SPEAKER_03: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: And blessed be God's family and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty God.
SPEAKER_06: All right is known and from whom the cleanse uses our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: That we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_03: Let your continual mercy, O Lord, cleanse and defend your church.
SPEAKER_03: Because it cannot continue in safety without your help, protect and govern it always by your goodness, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: As you're being seated, our children are invited to your children's church.
SPEAKER_02: And out of Egypt I called myself.
SPEAKER_02: The more I called them, the more they went for me.
SPEAKER_02: They kept sacrificing to the battles and offering incense to idols.
SPEAKER_02: Yet it was I who taught Abraham to walk.
SPEAKER_02: I took him up in my arms.
SPEAKER_02: But they did not know that I healed them.
SPEAKER_02: I led them with cords of human kindness, with bands of love.
SPEAKER_02: I was to them like those who left infants to their chief.
SPEAKER_02: I bent down and fed them.
SPEAKER_02: Because they have requised to return to me.
SPEAKER_02: The sword rages in their cities, it consumes their oracle priests and devours because of their schemes.
SPEAKER_02: My people are bent on turning away from me.
SPEAKER_02: To the Most High they call, but God does not raise them up at all.
SPEAKER_02: How can I give you up, Ephraim?
SPEAKER_02: How can I hand you over to Israel?
SPEAKER_02: How can I make you like Adam?
SPEAKER_02: How can I treat you like Zabon?
SPEAKER_02: My heart recoils within me, I'm a cat, my compassion grows warm and tender.
SPEAKER_02: I will not execute my fierce anger, and I will not again destroy Ephraim.
SPEAKER_02: For I am the God and not no more the holy one in your midst, and I will not come in wrath.
SPEAKER_02: They shall go after the Lord who roars like a lion when God roars, and God's children shall come trembling from the west.
SPEAKER_02: They shall come trembling like herds from Egypt, and like doves from the land of Assyria, and I will return them to their homes, says the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_02: Give thanks to the Lord who is good.
SPEAKER_02: Whose mercy is yours forever.
SPEAKER_02: That all those whom the Lord has redeemed proclaim.
SPEAKER_07: And that the Lord redeemed them from the hand of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: God gathered them out of the land.
SPEAKER_07: From the east and from the west, from the north and from the south.
SPEAKER_02: Some wandered in desert wastes.
SPEAKER_07: And they found no way into a city where they might dwell.
SPEAKER_02: They were hungry and thirsty.
SPEAKER_02: Their spirits languished within them.
SPEAKER_02: And in their trouble they cried to the Lord, who delivered them from their distress.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord put their feet on a straight path to go into a city where they might dwell.
SPEAKER_02: Let them give thanks for the mercy of God.
SPEAKER_07: For the wonders of the Lord does for all people.
SPEAKER_07: For God satisfies the thirsty and fills the hungry with good things.
SPEAKER_02: Whoever is wise will ponder these things.
SPEAKER_02: And consider well the mercies of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Glory to the Father, glory to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: When Christ who is your life is revealed, then you also will be revealed with him in glory.
SPEAKER_00: Put to death, and therefore whatever in you is earthly.
SPEAKER_00: Fornication, impurity, passion, evil, desire, and greed, which is idolatry.
SPEAKER_00: On account of these, the wrath of God is coming on those who are disobedient.
SPEAKER_00: These are the ways you also want to follow when you were living that life.
SPEAKER_00: And now you want to get rid of all that things.
SPEAKER_00: Anger, wrath, analysis, slander, and abusive language from your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: Do not lie to one another.
SPEAKER_00: And have clothed yourselves with the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge according to the image of its Creator.
SPEAKER_00: And that we know there is no longer Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, alien, slave, and free.
SPEAKER_00: But Christ is all and in all.
SPEAKER_03: Be on your guard against all kinds of greed, for one's life does not consist in the abundance of possessions.
SPEAKER_03: Then he told them a parable.
SPEAKER_03: And then he said, I'll do this.
SPEAKER_03: I'll pull down my barns and build larger ones, and there I will store all my grain and my goods, and I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years.
SPEAKER_03: Relax, eat, drink, be merry.
SPEAKER_03: But God said to him, You fool, this very night your life is being demanded of you, and the things you've prepared, whose will they be?
SPEAKER_03: So it is with those who store up treasures for themselves that are not rich toward God.
SPEAKER_03: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_03: If you look at it on the surface, well, particularly if you look out on the surface in the way I was raised, there's a couple of things I think it doesn't mean that I want to share with you up front.
SPEAKER_03: One of them is when you do well, you'd better share where God will kill you.
SPEAKER_03: So please, please don't leave with that understanding unless that's life-giving for you.
SPEAKER_03: Um, another thought I had when I was a kid, and I remember where this one came from, but I don't need to credit the source, was that what's happened is the rich person has made a major mistake.
SPEAKER_03: Um, see, it's really bad stewardship to tear down old barns and build new ones.
SPEAKER_03: You should just use the barns you have and make additional ones.
SPEAKER_03: So this was one of the interpretations of the reading that I heard, which is a little bit of nonsense, because if you're running a farm, you need as much arable land as you can, and building more barns reduces the amount of arable land.
SPEAKER_03: I've seen other people say, well, this guy's mistake is he is quirting this grain instead of allowing market access to it, and in so doing, he's driving up prices with limited supply, because we all know from high school economics it's all about the supply-demand curve and where those intersect is the optimal price point.
SPEAKER_03: I'm just not really sure that there's any gospel in that idea, but okay, you know, um, this is one of those things.
SPEAKER_03: So I think it's helpful to hear from the beginning, uh, and frankly, I'm not comfortable talking about like money in front of folks, but I think what Jesus does is talk about money in front of folk a lot, and he starts with this phrase watch out against all kinds of greed.
SPEAKER_03: And sure enough, there's a dispute over an inheritance.
SPEAKER_03: Would that this were the only one in recorded history.
SPEAKER_03: Uh let me share that there is a dispute over inheritance in my family that is more than 35 years old, and it continues on so that nobody has anything.
SPEAKER_03: And that's really strange.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, and that's probably my insight into what I want to tell you.
SPEAKER_03: See, the younger brother, we think it's younger because in the ancient world, the way inheritance worked is that the oldest son got the lion's share of the inheritance.
SPEAKER_03: Now, depending on who you read, that's a double portion.
SPEAKER_03: 70%.
SPEAKER_03: Some folks say it's 90%.
SPEAKER_03: And then the second oldest kid got the balance.
SPEAKER_03: All other boys got zero dollars, and girls, if you had no sons, got the money except it went to their husbands.
SPEAKER_03: And they had to marry within the family, so the wealth didn't leave.
SPEAKER_03: So it's very unlikely, say most scholars, that uh the older son who's gonna get to the 90% wants Jesus to help his younger brother to take more.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: That just doesn't seem to make sense.
SPEAKER_03: So most scholars say, it's probably brother number two or brother number three saying, hey Jesus, my brother is only giving me how much he's supposed to.
SPEAKER_03: Tell him to divide it evenly.
SPEAKER_03: Now that plays well in our current sensibilities, right?
SPEAKER_03: Because I gotta tell you, if my brother got a double portion of the inheritance, I would not feel great.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know about you.
SPEAKER_03: And part of that is because we realize that uh what who you leave things to, like belongings, is a way that you can show value.
SPEAKER_03: So why doesn't Jesus say, yeah, you should just be fair and split it up and let women have their part too?
SPEAKER_03: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_03: Except my only thought is that um we have this fundamental basic need as a human being, and instead of the word need, I want to use the word longing.
SPEAKER_03: One of our fundamental longings is to belong to one another.
SPEAKER_03: And of course, we need to belong to each other because human babies don't raise themselves very well.
SPEAKER_03: So belonging is part of our DNA.
SPEAKER_03: You've probably heard of Maslow's pyramid, right, that talks about food and safety and shelter, and you work your way up to you've got your emotional needs met and your spiritual needs met, right?
SPEAKER_03: But I've got to say, we all kind of understand that solitary confinement is in fact one of the most cruel and unusual punishments you can give somebody else, and I think that's because we have an innate longing to belong.
SPEAKER_03: And when you separate somebody from belonging, it is torture to them.
SPEAKER_03: If Jesus tells the brother what to do, even if he's right, I read this story and I think it's going to an arbitrator who says, do this, will that heal the belonging that is broken in the story?
SPEAKER_03: Or in fact, does this brother, like I often do, confuse having belongings with belonging to each other?
SPEAKER_03: See, I think sometimes we get frustrated when we don't feel like we belong.
SPEAKER_03: And in that moment of frustration, if we can't have the relational belonging, we'll just take the stuff.
SPEAKER_03: Because otherwise we got enough.
SPEAKER_03: I've seen inheritance be really lovely, and I've seen it be really ugly.
SPEAKER_03: And some of the ugliness is mom preferred you, and so I want the arm law.
SPEAKER_03: As if the enlaw will make up for the love you wish you got that you don't think you get.
SPEAKER_03: This I think is a mistake that we often make.
SPEAKER_03: And if you've ever renovated a room in your house, man, it was really, really great for a bit, and then you realize it didn't actually make you a joyful person, it just was nice.
SPEAKER_03: Unless you're different from me.
SPEAKER_03: Right?
SPEAKER_03: The truth is going to a Michelin star restaurant does not guarantee you'll even enjoy the meal.
SPEAKER_03: Most of the time it depends on my mood and who I'm with.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we confuse the long means with the long.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes I'm afraid we get so protective that we won't belong, that we'll just take the stuff because we're not well.
SPEAKER_03: And I wonder if that isn't part of what's happening in this story.
SPEAKER_03: Last week I suggested to you that prayer might start out as supplication and adoration and thanksgiving, but in my own experience, um all of that's really meant to guide me to an awareness of God wherever I go.
SPEAKER_03: And if you notice, the rich fool in the parable today has no awareness of we or us, only I.
SPEAKER_03: I will tear down my barns.
SPEAKER_03: I don't think he will.
SPEAKER_03: I think people who work for him will do that.
SPEAKER_03: His gut response when he gets a windfall, and you need to know he basically hit the mega millions here.
SPEAKER_03: It's a little confusing in English.
SPEAKER_03: He didn't have like a bumper crop.
SPEAKER_03: He had a like macro woot, there it is, bumper crop.
SPEAKER_03: Like he were he reaped a hundredfold what he sold.
SPEAKER_03: And his first thought is how will I solve this problem of having more than I need?
SPEAKER_03: Now, if you read the story at face value, it's really hard as a Westerner because look, I contribute to a 403B, and I do intend to draw a pension after 30 years, because I can't.
SPEAKER_03: This is the American dream.
SPEAKER_03: It's just that what's missing in his contemplation is anybody else.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm a little concerned that sometimes that's missing in my contemplation.
SPEAKER_03: Of course, we also realize, and many of us know, that no next day is promised.
SPEAKER_03: And I didn't say this in an attitude of fear, but I do know, and probably many of you know this too, too many folks who have worked and worked and worked, and they had all these dreams for retirement, and they die pretty soon after they retired.
SPEAKER_03: And you think, geez, they had all these great plans.
SPEAKER_03: And now they're gone.
SPEAKER_03: And they were saving up for time that they weren't promised.
SPEAKER_03: Now, I don't say this in a scary way, I say it because sometimes we don't think about the legacy we want to leave until it's too late to do it.
SPEAKER_03: And I think this parable reminds us, what kind of stewards are we going to be?
SPEAKER_03: Because you can't rewrite your legacy with one more day.
SPEAKER_03: Your legacy is made in the daily grind, not in a single big gift.
SPEAKER_03: It's lived out when it's hard and when it's annoying and when it's frustrating.
SPEAKER_03: And when, frankly, you'd rather have a belongings than belong.
SPEAKER_03: Because it's just too much work.
SPEAKER_03: So I think it reminds us, I don't want to sound like corny, but it reminds us that since tomorrow is not promised, how will we choose to seize today?
SPEAKER_03: And what legacy will we start to construct?
SPEAKER_03: A legacy that's centered on belongings that will not satisfy, or a legacy centered on belonging.
SPEAKER_03: And look, I can't help but say this because it shows up.
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes we think, well, I belong just fine with about these seven people.
SPEAKER_03: And then we get Paul saying, look, you know, when uh when you think about greed, it's really just idolatry.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you caught that line.
SPEAKER_03: Greed is idolatry because it worships belongings instead of the God who made belonging.
SPEAKER_03: And part of idolatry is saying you don't belong.
SPEAKER_03: Which is why Paul has to tell him.
SPEAKER_03: Y'all used to think only some folk belonged.
SPEAKER_03: And so you made up these labels, like slave and free, Jew and Greek and Scythian, and then Christ.
SPEAKER_03: All those distinctions that divide are cast aside so that we can, in fact, belong to one another as God intends.
SPEAKER_03: And I think we know this is difficult, which is why we get Hosea today.
SPEAKER_03: And I know this is a little bit unfair, but I don't think I really had the insight in Hosea until I had my own kid.
SPEAKER_03: Because the truth is, kids will bring out things in you you didn't know you had for better and for worse.
SPEAKER_03: So there are these moments where you think, where did you come from?
SPEAKER_03: And the prophet is saying, God seemed, in my mind, God's really frustrated.
SPEAKER_03: And God's really mad, because that's what happens when we're frustrated, and somehow the prophet enters into God's imagination and does this thing that I think many parents do.
SPEAKER_03: We look at our kids and they're worst, and we say, But I taught you how to walk.
SPEAKER_03: But I held you.
SPEAKER_03: We and you were crying.
SPEAKER_03: I changed that ninth diaper in three hours.
SPEAKER_03: How can I ever stop our belonging to one another?
SPEAKER_03: I think the answer is we can pray to ourselves and to our belongings and to trying to meet our needs with things that don't meet them.
SPEAKER_03: We can do that.
SPEAKER_03: And that's idolatry.
SPEAKER_03: And we can look at somebody who votes differently from us and say, you're fundamentally evil and God is not in you.
SPEAKER_03: And I'm sorry, folks, that's idolatry.
SPEAKER_03: That's what we're being taught.
SPEAKER_03: In Christ there is no distinction, and it gets really, really hard when you start applying that to countries on the globe that are not getting along with each other.
SPEAKER_03: But God values those people, especially when it's hard because God taught them how to walk.
SPEAKER_03: God taught them how to walk.
SPEAKER_03: And those memories of early childhood, thank God, don't leave us.
SPEAKER_03: Because if they did, the teenage years would be really hard.
SPEAKER_03: Which start at nine in my house.
SPEAKER_03: So I want to put this before you.
SPEAKER_03: And a couple other thoughts, which is um, hey, I have never met somebody who said, I wish I'd given less money.
SPEAKER_03: I wish I'd given less care to folks in need.
SPEAKER_03: I've never met that person on their deathbed.
SPEAKER_03: Someone who laments, showing compassion.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to suggest to you, as I did last week, that one thing I think that is a remedy to greed is an awareness of God's presence, especially when it's hard.
SPEAKER_03: And uh Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heshel, I don't know if you know him, he suggested that the whole point of any spirituality, whether it's Jewish or Christian or Him who is Muslim, is to look at one another with wonder.
SPEAKER_03: So I want to give you a reading on wonder.
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna warn you it's long.
SPEAKER_03: And if you get lost, there's some really nice windows over there.
SPEAKER_03: But I want to predicate it by telling you that about five years ago I had this really good relationship with a teacher here.
SPEAKER_03: We do chapel every day, and I've done some things in their classroom, and they said to me one day, like, hey, thanks for helping me find my way.
SPEAKER_03: Well, I didn't know I had done that.
SPEAKER_03: Find your way where.
SPEAKER_03: And sure enough, they uh she gave me this lovely little compass with my name on it, and uh she said, This is in case you ever get lost.
SPEAKER_03: And she didn't mean literally.
SPEAKER_03: And I want to tell you, this reading for me is something that's come out of my sabbatical time.
SPEAKER_03: That's where I encountered it.
SPEAKER_03: And uh I want to read it to you in case you ever get lost.
SPEAKER_03: This is a reading from my story as told by Walker, written by David James Duncan.
SPEAKER_03: My earliest conception of the meaning of the word wonder was a feeling that would come over me as a little kid when I'd picture the shepherds on the night hills above Bethlehem.
SPEAKER_03: Even when those shepherds were made of illuminated plastic standing around in Christmas dioramas on my neighbor's lawns, their slack-jawed expressions of wonder appealed to me.
SPEAKER_03: Years later, having become literate enough to read, I learned that those shepherds were also so afraid of personal prejudice.
SPEAKER_03: I didn't believe in their afraidness.
SPEAKER_03: I believed the star in the east smote them with wonder.
SPEAKER_03: And that once wonder smites you, you're smitten by wonder alone.
SPEAKER_03: Fear can't penetrate till wonder subsides.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is my second favorite condition to be in after love, and I sometimes wonder where there's a difference.
SPEAKER_03: Maybe love is just wonder aimed at a beloved.
SPEAKER_03: Wonders like grace, it's not a condition we grasp.
SPEAKER_03: It grasps us.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is not an obligatory element in the search for truth.
SPEAKER_03: We can seek for truth without wonder's assistance, but seek is all we'll do.
SPEAKER_03: There'll be no finding, unless wonder descends, unlocks us, turns us as slack-jawed as plastic shepherds, truth is unable to enter.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder may be the aura of truth, the halo of it, or something even closer.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder may be the caress of truth touching our very skin.
SPEAKER_03: Philosophically speaking, wonder is crucial to the discovery of knowledge, yet has everything to do with ignorance.
SPEAKER_03: By this I mean that only an admission of ignorance can open us to fresh knowings.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is the experience of that admission.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is unknowing, experience displeasure.
SPEAKER_03: Punctuationally speaking, wonder is a period at the end of a statement.
SPEAKER_03: We've long taken for granted.
SPEAKER_03: Suddenly looking up and seeing the sinuous curve of a tall black hat on its head and realizing it was a question mark all along.
SPEAKER_03: That's a facial expression.
SPEAKER_03: This is my favorite line.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is the letter O our eyes and mouths make when the state itself descends.
SPEAKER_03: O.
SPEAKER_03: God's middle initial.
SPEAKER_03: O, because wonder opens us.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is anything taken for granted, the old neighborhood, the old job, old life, old spouse, suddenly filling with mystery.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is anything closed, suddenly opening, anything at all opening, which alas includes Pandora's box and brings me to the dark side of the thing.
SPEAKER_03: Grateful as I am for this condition, wonder has, like everything on earth, a dark side.
SPEAKER_03: Heartbreak, grief, and suffering rend openings in us through which the dark kind of wonder pours.
SPEAKER_03: I have so far found it impossible to feel spontaneously grateful for these violent openings.
SPEAKER_03: But when, after struggle, I've been able to turn a corner and at least accept the opening, the dark form of wonder has invariably helped me endure the heartbreak, the suffering, the grief.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is not curiosity.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is to curiosity what ecstasy is to mere pleasure.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is not astonishment either.
SPEAKER_03: Astonishment is too brief.
SPEAKER_03: The only limit to the duration of wonder is the limit of our ability to remain open.
SPEAKER_03: I believe some people live in a state of constant wonder, and I believe they're the best people on earth.
SPEAKER_03: I believe it's wonder even more than fidelity that keeps marriages alive.
SPEAKER_03: I believe it's wonder even more than courage that conquers fear of death.
SPEAKER_03: I believe it is wonder, not their bumper stickers, that keeps kids off drugs.
SPEAKER_03: I believe, speaking of bumper stickers, that it's wonder even more than me, who I want to hug my kids today, because wonder can keep on hugging them long after I'm gone.
SPEAKER_03: I want to put before you in contagion of last week that wonder is a remedy for greed.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder at the brother who is not splitting the inheritance the way we'd like.
SPEAKER_03: Wonder is a remedy for greed.
SPEAKER_03: Greed to say I'm right at the expense of loving somebody who's different.
SPEAKER_03: That's greed.
SPEAKER_03: To be right.
SPEAKER_03: Is that funny?
SPEAKER_03: A little bit counter-curcultural.
SPEAKER_03: And I hope you're hearing from me this invitation that I think we have before us.
SPEAKER_03: And of course it informs everything we do, and the church uses the word stewardship.
SPEAKER_03: How do we use the stuff we have, like the time and the gifts, and frankly, the willing to empathize and be curious, willingness to wonder.
SPEAKER_03: That is our call in stewardship.
SPEAKER_03: And I hope we take a little bit more time to wonder about ourselves, especially when we're hungry, angry, lonely, retired.
SPEAKER_03: I hope we take a little bit more time to wonder at people who we love and are doing exactly what we think that they ought to do.
SPEAKER_03: Hoping we take even more time.
SPEAKER_03: We're bored.
SPEAKER_03: Feeling like we need to do something to justify our existence.
SPEAKER_03: I'm hoping that it will take some time to say, God, break me open.
SPEAKER_03: Break me open.
SPEAKER_03: So that I can wonder, even as you, God, wonder at me.
SPEAKER_03: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed, and it's on page three hundred and fifty-eight of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_03: Page three hundred and fifty-eight.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one God, Father the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, all that is seen and earth.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father.
SPEAKER_07: God from God, light from light, true God, true God, begotten and not made, of one being with the Father.
SPEAKER_07: For him all things were made.
SPEAKER_07: For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_07: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary and was made man.
SPEAKER_07: For our sake he was crucified in the conscious father.
SPEAKER_07: He suffered death and was buried.
SPEAKER_07: On the third day he rose again in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_07: He ascended into heaven and exceeded the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_07: He will come again in glory to the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_07: With the Father and the Son, He is worshipped and glorified.
SPEAKER_07: He has spoken with the prophets.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
SPEAKER_07: We acknowledge one baptism for the givenness of sins.
SPEAKER_07: We look for the resurrection of the dead and life.
SPEAKER_01: For the peace from above, for the loving kindness of God, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the Holy Church of God, and for the unity of all peoples, let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For the people and the clergy of the church, for bishops and other ministers, for priests in our community, Mike, Jim, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kai in the Diocese of Texas, St.
SPEAKER_01: Martin's Copperess Cove, St.
SPEAKER_01: Paul's Wacole, and St.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas Rockdale, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin, and for our presiding bishop, Michael.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For our parish and our vestry, for the source of wisdom may guide us, that the source of this wisdom may guide us, a source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For our parish and vestry, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: St.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas the Apostle School, for those who teach and those who learn, may rejoice in the knowledge of our truth, that we may teach our students to love whatever is just and true and good, and that we may be bearers of our of your grace for all who come through our doors.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For all who govern and hold authority in every nation, for the members of the armed forces throughout the world, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the science of your dominion everywhere.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For this city, for every city and community, and for those who live in them, let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Lord I have compassion.
SPEAKER_01: For the good earth which God has given us, and for the wisdom and will to conserve it.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For the edged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering, especially Chris, Jim, Patrick, and Dorothy.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord have compassion.
SPEAKER_01: The congregation is invited to name their own celebrations or petitions, silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, for all who remember and care for them.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For all who have died in the hope of the resurrection, and for all departed, especially Marilyn Jones Chapman, let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: For deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, and degradation.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Lord have compassion that we may end our lives in faith and hope without suffering and without reproach.
SPEAKER_01: Let us pray to the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: In the communion of Saint Thomas and all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God to thee.
SPEAKER_03: Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbors.
SPEAKER_03: Almighty and most merciful Father, we have dared and stayed in thy ways like lost sheep.
SPEAKER_03: We have all the devices and desires of our minds.
SPEAKER_03: We have offended against thy holy laws, and we have done those things which we ought to have done.
SPEAKER_03: And we have done the things which we ought not to have done.
SPEAKER_03: For his sake, that we may hereafter live a godly, righteous, and sober life to the glory of thy holy name.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: May the God of love and power forgive and free you from your sin, heal and strengthen you by the Spirit, and raise you to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_03: Good morning and thank you for worshiping with us at St.
SPEAKER_03: Thomas today.
SPEAKER_03: Uh there's a number of announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_03: You'll find many of these in the uh Wednesday bulletin.
SPEAKER_03: Um but first huge thanks to uh the holy smokers and the sizzling sisters who put on breakfast today.
SPEAKER_03: It was really lovely uh to gather at first share uh meal together.
SPEAKER_03: So thanks everybody uh who worked on that this morning.
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you noticed that there's some tents in the um playground area, uh, our Scout Troop for Girls.
SPEAKER_03: These are girls who will earn the Eagle Scout designation.
SPEAKER_03: Um they're here for a weekend learning wilderness first aid, and I sure have a heart for that, having just sort of well done it.
SPEAKER_03: Uh and so uh that's them out there uh at the pretty young age learning how to help people in the backcountry, which is really lovely.
SPEAKER_03: Uh you may not know this, but yesterday we had a food distribution from 745 to about 9.30, and it was um the second biggest one we've done.
SPEAKER_03: Um I think 108 cars representing 419 people, and the food that people live uh leave with is kind of transformational.
SPEAKER_03: I was talking to a couple who was driving a car, and and it was a car is a paid-off car, it was nice looking, and they just sort of said that we're retired, we're on a fixed income.
SPEAKER_03: And groceries prior, we can't afford to buy groceries.
SPEAKER_03: And so uh to see that, to hear that from folks, you know, we we've all seen gas and groceries too, what they're doing.
SPEAKER_03: So this is critical ministry, and thanks for being behind it.
SPEAKER_03: Normally we only do one of these a month, but we're doing uh another one next week.
SPEAKER_03: They they kind of the way the calendar fell is a little funny.
SPEAKER_03: So this Saturday, from 7.45 to 9.30, we'll be out here.
SPEAKER_03: It will be really hot.
SPEAKER_03: And uh that's okay.
SPEAKER_03: One of the great things about these, if you've not been, is that often there's more people than we need, which is great, because then we get to practice what I call social justice.
SPEAKER_03: Um and visiting with one another and seeing our Cub Scouts and our kids and teenagers from the area do this service is heart-touching.
SPEAKER_03: And uh one of the things we don't always realize is that people support this regularly who don't go to church here.
SPEAKER_03: And that's exactly what God has in mind.
SPEAKER_03: So it's really a lovely experiment uh in serving the community.
SPEAKER_03: Um I also want to raise up to you a couple of things, uh reminder that um in an effort to do the best we can about our school, we're re-keying the exterior doors tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03: So if you're a key holder and you need your key, we'll need to check a new exterior door key out to you during the week, or I can have it on Sunday next week.
SPEAKER_03: But just a heads up if you get up here and you say my key's not working, it's not supposed to keep it, it works inside, but it won't get you in any longer starting tomorrow.
SPEAKER_03: Um I also want to let you know that starting two weeks from Tuesday, which I think is August the 16th, um, we're going to start a men's lectionary Bible study.
SPEAKER_03: Uh it's going to be on Tuesday mornings from 6 in the morning till 7 in the morning so that you can get to work on time, so you can go home and cook breakfast for your kids and take them to school and tutor them, whatever you do.
SPEAKER_03: Uh maybe you're retired and you're up early, or maybe you wake up early just to come.
SPEAKER_03: But that will start happening two weeks from Tuesday, and I'll talk more about that in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_03: But it's an opportunity to gather as a men's group for about an hour once a week and study the lectionary readings for the week.
SPEAKER_03: Um, I got to tell you, which is really, really nice, uh last week while I was gone, somebody did this thing.
SPEAKER_03: They decided they were going to offer a matching grant opportunity for the school, and they donated$50,000, and they said, if that gets met by the school and the church family, I'll give another$50,000.
SPEAKER_03: Pretty lovely.
SPEAKER_03: And you guys have uh exceeded that like$63,000 as of Friday, and a reminder that you're not too late because this is our annual fund rolled into one, so it's a huge relief for school.
SPEAKER_03: If you if you don't know about this, private schools are on the razor's edge everywhere nationwide.
SPEAKER_03: It's just been a really tough year.
SPEAKER_03: I happen to love this school.
SPEAKER_03: And it's also our most visible ministry to the community.
SPEAKER_03: So thanks for sort of helping us weather a really, really tough year.
SPEAKER_03: Uh, this is sending us into the fall in a much better spot uh to operate.
SPEAKER_03: That may be good.
SPEAKER_03: It's nice to have Jim McGill here today.
SPEAKER_03: You know, a lot of people say, geez, it's too bad you're back because we don't have Jim.
SPEAKER_03: And my reply has been, well, no, see, we get to keep Jim, which is really, really lovely.
SPEAKER_03: So Jim has served you well in my absence, and we were really sad to not have him here last week.
SPEAKER_03: And thank you for your prayers, and it's really great to see prayers answered.
SPEAKER_03: Here's Jim and Beth here, and thank you.
SPEAKER_03: We'll do another one later.
SPEAKER_03: But thank you for your service and your ministry to us, and grateful we get to keep you.
SPEAKER_03: Now continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us, and Jim showed you a little more how an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_03: So this is Ken's new niece, right?
SPEAKER_03: Her name's Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_03: She's 10.
SPEAKER_03: And she entered by way of adoption.
SPEAKER_03: And we give thanks to God for Brooklyn today.
SPEAKER_03: A reminder if you have a new entry into your family, even if they're 10, or 37, or brand new.
SPEAKER_03: Please let me know so we can celebrate on the Lord's table.
SPEAKER_03: So this is an honor of Brooklyn.
SPEAKER_03: All things come of thee, O Lord.
SPEAKER_07: And of mine have we given thee.
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.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Our service continues on page 340 of your red prayer book.
SPEAKER_03: Page 340.
SPEAKER_06: The Lord be he with you and with high spirit.
SPEAKER_07: We give them up unto the Lord.
SPEAKER_06: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_07: It is me and right so to do.
SPEAKER_03: It is very neat, right, and our bounding duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, who by water and the Holy Spirit has made us a new people in Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Show forth thy glory in all the world.
SPEAKER_03: Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and singing.
SPEAKER_03: For that thou didst create heaven and earth and didst make us in thine own image.
SPEAKER_03: He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, this precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.
SPEAKER_03: And when he given thanks to thee, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_03: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_03: Do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_03: Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_03: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, 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 remission of sin.
SPEAKER_03: Do this as often as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_03: Wherefore, O Lord, and heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate, and with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded 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_03: We most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: 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_03: And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with Him.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Now, as our Savior Christ hath 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.
SPEAKER_03: 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_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Hallelujah, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_07: Therefore, let us keep the feast.
SPEAKER_03: These are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.
SPEAKER_03: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07: Give me life and be fee by the stream and all the mean.
SPEAKER_07: Give me glory of the night, softest glory, woolly right, give thee tart and voice, making all of his voice.
SPEAKER_07: He became a little child.
SPEAKER_07: I a child and thou a lamb we are called by his name.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: Directions for living a life.
SPEAKER_03: Pay attention.
SPEAKER_03: Be astonished.
SPEAKER_03: Tell about it.
SPEAKER_03: 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_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: I think it's either still away or uh long while.