SPEAKER_03: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_04: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty God, you have given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin and also an example of godly life.
SPEAKER_04: Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of His redeeming work and to follow daily in the blessed steps of His most holy life.
SPEAKER_04: Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: A reading from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_00: Let me sing for my beloved my love song concerning his vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: My beloved had a vineyard on a very fertile hill.
SPEAKER_00: He dug it and cleared it of stones and planted it with choice vines.
SPEAKER_00: He built a watchtower in the midst of it, and hewed out a wine that in it.
SPEAKER_00: He expected it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes.
SPEAKER_00: And now inhabitants of Jerusalem and people of Judah judge between me and my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: What more was there to do for my vineyard that I have not done in it?
SPEAKER_00: When I expected it to yield grapes, why did it yield wild grapes?
SPEAKER_00: And now I will tell you what I will do to my vineyard.
SPEAKER_00: I will remove its hedge and it will be devoured.
SPEAKER_00: I will break down its wall, and it shall be trampled down.
SPEAKER_00: I will make it a waste, it shall not be pruned or hoed, and it shall be overgrown with briars and thorns.
SPEAKER_00: I will also command the clouds that rain no rain upon it.
SPEAKER_00: For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts in the house of Israel, and the people of Judah are his pleasant planting.
SPEAKER_00: He expected justice, but saw bloodshed.
SPEAKER_00: Righteousness, but heard a cry.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Psalm eighty verses one to two and eight to eighteen.
SPEAKER_00: We will read responsively by the half verse.
SPEAKER_00: Here, a shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock.
SPEAKER_00: In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh, you have bought a vine out of Egypt.
SPEAKER_00: You prepared the ground for it.
SPEAKER_00: The mountains were covered by its shadow.
SPEAKER_00: You stretched out its tendrils to the sea.
SPEAKER_00: Why have you broken down its wall?
SPEAKER_00: The wild boar of the forest has ravaged it.
SPEAKER_00: Turn now, O God of hosts, look down from heaven, behold and tend this vine.
SPEAKER_00: They burn it with fur like fire, like rubbish.
SPEAKER_00: Let your hand be upon the one of your right hand.
SPEAKER_00: And so will we never turn away from you.
SPEAKER_00: Restore us, O Lord God of hosts.
SPEAKER_01: When the Egyptians attempted to do so, they were drowned.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, the walls of Jericho fell after they had been encircled for seven days.
SPEAKER_01: By faith, Rahab the prostitute did not perish with those who were disobedient because she had received his eyes and peace.
SPEAKER_01: And what more should I say?
SPEAKER_01: For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, of Rob, of Samson, of Jeff, of David, and of Samuel and the prophets, who through faith had conquered kingdoms, administered justice, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched raging and fire, escaped the edge of the sword, when strength out of weakness became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.
SPEAKER_01: Women received their dead by resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Others were tortured, refusing to accept release in order to obtain a better resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Others suffered mocking and flogging, and even chains and imprisonment.
SPEAKER_01: They were stoned to death.
SPEAKER_01: They were killed by the sword.
SPEAKER_01: They went about in skins of sheep and goats, destituted, persecuted, tormented, of whom the world was not worthy.
SPEAKER_01: They wandered in the desert and mountains and in caves and holes in the ground.
SPEAKER_01: Yet all these, though they were commended for their faith, did not receive what was promised, since God has provided something better.
SPEAKER_01: So they would not, apart from us, be made perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that cling so closely and let us run with perseverance, the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him, endure the cross, disregarding it as a hand and taken a seat at the right hand of the throne of God to hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people!
SPEAKER_04: Jesus said, I came to bring fire to the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled.
SPEAKER_04: I have a baptism with which to be baptized, and what stress I am under until it is completed.
SPEAKER_04: Do you think I've come to bring peace to the earth?
SPEAKER_04: No, I tell you, but rather division.
SPEAKER_04: From now on, five and one household will be divided, three against two and two against three.
SPEAKER_04: They will be divided.
SPEAKER_04: Father against son and son against father, mother against daughter, and daughter against mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law, and daughter-in-law against mother-in-law.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus also said to the crowds, When you see a cloud rising in the west, you immediately say, It's going to rain.
SPEAKER_04: And so it happens.
SPEAKER_04: And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, It will be scorching heat.
SPEAKER_04: And it happens.
SPEAKER_04: You hypocrites.
SPEAKER_04: You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky, but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
SPEAKER_04: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, today's another one of those gospels where hopefully when you have when it's done and you say, Thanks be to God, you might be scratching your head because uh, hey, I didn't come to bring priests on earth, but the sword is not usually a phrase that I'm particularly thankful to hear.
SPEAKER_04: Uh and I will say this bit about family is really interesting, and I think hopefully reminds us uh not to take scripture so literally we forget to take it seriously.
SPEAKER_04: Because to say that Jesus' mission on earth was to turn parents against their children and against their parents.
SPEAKER_04: Um, I'm not really sure there's a lot of good news in that statement.
SPEAKER_04: And if we choose to read it literally, we might find ourselves, frankly, disliking our folks or disliking our kids and thinking, uh, Jesus is really happy, look what I'm doing.
SPEAKER_04: Um, in fact, there were some moments, and I grew up in a tradition that taught me to take scripture a little bit more literally than seriously sometimes, and I thought, aha, my parents and I are having this disagreement.
SPEAKER_04: This is exactly what Jesus talked about.
SPEAKER_04: Wow.
SPEAKER_04: So I want to suggest to you there's no way that can possibly be the way to read this.
SPEAKER_04: And actually, most biblical scholars will tell you this is a quote, but the source of the quote, this whole bit about fathers and sons, sons and fathers, is a quote.
SPEAKER_04: And in most traditions, you won't find it in the bulletin printed this way, but if you open up a translation, you'll find it sort of offset like a poem, but no one's really quite sure where this whole quote comes from.
SPEAKER_04: You'll find people guess.
SPEAKER_04: So Jesus is referring to something that was kind of being shared in his own day that has been lost to us, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_04: Um and usually when that happens in the New Testament, usually what happens uh, you can find this particularly when you read the Pauline epistles, when conventional wisdom is quoted, it is then refuted.
SPEAKER_04: So I want to put this out before you.
SPEAKER_04: Usually in the New Testament, when there's an idiom used, like a stitch in time saves not, a switch in time saves nine, or um, you know, don't cry over spilled milk, then you will find the gospel writers say that is rubbish.
SPEAKER_04: And that is a little comforting to me.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, but this whole bit about fire can be a little bit off-putting because it seems to mirror a literal read in which you're raising up opposition.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, I'm supposed to be up here.
SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04: We are working through sound a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: You know, when you transfer from one person to another, it can be a little tricky.
SPEAKER_04: Is that better?
SPEAKER_04: Okay.
SPEAKER_04: Fire.
SPEAKER_04: This is one of those images that we've lost a little bit of cultural appreciation for because we have electric lights.
SPEAKER_04: And we have light everywhere all the time.
SPEAKER_04: And we have to remember in the ancient world, A, that didn't happen, B, artificial light, that is fire, had expense to it.
SPEAKER_04: And actually, there's a tradition in Judaism that says, you know, on Friday nights you light these two candles and you let them burn all the way down.
SPEAKER_04: It's really wasteful.
SPEAKER_04: And it was the one night a week that they invested in the extravagance of light in their home, even after they had gone to sleep.
SPEAKER_04: Fire's illuminating, and of course, it also has this second bit.
SPEAKER_04: It can be really hot, it can be really destructive, but in general, what we see in scripture is that fire is used either as an image for light or an image for cleansing, not an image for punishment.
SPEAKER_04: That came with Dante Algari.
SPEAKER_04: This is not biblical that people get tormented in hell with pain through fire.
SPEAKER_04: The idea is that fire in the ancient world burns up the rubbish.
SPEAKER_04: So you refine gold by heating it up and skimming off the draws.
SPEAKER_04: In the ancient world, most trash that you had, this is before plastics, you burned it up and then it was gone.
SPEAKER_04: You didn't torture it by burning it up, you burned it to get rid of it.
SPEAKER_04: So this is where scripture talks about the refiner's fire.
SPEAKER_04: And I find that really helpful to think that what Jesus might actually be talking about here is that what he's trying to do and get us to bear out and live with him is both illuminating the world, but also burning up the trash, frankly, that is in it.
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's hopeful enough to hear it that way that when Jesus says, I wish it were already kindled, he's inviting us to say, wow, there's a lot that divides us and separates us.
SPEAKER_04: And frankly, it's hard being human, period.
SPEAKER_04: And if we could get rid of some of that trash, it might be a little less hard being human.
SPEAKER_04: A little.
SPEAKER_04: And maybe this idea that mother-in-laws are naturally opposed to their daughter-in-law, that's still an idiom, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04: How many of you expected to have tensions with your mother-in-law or with your daughter-in-law?
SPEAKER_04: Nobody really?
SPEAKER_04: But it is this thing.
SPEAKER_04: Um and items like that, I think we ought to burn that up.
SPEAKER_04: Don't you?
SPEAKER_04: Because sometimes what we're afraid of is what we see.
SPEAKER_04: Instead of, hey, I'm seeing there's things between us, and it would be really nice if we can convert them to rubbish.
SPEAKER_04: You ever heard the idea that mothers and daughters don't get along very well?
SPEAKER_04: How about fathers and sons?
SPEAKER_04: I mean, that was true for many of the people I knew.
SPEAKER_04: And wouldn't it be nice if we burned that idiom up?
SPEAKER_04: If we burned it to the ground.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, we're going to expect reconciliation, which may not mean that we agree, but we agree to stay together.
SPEAKER_04: We're going to come to expect that.
SPEAKER_04: And I think this is why the compilers of the lectionary have put this together with Hebrews today.
SPEAKER_04: Because ultimately, what Hebrews is telling us is this interesting idea of faith.
SPEAKER_04: People intentionally bought into cognitive dissonance.
SPEAKER_04: They said, despite all of the external evidence, I'm going to persevere.
SPEAKER_04: We understand that you can put your faith in the wrong thing, don't we?
SPEAKER_04: I think we could put our faith in fire as torture.
SPEAKER_04: I think that would be the wrong thing.
SPEAKER_04: I think we could put our faith in somebody so recklessly that we adopt their positions without considering them.
SPEAKER_04: These people are called out because they had cognitive dissonance in things that were not only for themselves, but for the good not just of some other people, but in consideration of everybody else.
SPEAKER_04: Blind faith is a weird word, right?
SPEAKER_04: And we're always afraid of blind faith.
SPEAKER_04: You know this phrase, don't have blind faith.
SPEAKER_04: Or sometimes the answer is do have blind faith, right?
SPEAKER_04: But at the end of the day, I think anytime you see somebody's faith, it is by definition somewhat myopic.
SPEAKER_04: You are not giving attention to certain data points because you trust not only the quantity of other data, but the quality of it as well.
SPEAKER_04: These people who get called out for all kinds of stuff that, you know, honestly, they didn't walk on water, they didn't invent hospitals, they didn't cure cancer.
SPEAKER_04: Sometimes they walked across the Reed Sea when there was an army at their back.
SPEAKER_04: And that's called faith.
SPEAKER_04: And it is this really great reminder to us sometimes that what I think this incineration looks like, and sometimes what it requires is cognitive dissonance or selective myopia.
SPEAKER_04: In spite of the tension I'm having with my mother-in-law, by faith I will pursue reconciliation.
SPEAKER_04: I think it works that way.
SPEAKER_04: And I think actually part of why all of us are in the building is this lovely line we usually reserve for All Saints' Day.
SPEAKER_04: There is a cloud of witnesses around us.
SPEAKER_04: And it's why we have a columbarium over here in the sanctuary, right?
SPEAKER_04: Because these people, though their bodies have changed, they are not gone.
SPEAKER_04: We're sitting in pews.
SPEAKER_04: Many of the people who by faith invested in these seeds for us, right?
SPEAKER_04: Some of them are gone.
SPEAKER_04: And we're sitting literally on their faith.
SPEAKER_04: It is supporting us this moment.
SPEAKER_04: I am standing behind an ambo, we call it that, or a lectern.
SPEAKER_04: It was built on faith, right?
SPEAKER_04: A small thing, a piece of wood, and it is holding you up at this moment.
SPEAKER_04: And this is what we're called out to do as clouds of witnesses.
SPEAKER_04: Despite evidence to the contrary, to trust that love wins.
SPEAKER_04: I shouldn't even say wins.
SPEAKER_04: It's not like love's even in conflict.
SPEAKER_04: To trust that even though faith and love are always in us, we're not always in faith and love.
SPEAKER_04: And we get to be.
SPEAKER_04: We get to be.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
SPEAKER_04: Usually when I try to imagine how it would feel to be God, it looks like that movie Bruce Almighty, where I'm the one in charge and God has my feelings.
SPEAKER_04: Here's Isaiah trying to say, what if I suspended my own situation and how would it feel?
SPEAKER_04: And you get this image of a vineyard, which is really, really popular.
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes I think we don't quite get this.
SPEAKER_04: Does anybody have vineyard culture in them?
SPEAKER_04: This goes differently in California.
SPEAKER_04: For one thing, what we don't usually remember is that grapes and wine in the Hebrew Bible are a symbol for joy and larger life.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, I mean I've told you this before: if you go to a Jewish wedding, the first thing that happens is blessing of wine, and then family members say seven blessings of a couple, and after each blessing they drink wine because they're partaking and receiving the joy of the blessing that's being given to them.
SPEAKER_04: Jewish weddings are actually pretty fun.
SPEAKER_04: Um I I uh I'd like to kind of learn from them as we do weddings here, but um, but this is this is a lovely image, and it's not just about, it's actually not about the alcohol, it's a symbol of joy.
SPEAKER_04: And most of us don't realize that wild grapes don't make very good wine.
SPEAKER_04: Um they just don't have as much sugar, they're much, much smaller, and they're often really bitter.
SPEAKER_04: And that's not a joy to drink, so it is not a good symbol for joy.
SPEAKER_04: And Isaiah says, hey, from God's perspective, look.
SPEAKER_04: I made you fundamentally good.
SPEAKER_04: This is a lovely passage to hear if anybody says people are born unworthy or gross.
SPEAKER_04: God did everything good.
SPEAKER_04: The root is good.
SPEAKER_04: There were boundaries in place that were good.
SPEAKER_04: Everything was right for you to become ripe with joy.
SPEAKER_04: Joy, I think, that comes from destroying these artificial divisions and the junk that gets in the way.
SPEAKER_04: And from God's perspective, says Isaiah, you had everything you needed, so why are you acting wild?
SPEAKER_04: This is lovely when you think about this.
SPEAKER_04: You ever heard that idiom, sowing their wild oats should be burned up?
SPEAKER_04: Because God didn't make us to be wild like that.
SPEAKER_04: And God didn't make us to excuse behavior that tortures the world.
SPEAKER_04: In fact, God made us to destroy behaviors that torture the world.
SPEAKER_04: Condoning wild oat sowing tortures the world.
SPEAKER_04: So God says, look, Isaiah says, you know, if this is all set up well, why isn't it going well?
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
SPEAKER_04: And then comes this next part that I wonder if it comes from God or if it comes from this part of us that sometimes is a little bit dangerous.
SPEAKER_04: You know, honestly, if I spend a lot of time building a vineyard, and you know, a vineyard is not something you do in a season.
SPEAKER_04: Are the best wines planted from bushes planted last year?
SPEAKER_04: We all get it, right?
SPEAKER_04: The older the vine, the better the wine.
SPEAKER_04: So God didn't just spend a little time.
SPEAKER_04: God spent a lot of time.
SPEAKER_04: And if you spent a lot of time in your garden and built a wall on it and it didn't do what you wanted, would you go and tear it down and trample it and burn it up?
SPEAKER_04: When you're three, you do that.
SPEAKER_04: When you're like 21 and playing golf, and you throw a club and it breaks, you do that.
SPEAKER_04: And of course, that only hurts you, right?
SPEAKER_04: That's your creation, and that's your time and your love.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not sure that God actually sort of does this.
SPEAKER_04: And I'll tell you more why in a second, but I do think there's this interesting thing we get at Isaiah, and it doesn't work in English like it works in Hebrew.
SPEAKER_04: Um, it says, God came looking for righteousness but found iniquity.
SPEAKER_04: In Hebrew, um, it goes like this righteousness is the word mitzhpat, and iniquity is the word mitzpah.
SPEAKER_04: And in an oral culture, I want you to hear that again.
SPEAKER_04: They're kind of close, especially if I really soften the sha and the ta, which seems to be the case.
SPEAKER_04: It's a pun.
SPEAKER_04: Just like Bordeaux vines producing two buck chuck is a pun.
SPEAKER_04: It is the opposite of their nature.
SPEAKER_04: It's not what they're intended to do.
SPEAKER_04: It's a bad joke on what could be really joyful.
SPEAKER_04: Righteousness and iniquity have nothing to do with one another, except that righteousness is about healing and covering iniquity.
SPEAKER_04: And so we're put before us not that we're bad, not that we're fundamentally evil, but that we are missing out, especially socially, on the good joke and settling for the cutting one.
SPEAKER_04: And God would like to burn that up.
SPEAKER_04: What's lovely is that you get to hear in the psalm today the people's response.
SPEAKER_04: Why are you doing this to us?
SPEAKER_04: Why are bad things happening?
SPEAKER_04: I mean, don't don't don't you care about us?
SPEAKER_04: It's it's actually really lovely to have the tension between the two, right?
SPEAKER_04: Isaiah says, here's why it's happening, the people say, Why is it happening?
SPEAKER_04: Which one's older?
SPEAKER_04: We're not sure.
SPEAKER_04: Um most scholars would tell you the psalm is older, the psalm is older, and they're saying, God, if we're your vineyard, if we're the source of the joy for the world, like why is it kind of so hard?
SPEAKER_04: And Isaiah is saying, Oh, you think you're the vineyard, do you?
SPEAKER_04: Well, let me tell you why it's not working out.
SPEAKER_04: This is really interesting.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm going to tell you, I think they're both a little bit wrong.
SPEAKER_04: Because I'm pretty sure in my own life that when I do things for the sake of getting rewards, I already got them.
SPEAKER_04: But when I do things for the sake of things that are not externally rewarded, when I can wait and embrace incognitive dissonance, when I can wake my kid up for the third time in a row, a couple of days in a row, and continue to support what they need, in ways like this, right?
SPEAKER_04: I don't mean forever, we have to think about this, right?
SPEAKER_04: When I can continue to do these things, maybe the wine doesn't convert to good wine in my own life.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe not.
SPEAKER_04: But I do think it's how we change the roots that we live in.
SPEAKER_04: And I think if we only paid attention to external benefits or outcomes, our faith would just be in ourselves anyway.
SPEAKER_04: And the scriptures promise us that there is something greater than is visible going on when we choose to forgive someone that's hard to forgive.
SPEAKER_04: The scriptures tell us when we show up for people regardless of their gratitude over and over and over again, something is transforming for the good, whether we see it or not, whether they appreciate it or not.
SPEAKER_04: And I think part of this whole bit about Israel is the vineyard, not each one of us are a vine, reminds us that we will only satisfy our own needs when everybody else's needs are satisfied.
SPEAKER_04: And when we hear that my needs can be privileged over yours, that is an idea I think that Jesus would like to burn up.
SPEAKER_04: To burn up.
SPEAKER_04: And would invite us to join him in doing.
SPEAKER_04: Now I will tell you just a quick story, and it's not about vineyards, it's about an orange tree.
SPEAKER_04: So in California where I live, we inherited a home, we didn't inherit it, we bought a home and inherited a tangerine tree.
SPEAKER_04: And it was really small, and it sure would bear a lot of tangerines.
SPEAKER_04: And I noticed one day that this lovely citrus tree was starting to grow a couple of these branches that had thorns on them.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't know that orange trees had thorny branches.
SPEAKER_04: And my dad told me, uh, because he had a botany background, he was like, oh yeah, those essentially are mutated branches, and you have to cut them off.
SPEAKER_04: Because if you don't, not only will you have no tree, they will eventually, uh no fruit, they will eventually result in the destruction of the orange tree as you know it.
SPEAKER_04: So they require pruning and trimming for the sake of the fruit and for the sake of the life of the tree.
SPEAKER_04: And this, I think, is the agricultural metaphor we're getting.
SPEAKER_04: Pruning is for the sake of the tree, not to punish it, not to punish it.
SPEAKER_04: And so I think we're constantly being invited: what can we prune from our collective imagination for the sake of the joy of the world?
SPEAKER_04: What can we prune in our own day habits, routines, in our own thoughts and ways of being with one another, not because we have to earn God's favor, but because we already have it.
SPEAKER_04: What can we prune so that we can bear fruit that the world enjoys?
SPEAKER_04: And I was talking to somebody recently who was saying, you know, this actually happened back in um this happened back when the bishop did in the town hall meeting back in uh February.
SPEAKER_04: Bishop Doyle came down to um St.
SPEAKER_04: Michael's in uh Lamarck.
SPEAKER_04: Sorry, I used to be young.
SPEAKER_04: Wasn't that nice?
SPEAKER_04: Um the bishop came to St.
SPEAKER_04: Michael's in Lamarck, and somebody, it was time for some open questions, right?
SPEAKER_04: And some people said, Bishop, how do we get more people to come to church here?
SPEAKER_04: And the bishop did this really great thing.
SPEAKER_04: Why would they want to?
SPEAKER_04: Well, we need more people.
SPEAKER_04: Our numbers are falling, and and our revenue is going to dry up.
SPEAKER_04: Wow, you've made that sound real attractive.
SPEAKER_04: Come here, because we need more bodies in the seats.
SPEAKER_04: Come here so you can support our budget, which is in decline.
SPEAKER_04: That does not sound really fun, does it?
SPEAKER_04: So there's this moment, right, in which we have to think, is the joy of the parish really just here?
SPEAKER_04: Or does the parish produce fruit that provides joy for the world?
SPEAKER_04: And do they know about it, right?
SPEAKER_04: Do they know about it?
SPEAKER_04: And what's great about St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas, I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.
SPEAKER_04: I probably do ten funerals a year.
SPEAKER_04: I probably do ten.
SPEAKER_04: And seven of them are from people I've never met, who were never members here.
SPEAKER_04: Because what you do is you say to your friend, I don't know if I want to evangelize, but hey, your mom just died.
SPEAKER_04: I know a priest that'll do that.
SPEAKER_04: You all say to your neighbors, oh, you just had a baby, congratulations.
SPEAKER_04: I know a priest that'll baptize that baby if you want.
SPEAKER_04: You all tell your friends who are moving.
SPEAKER_04: Our priesthood's house blessings.
SPEAKER_04: Do you want one of those?
SPEAKER_04: You lend yourselves and you lend church out to produce joy in the world, and that's how it works.
SPEAKER_04: Well, I think that's how it works.
SPEAKER_04: And I think that's what the gospel invites us to do.
SPEAKER_04: And sometimes I think we get we get going back to the welcome bit, you know, I I we sometimes we think, you know, why aren't people doing it the way we do?
SPEAKER_04: Or we need more people to do it the way we do, and we forget that there's different folk out there.
SPEAKER_04: And if different folk came in here, well, we could try to make them like us, but shouldn't we also listen to and honor them?
SPEAKER_04: And that might mean things that we treasure change a little bit.
SPEAKER_04: And I'm pretty sure there's a lot of joy in that.
SPEAKER_04: Come here, do it my way, so you can be as miserable as I am.
SPEAKER_04: That sounds kind of like, well, wild wine.
SPEAKER_04: And I think it's an opportunity for us to reflect on what's getting in the way of joy.
SPEAKER_04: Just so I can keep my streak going here.
SPEAKER_04: I'd like to read to you this poem from Mary Oliver.
SPEAKER_04: Maybe it's much better than anything else I said, and that's just fine.
SPEAKER_04: So, this is Mary Oliver.
SPEAKER_04: What I have learned so far.
SPEAKER_04: Meditation is old and honorable.
SPEAKER_04: So, why should I not sit every morning of my life on the hillside looking into the shining world?
SPEAKER_04: Because properly attended to delight as well as havoc is suggestion.
SPEAKER_04: Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime, and the holy, and yet commit to no labor in its cause?
SPEAKER_04: I want to read that again without the boom.
SPEAKER_04: Can one be passionate about the just, the ideal, the sublime and the holy, and yet commit no labor to its cause?
SPEAKER_04: I don't think so.
SPEAKER_04: All summations have a beginning.
SPEAKER_04: All effect has a story.
SPEAKER_04: All kindness begins with the sown seed.
SPEAKER_04: Thought buds toward radiance.
SPEAKER_04: The gospel of light is the crossroads of indolence or action.
SPEAKER_04: Be ignited or be gone.
SPEAKER_04: Please join me as we pray our faith.
SPEAKER_04: And the words of the Nicene Creed, and that's on page three hundred.
SPEAKER_03: We believe in one God, Father and the Almighty, Neighbor, and all I have seen and seen.
unknown: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: I am true.
unknown: I'm going to see the one.
SPEAKER_02: Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for Michael, our presiding bishop, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, Kay, and Scott, our bishops, in the Diocesan cycle of prayer, Holy Comforter Spring, Holy Family Humble, and Mission Santa Fe Church plant, Plum Grove.
SPEAKER_02: For Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the priest in our community, Mike, Craig, and Jim, and for all bishops, priests, and deacons.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for all the members of the armed forces, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for our parish and our vestry.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas the Apostles' School for those who teach and those who learn.
SPEAKER_02: Give grace to do your will in all that we undertake.
SPEAKER_02: Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Give to the departed eternal rest, especially Marilyn Chapman.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you for St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas the Apostle and your saints who have entered into joy.
SPEAKER_02: Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially Chris, Jim, Patrick, Dorothy, and Kevin, and those the congregation wishes to name at this time silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit, you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witness to your power and mercy.
SPEAKER_02: We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit and who lives and reigns forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty and most merciful Father, maybe stray from thy ways like lost sheep.
SPEAKER_04: Heal and strengthen you by the Spirit, and raise you to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_05: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_04: Good morning, peace, and thanks for worshiping with us at St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas today.
SPEAKER_04: 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 that the North X, there are these little cards that say welcome, and we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out and just drop it in the little basket or hand it to me.
SPEAKER_04: And that's so we can have a record of your visit and grateful for your visiting and worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_04: A few announcements to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_04: One is this lovely ministry that comes in batches.
SPEAKER_04: These are a group of uh knitters called the knitwits, and they make things like prayer shawls and scarves.
SPEAKER_04: And many of you have had some interaction with shawls before.
SPEAKER_04: And I think I've told you right when I got here, one of the members of the church I had served came to MV Anderson and was grief-stricken that she'd forgotten her prayer shawl.
SPEAKER_04: And so to bring one up from here.
SPEAKER_04: I can't tell you the joy that that represented.
SPEAKER_04: We do drive through ashes on Ash Wednesday, and this year I asked people, would you like a prayer shawl?
SPEAKER_04: It sounds crazy, but to see people go from regular to touched in half a second testifies to the value of this ministry because it's stuff that represents things greater than it is, right?
SPEAKER_04: It's yarn and it's prayer and it's warmth and it's security.
SPEAKER_04: How do you get a prayer shawl?
SPEAKER_04: Does anybody know?
unknown: You ask.
SPEAKER_04: You ask.
SPEAKER_04: Or you take one, that's fine.
SPEAKER_04: Who can you give them to?
SPEAKER_04: Anybody you love who you think could use a little more weight of prayer and warmth in their lives.
SPEAKER_04: And this is why our knitters do it.
SPEAKER_04: Not because people need them enough, but because they might enjoy them.
SPEAKER_04: So let's bless them.
SPEAKER_04: God, thank you for the hands that not only made this yarn, but prayed and knitting it together.
SPEAKER_04: And we ask that the recipients of these shawls, whether we know who they are or not, might feel the weight of your love, the comfort and warmth of your presence.
SPEAKER_04: And that they might do it through something we do and share with them through these shawls.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Okay, a couple other announcements.
SPEAKER_04: I want to make sure we're all tracking.
SPEAKER_04: We have added in a new bishop in our prayers for our bishops, right?
SPEAKER_04: We're used to Andy, Jeff, Hector, and Kay, right?
SPEAKER_04: And now you're seeing Scott.
SPEAKER_04: And just a reminder, that's because we brought the diocese of Fort Worth.
SPEAKER_04: Into the Diocese of Texas with their bishop Scott.
SPEAKER_04: So we merged diocese back to the original a little bit more, right?
SPEAKER_04: For lots of reasons.
SPEAKER_04: And so Scott is now in our bishopri.
SPEAKER_04: So here we are, right?
SPEAKER_04: That's where that came from.
SPEAKER_04: I also want to remind you of a couple things that are happening.
SPEAKER_04: So starting this Tuesday, we have tried, we're going to try a men's Bible study group.
SPEAKER_04: It'll be a lectionary study.
SPEAKER_04: So what'll happen is we'll look at the readings for next Sunday, prayerfully read through them, talk a little bit about the content using some resources that I can refer you to or that are online so that we're come to talk about how this is touching our lives.
SPEAKER_04: And we're going to do that from 6 a.m.
SPEAKER_04: till 7 a.m.
SPEAKER_04: so you have time to go to work or to get your kids up and take them to school or cook breakfast for them.
SPEAKER_04: So maybe you're thinking I don't have to do that anymore.
SPEAKER_04: That's fine.
SPEAKER_04: You're still invited.
SPEAKER_04: So that'll be from 6 to 7 on Tuesdays beginning this week.
SPEAKER_04: Most of us know that school is starting not just here, but throughout CCISD this week.
SPEAKER_04: And I did want to make sure we heard.
SPEAKER_04: McWarter told us not to do backpacks this year.
SPEAKER_04: They said, please do not do that.
SPEAKER_04: We want you to save your generosity because, quite honestly, getting school supplies is one of the easier asks that they make.
SPEAKER_04: What they need faithful people to do, she says, is help them in the winter with a couple of needs that are a little harder to ask because people already did the school supply box and crossed that out for the year.
SPEAKER_04: I hope that makes sense to you.
SPEAKER_04: And it comes to me as really lovely that somebody we partner with trusts us enough to try it different this year.
SPEAKER_04: But as we're thinking through this, right, it has been, who is not a little bit worried about school?
SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna be honest, I'm a little worried about school.
SPEAKER_04: And so, you know, in our worry, I think we have this opportunity not only to come to God in prayer asking, but also asking God, how do I partner with you in making this safer and more fulfilling for students here, students everywhere.
SPEAKER_04: So I do strongly invite your prayers.
SPEAKER_04: And just a reminder, we're going to start chapel.
SPEAKER_04: We do daily chapel here at St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas.
SPEAKER_04: It happens from 8.15 till 8.25.
SPEAKER_04: You, as parishioners, are always invited to come to chapel without an appointment.
SPEAKER_04: So you can come any day you'd like, especially if you're having a hard time sleeping, or if you're having a hard time waking up because it can be noisy.
SPEAKER_04: So you're welcome either way to join our kids in worship.
SPEAKER_04: And Eucharist is usually on Tuesdays, and morning prayer is on Thursdays.
SPEAKER_04: That might be it for today.
SPEAKER_04: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_04: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_04: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04: It is made ready for those who love him, and those who want to love him more, succumb.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_04: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_04: But he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_04: Our service continues on page 340 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_04: 340.
SPEAKER_05: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_04: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
SPEAKER_04: It is very meet, right, and 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, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who on the first day of the week overcame death in the grave, and by his glorious resurrection opened to us the way of everlasting life.
SPEAKER_04: And therefore, with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, we ought to magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee, and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory.
SPEAKER_04: Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.
SPEAKER_04: Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_04: All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst create heaven and earth and didst make us in thine own image.
SPEAKER_04: And of thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.
SPEAKER_04: He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in its holy gospel command us to continue, a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.
SPEAKER_04: For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.
SPEAKER_04: And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_04: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_04: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_04: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_04: This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.
SPEAKER_04: Do this as often you shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Wherefore, Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make 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, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.
SPEAKER_04: And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.
SPEAKER_04: Grant we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son, Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.
SPEAKER_04: And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: By him and with him and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world with thou end.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_04: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_04: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_04: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_04: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, 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_04: These are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.
SPEAKER_04: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_04: 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 in our neighbor through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Instructions for living a life.
SPEAKER_04: Pay attention, be astonished, tell about it.
SPEAKER_04: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.