea from our Jewish brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_07: I can promise you that in three weeks, on Rosh Hashanah, you will hear about the high holy days in the sermon, whether the scriptures address them or not.
SPEAKER_07: I will also tell you that in three weeks you will hear an instrumental part of the Yom Kippur liturgy that happens in synagogues.
SPEAKER_07: Instrumental.
SPEAKER_07: We're going to have a violist play something called the Kol Nidre, which has been part of uh Jewish liturgy on Yom Kippur for more than a thousand years.
SPEAKER_07: And the book goes into great detail about what that means.
SPEAKER_07: If you have any interest in the book, it's in the Inus.
SPEAKER_07: I can talk to you about it.
SPEAKER_07: Uh but it enriched my faith and understanding of ways I can practice my faith to read this book.
SPEAKER_07: Last thing I want to tell you, and this is more of a personal thing.
SPEAKER_07: I debated putting it in the sermon, but I think it makes more sense to just mention this.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, I just want to give you a great deal of thanks for your compassion.
SPEAKER_07: Many of you know, and I'm gonna use the word R because she was here a lot.
SPEAKER_07: Our dog Maggie died on Friday.
SPEAKER_07: And um, thank you for understanding that we love our animals.
SPEAKER_07: I have not, thank God, had anybody say she was just a dog.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe she was, but we didn't treat her like that.
SPEAKER_07: She was a member of our family, and she was a member of our church family.
SPEAKER_07: And if you met that dog, I mean, she was like a bodhisattva, one of those people in Buddhism that could go right into enlightenment but stays behind to teach us how to live.
SPEAKER_07: That was the dog.
SPEAKER_07: And thank you for your love and your compassion.
SPEAKER_07: So many of you have been kind.
SPEAKER_07: I love about this parish.
SPEAKER_07: You know that our animals teach us how to love, and they're given unto us by God, and they're not just animals.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you for understanding that and sharing that love to people in your life.
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: 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, 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, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_07: Our service continues on page 367 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_07: Page 367.
SPEAKER_07: And also with you.
SPEAKER_07: Always and everywhere, to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, for you are the source of light and life.
SPEAKER_07: You made us in your image and called us to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord, and therefore we praise you.
SPEAKER_07: Joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.
SPEAKER_07: And the calling of Israel to be your people, and your word spoken through the prophets, and above all in the word made flesh Jesus your Son.
SPEAKER_07: For in these days you sent him to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
SPEAKER_07: In him you have delivered us from evil and made us worthy to stand before you.
SPEAKER_07: In him you have brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.
SPEAKER_07: On the night before he died for us, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.
SPEAKER_07: And when he given thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_07: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_07: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_07: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all y'all.
SPEAKER_07: This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for y'all and for all y'all for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_07: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: Therefore, according to his command, O Father, we remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming in glory, and we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord of all.
SPEAKER_07: Presenting to you from your creation this bread and this wine.
SPEAKER_07: We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts, that they may be the sacrament of the body of Christ and his blood of the new covenant.
SPEAKER_07: Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: In the fullness of time, put all things in subjection unto your Christ and bring us to that heavenly country where with all your saints we may enter the everlasting heritage of your daughters and sons through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all creation, the head of the church, and the author of our salvation.
SPEAKER_07: By him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_07: 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_07: 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_07: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
SPEAKER_07: These are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.
SPEAKER_07: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07: Renewed by this bread from the heavenly table, we beseech you, Lord, that being the food of charity, it may confirm our hearts and stir us to serve you and our neighbor through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Instructions for living a life.
SPEAKER_07: Pay attention as God does.
SPEAKER_07: Be astonished with wonder.
SPEAKER_07: Tell about it.
SPEAKER_07: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be amongst you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.