unknown: I'm sorry.
SPEAKER_04: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_04: Let us pray together.
SPEAKER_05: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_05: That we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting life, grant us so perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ, to be the way, the truth, and the life, that we may steadfastly follow his steps in the way that leads to eternal life, through Jesus Christ, thy Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with thee in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_04: The children are welcome to go with Alex to Children's Church.
SPEAKER_00: A reading from Acts.
SPEAKER_00: Now the apostles and the believers who were in Judea heard that the Gentiles had also accepted the word of God.
SPEAKER_00: So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcised believers criticized him, saying, Why did you go to the uncircumcised men and eat with them?
SPEAKER_00: Then Peter began to explain to them step by step, saying, I was in the city of Joffa praying, and in a trance I saw a vision.
SPEAKER_00: There was something like a large sheet coming down from heaven, being lowered by its four corners, and it came close to me.
SPEAKER_00: As I looked at it closely, I saw four-footed animals, beasts of prey, reptiles, and birds of the air.
SPEAKER_00: I also heard a voice saying to me, Get up, Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_00: But I replied, By no means, Lord, for nothing profane or unclean has ever entered my mouth.
SPEAKER_00: But a second time the voice answered from heaven, What God has made clean, you must not call profane.
SPEAKER_00: This happened three times.
SPEAKER_00: Then everything was pulled up again to heaven.
SPEAKER_00: At that very moment, three men sent to me from Caesarea arrived at the house where we were.
SPEAKER_00: The Spirit told me to go with them and not to make a distinction between them and us.
SPEAKER_00: These six brothers also accompanied me, and we entered the man's house.
SPEAKER_00: He told us how he had seen the angel standing in his house and saying, Send to Joppa and bring Simon, who is also who is called Peter.
SPEAKER_00: He will give you a message by which you and your entire household will be saved.
SPEAKER_00: And as I began to speak, the Holy Spirit fell upon them just as it had upon us at the beginning.
SPEAKER_00: And I remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: If then God gave them the same gift that He gave us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could hinder God?
SPEAKER_00: When they heard this, they were silent.
SPEAKER_00: And they praised God, saying, Then God has given even to the Gentiles a repentance that leads to life.
SPEAKER_00: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord from the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, all you holy angels.
SPEAKER_10: Praise the Lord, all heavenly hosts.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, sun and moon.
SPEAKER_10: Praise the Lord, all you shining stars.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord, Heaven of Heavens.
SPEAKER_09: And you watch above the heavens.
SPEAKER_00: Let them praise the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord made them stand fast forever and ever.
SPEAKER_09: And they all shall not.
SPEAKER_00: Praise the Lord from the earth.
SPEAKER_09: You see monsters and all beasts.
SPEAKER_00: Fire and hail, snow and fog.
SPEAKER_09: Tempest and mountains and all hills.
SPEAKER_00: Wild beasts and all cattle.
SPEAKER_00: Kings of the earth and all peoples.
SPEAKER_08: Rulers and all judges of the world.
SPEAKER_00: Young men and maidens.
SPEAKER_08: All and young together.
SPEAKER_00: Let them praise the name of the Lord.
SPEAKER_08: The name of the Lord only is exalted.
SPEAKER_08: And the splendor of the Lord is over earth and heaven.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord has raised up strength for the chosen people and praise for all loyal servants.
SPEAKER_03: And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride, adorned for her husband.
SPEAKER_03: And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, See, the home of God is among mortals.
SPEAKER_03: He will dwell with them as their God.
SPEAKER_03: They will be his people.
SPEAKER_03: And God Himself will be with them.
SPEAKER_03: He will wipe every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_03: Death will be no more.
SPEAKER_03: Mourning and crying and pain will be no more.
SPEAKER_03: For the first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_03: And the one who is seated on the throne said, See, I am making all things new.
SPEAKER_03: Also he said, Write this for these words are trustworthy and true.
SPEAKER_03: Then he said to me, It is done.
SPEAKER_03: I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end.
SPEAKER_03: And to the Thursday I will give water as a gift from the spring of the water of life.
SPEAKER_03: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God as a people.
SPEAKER_03: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_04: At the Last Supper, when Judas had gone out, Jesus said, Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him.
SPEAKER_04: If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.
SPEAKER_04: Little children, I am with you only a little longer.
SPEAKER_04: You will look for me, but as I said to the Judeans, now so I say to you, where I am going, you cannot come.
SPEAKER_04: I give you a new commandment that you love one another.
SPEAKER_04: Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.
SPEAKER_04: By this everyone will know that you are my disciples if you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_04: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Now I've spent some time recently talking to you about belief and how it differs from faith.
SPEAKER_04: Even though faith and belief do overlap, and you know this.
SPEAKER_04: Faith and belief do overlap.
SPEAKER_04: But you have to understand that faith and belief, in their, I say, as they say in Latin, are fundamentally, well, fundamentally spring from different places.
SPEAKER_04: Belief, which I'm talking about today, has to do with intellectual assent to a certain set of propositions.
SPEAKER_04: Intellectual assent to a certain set of propositions.
SPEAKER_04: You may believe that I am an episcopal priest.
SPEAKER_04: You have not seen my ordination certificate, because it's hanging on the wall in my house, and none of you have been there except Beth.
SPEAKER_04: You may believe you have not seen my diploma from a seminary.
SPEAKER_04: All you have is Father Mike's say so, that Father Jim is gonna come here, and he called me Father Jim, so you're assuming that I'm an Episcopal priest.
SPEAKER_04: You believe I am an Episcopal priest.
SPEAKER_04: And now, because you have believed that, you gotta sit there and listen to me flap my gums for 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_04: See, you have to put up with, you have to accept the ramifications of what it is that you believe.
SPEAKER_04: Now I'm gonna get to the to the intersection between belief and faith in a few minutes.
SPEAKER_04: But but suffice it to say that belief is an intellectual exercise.
SPEAKER_04: Faith is not primarily an intellectual exercise.
SPEAKER_04: Faith has to do with trust, as I told you before, and you'll probably hear me say it again because Mike doesn't get back until the first of August.
SPEAKER_04: In the first reading for today, Peter has had the has gone to Joppa to meet and share fellowship and even eat with some.
SPEAKER_04: Are you ready for this?
SPEAKER_04: OMG.
SPEAKER_04: He has gone to fellowship and share food with the unclean.
SPEAKER_04: I gotta tell you that a lot of evil gets done in our world because of somebody declaring somebody else not pure enough.
SPEAKER_04: And I got news for you.
SPEAKER_04: None of us is pure enough for anything.
SPEAKER_04: So just get that out of your head if you want to, if you want to follow Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Anyway, Peter goes and eats with these with these folks, and and then he gets his come-uppance, right, from his friends who say, How dare you go and eat with Gentiles?
SPEAKER_04: Peter says, Peter gives them this vision that we heard in the in the in the first lesson.
SPEAKER_04: And the vision has to do with God declaring that what that these certain things are clean and you are not to call them unclean.
SPEAKER_04: And God was kind of fussing at Peter because all these animals came down and probably shellfish and all that kind of stuff, and and God says to Peter, kill and eat.
SPEAKER_04: I don't like the kill part, but you know, eat this, eat these.
SPEAKER_04: And Peter says, Oh no, Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Oh no, Lord, nothing unclean has ever passed by lips.
SPEAKER_04: And God says, Don't you dare call what I have called clean, don't you dare call it unclean.
SPEAKER_04: We can also take that to the bank in our present world.
SPEAKER_04: What God has declared clean, you and I are not to be calling unclean.
SPEAKER_04: We garmin is in the business of producing music.
SPEAKER_04: Music?
SPEAKER_04: Come on.
SPEAKER_04: Once it's done, it's gone.
SPEAKER_04: What good is that?
SPEAKER_04: Well, besides the fact that you'd be wrong, the fact is that God has called Garmin clean.
SPEAKER_04: And even if you think that producing music is a waste of time, you are not to call what Garmin does unclean.
SPEAKER_04: God has already declared it, by the way, read the Bible.
SPEAKER_04: God really likes music.
SPEAKER_04: God likes music, as a matter of fact, more than God likes sermons.
SPEAKER_04: So after Peter explains this to the people who have who have uh chastised him for eating with the with the uh with the Gentiles, they say, okay, did you get that?
SPEAKER_04: They intellectually assented to the proposition that Peter gave them that God said what Jesus had said all along.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, well, now you tell me.
SPEAKER_04: You know?
SPEAKER_04: Beth tells me 60 times a day to do a certain thing and I don't listen.
SPEAKER_04: She suggests 60 times a day to do something and I don't listen.
SPEAKER_04: My brother comes over and says, hey, why don't you do this?
SPEAKER_04: Which is exactly the same thing.
SPEAKER_04: And I say, Whoa, what a great idea.
SPEAKER_04: Hey, Beth, I think I'm gonna do this thing.
SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
SPEAKER_04: Well, Jesus has told them that I came for the world, for the good of the world, in John's gospel, anyway.
SPEAKER_04: I came for the good of the world.
SPEAKER_04: And now Peter is saying, wait a minute, if I believe in Jesus, I gotta take serious this vision of all of this unclean food galloping down my gullet.
SPEAKER_04: Don't I?
SPEAKER_04: That is what I believe, and one of the ramifications of what I believe is to accept what.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus told me because now God has told me again.
SPEAKER_04: I get it.
SPEAKER_04: What you believe is important.
SPEAKER_04: Don't get me wrong, it's not something that you should, you should not stray away or shy away from believing in things.
SPEAKER_04: You should be careful though, because believing in something has an effect on your life.
SPEAKER_04: And it's supposed to.
SPEAKER_04: It's supposed to have an effect on your life.
SPEAKER_04: If you believe in the Bible, then what you have to take what the Bible says seriously enough not to take it literally.
SPEAKER_04: That's what Father Mike says, and I agree with him 100%.
SPEAKER_04: You have to be serious enough about what the Bible says not to take it literally, but to take it seriously.
SPEAKER_04: The revelation to John was written, you know, 2,000 years ago, well, 1900 years ago, in order to express to the Christian people that what Rome is doing is fundamentally bad.
SPEAKER_04: This is a discourse, the revelation is a discourse on the dysfunctionality of the human governance that is experienced in the governance of Rome, or Babylon, as it is referred to in Revelation, in the world.
SPEAKER_04: This is an excoriation of the notion of empire.
SPEAKER_04: Everything bad that a government can do, says John in Revelation, is being done by Babylon, whoever that is.
SPEAKER_04: We know who it is.
SPEAKER_04: It's Rome.
SPEAKER_04: Everything awful that comes in the lives of men and women is coming from Rome.
SPEAKER_04: But you can understand and you can be hopeful because something else is coming.
SPEAKER_04: And it goes on to explain what this is.
SPEAKER_04: Now, today's lesson from Revelation has to do, this comes toward the end of the book.
SPEAKER_04: And we've already gone through, you know, the you know the story.
SPEAKER_04: John is taking this tour of heaven and he's got this tour guide, and they have some questions and answers back and forth.
SPEAKER_04: And then after all of the other stuff, John looks and sees the new Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this is this doesn't have a lot of uh of uh forerunners in biblical history.
SPEAKER_04: You don't go back and find a lot of talk about the new Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_04: But John sees the new Jerusalem coming down out of heaven, adorned as a bride for her bridegroom.
SPEAKER_04: That's a big deal.
SPEAKER_04: Because you see, what that says is something is coming that is not what we have now.
SPEAKER_04: It is not a Jerusalem under subjugation, it is not a Jerusalem under slavery, it is not a Jerusalem that is taxed to death by a foreign government, it is a new Jerusalem, and it is coming to us.
SPEAKER_04: We aren't going up to it, it is coming down, it is coming to us.
SPEAKER_04: We will be citizens of this new Jerusalem, John is saying.
SPEAKER_04: All of us.
SPEAKER_04: This is a gift, this is what God has in store for us, and all we gotta do is get ready to live there.
SPEAKER_04: That's all we gotta do.
SPEAKER_04: Because in this new place, says John, in New Jerusalem, death will be no more.
SPEAKER_04: Mourning and crying will be no more.
SPEAKER_04: You who are mourning will be comforted, and pain will be no more, because the first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_04: In this new world that John has seen, the first things have passed away.
SPEAKER_04: Up at the very beginning of that reading, it says, the sea was no more.
SPEAKER_04: You see, these are folks that live in the desert.
SPEAKER_04: They don't know from no sea.
SPEAKER_04: That's where the Philistines live, for crying out loud.
SPEAKER_04: And we know what kind of people they are.
SPEAKER_04: The sea for the Israelites, the sea represents chaos.
SPEAKER_04: The law represents order and the way things are supposed to be.
SPEAKER_04: And John says he looked and the sea was no more.
SPEAKER_04: We had no reason to fear chaos.
SPEAKER_04: We had no reason to think that God wanted to throw us in the dryer and just let us tumble around, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
SPEAKER_04: We have no reason for that.
SPEAKER_04: We have no reason even to be afraid of death, John is saying.
SPEAKER_04: Because death will not exist.
SPEAKER_04: Crying and pain and suffering and weeping and mourning will be no more.
SPEAKER_04: I'm sorry if you're a doctor, but there ain't no doctors in heaven because there's no need of them.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't say that at uh at 8 o'clock because Tim was just sitting right over there.
SPEAKER_04: He spent 35 years as a doctor, so I didn't say that.
SPEAKER_04: But the thing is, there will be no need anymore of those who seek to repair what's gone wrong because nothing is gonna go wrong.
SPEAKER_04: Now, if you believe in the Bible, and I do believe the Bible, this is a vision of what God intends for us.
SPEAKER_04: And I believe it.
SPEAKER_04: And that has ramifications for my life.
SPEAKER_04: I was telling uh David, I think, that David Whitlock, who's the junior warden, I see what he does.
SPEAKER_04: He says, Well, I'm an engineering manager.
SPEAKER_04: He manages an engineering project for an oil company.
SPEAKER_04: And and, or no, not an oil company for NASA, excuse me.
SPEAKER_04: And uh, and he said, uh, what's your background?
SPEAKER_04: I said, Well, I have an engineering degree.
SPEAKER_04: And he kind of looked at me and he said, Well, how did you become a priest?
SPEAKER_04: And I said, Because I was a lousy engineer.
SPEAKER_04: You know, whatever you come to believe has ramifications.
SPEAKER_04: So here I am.
SPEAKER_04: What we believe has ramifications for our life, and it means that we have, when we have accepted the notion of something, of an intellectual proposition, then we begin to live our lives as if we really do believe it.
SPEAKER_04: If we want to be authentic people who have integrity.
SPEAKER_04: If our lives as we live them and our spirits as we develop them are to be integrated, they have to be have something to do one with the other, right?
SPEAKER_04: So here comes Jesus now in the gospel lesson for today.
SPEAKER_04: You know, I've said for 30 years that Jesus only came to say one new thing.
SPEAKER_04: Everything else that Jesus says in the Gospels, you can find in His Bible, which we call the Hebrew Scriptures, or some people call it the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_04: Everything Jesus says, you can find in the Old Testament, except for one thing: one new commandment.
SPEAKER_04: And that is that you love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_04: Love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_04: By this people will know that you are my disciples, that you have love for one another.
SPEAKER_04: He says, love about six times in that short phrase.
SPEAKER_04: I think he's trying to get our attention.
SPEAKER_04: Love one another.
SPEAKER_04: And then he says, love one another as I have loved you.
SPEAKER_04: Well, how has Jesus loved us?
SPEAKER_04: Well, of course, we know the answer to that.
SPEAKER_04: The quick answer.
SPEAKER_04: The quick answer is that Jesus hung on the cross for us.
SPEAKER_04: But that's not the entirety of the thing.
SPEAKER_04: What has Jesus done?
SPEAKER_04: Now, this all takes place, these last several uh stories from Revelation, I mean stories from John, uh, John's gospel, that we've been reading these last several weeks, uh, with the exception of the St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas, the Thomas story and the story about on the beach, remember the Jesus making the breakfast.
SPEAKER_04: With the exception of those, all of these have come from, uh all of these stories have come from the time when Jesus, before he was crucified, was at supper with the disciples.
SPEAKER_04: These all come from the Last Supper.
SPEAKER_04: And so, what he, one of the things he has done during that Last Supper, one of the things he has done is to wash the feet of his disciples.
SPEAKER_04: Wash the feet of his disciples.
SPEAKER_04: This is a menial task.
SPEAKER_04: This is a task, as you know, for a slave.
SPEAKER_04: Not for a rabbi, not for the head of a whole school, not for a dean of a seminary.
SPEAKER_04: This is a task for a menial task for a servant.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus says, Do you know what I've done?
SPEAKER_04: And they say, Yeah, you washed our feet.
SPEAKER_04: Don't know why, but and he says, I didn't just wash your feet, I gave you an example.
SPEAKER_04: One of the ways that Jesus loves us is that Jesus washes our feet.
SPEAKER_04: I have given you an example, he says, that what has been done to you is to be done by you to others.
SPEAKER_04: No slave is above the master, and yet I have washed your feet.
SPEAKER_04: Can you see what I'm talking about?
SPEAKER_04: says Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: See what I'm saying?
SPEAKER_04: You understand what I'm getting at?
SPEAKER_04: What I'm getting at is that humankind are your sisters and your brothers, and you are to be their servants if you would be great among them.
SPEAKER_04: The other thing Jesus did was he said, No one has greater love than this.
SPEAKER_04: That one lay down their life for their friend, and everything in between, the menial and the ultimate.
SPEAKER_04: If you would believe this, you gotta be ready to take this idea of love to the streets.
SPEAKER_04: Love makes you do nutty things.
SPEAKER_04: And if you accept this belief in what Jesus is saying, then get ready to do nutty things.
SPEAKER_04: Love will make you strap yourself to another human being for the rest of your life.
SPEAKER_04: Love will make you get up on a Saturday morning at 7:45, for God's sake, and come to the parking lot and give food to people you don't even know.
SPEAKER_04: Love will make you found a homeless ministry somewhere.
SPEAKER_04: This morning get up and go to church at eight o'clock in the morning.
SPEAKER_04: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_04: Father Mike forbade me canceling the eight o'clock service.
SPEAKER_04: That's the only reason I'm not doing it.
SPEAKER_04: What I'm saying is that Jesus is telling the disciples that they are going to do nutty things because they love like Jesus loves.
SPEAKER_04: So just get ready.
SPEAKER_04: Because this radical love, and the word radical comes from, you know what that sign is that looks a little bit like a division sign.
SPEAKER_04: That's called a radical.
SPEAKER_04: And it tells you to take the root of what's under the radical.
SPEAKER_04: That's what the word radical means.
SPEAKER_04: It means root.
SPEAKER_04: The root of our whole religion is in this phrase.
SPEAKER_04: A new commandment I give you.
SPEAKER_04: Other than this, you could all be Jews.
SPEAKER_04: It doesn't make any difference.
SPEAKER_04: That you love one another as I have loved you, that will make people know that you are my disciples.
SPEAKER_04: They'll see a bunch of crazy people doing nutty things because they love each other, and they will know that they are my disciples.
SPEAKER_04: How would you like that?
SPEAKER_04: How would you like people to know that somebody's your disciple because they do nutty things?
SPEAKER_04: Jesus doesn't care about being judged.
SPEAKER_04: Jesus doesn't care about you being judged.
SPEAKER_04: And Jesus says you shouldn't be care about being judged.
SPEAKER_04: You should just live into the joy that I'm offering you.
SPEAKER_04: Live into the new Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_04: Live into a world where there is no pain.
SPEAKER_04: There is no death, there is no mourning, there is no chaos.
SPEAKER_04: Live into a place where you have cast off the empire that wants to swallow you up.
SPEAKER_04: Live into a place where you have cast off the things that bind you, the things that want to hold you down, the opinions of your neighbors that say, oh my gosh, how could she plant that?
SPEAKER_04: What you believe, when you begin to live it, and when you begin to bear the consequences of what you believe, can become faith.
SPEAKER_04: It can be in that area where it is not just assent, intellectual assent to a certain proposition or set of propositions, but it is a trust.
SPEAKER_04: Because you have found that you tried feeding hungry people and you didn't die.
SPEAKER_04: It didn't hurt you.
SPEAKER_04: You got up before daylight, but you're still here.
SPEAKER_04: You tried to love someone and you didn't count the cost, nor did you regard the consequence.
SPEAKER_04: You gave some something to a poor person, not knowing whether they were gonna go and buy whiskey with it or feed their family with it, and you didn't care.
SPEAKER_04: You have lived into this belief, and now you can trust that what Jesus has said is true.
SPEAKER_04: You know, you're you're smart people.
SPEAKER_04: You want to know that what you what you uh pour your belief, what you invest your belief in is is trustworthy.
SPEAKER_04: Write this, says God to John, because these words are trustworthy and true.
SPEAKER_04: It is done.
SPEAKER_04: The work which I set out to do, the new Jerusalem has come and it is done.
SPEAKER_04: I am the Alpha and the Omega.
SPEAKER_04: And everyone who lives in that new Jerusalem, which includes you and you and you and you and you and you and you will drink forever from the springs of the water.
SPEAKER_04: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, life from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, of one being with the Father.
SPEAKER_04: Through him all things were made.
SPEAKER_04: For us and for our salvation, he came down from heaven.
SPEAKER_02: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary, and was made man.
SPEAKER_02: For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pile.
SPEAKER_02: He suffered death and was buried.
SPEAKER_02: On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the scriptures.
SPEAKER_02: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_04: He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.
SPEAKER_04: We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
SPEAKER_04: With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.
SPEAKER_04: He has spoken through the prophets.
SPEAKER_04: We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.
SPEAKER_04: We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_04: We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Your spirit lives in us, and we in your spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Hear us, for it is your spirit who speaks to us as we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, you created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the produce of our land and the works of our hands.
unknown: Lord, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, in your steadfast love you provide for your creation.
SPEAKER_01: Grant good rains for our crops.
SPEAKER_01: Gracious God, you inspire the prophets of old.
SPEAKER_01: Grant that your church may faithfully proclaim your truth to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Reveal him to others through his life and us.
unknown: Lord, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you sent your apostles to make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_01: Bless the clergy and laity of our diocese and our church together with Andy, Hector, Jeff and Kay, our bishops.
SPEAKER_01: In the diocesan cycle of prayer, Grace Galveston, Holy Trinity Dickinson, and Mosaic Church Plant Fairland.
SPEAKER_01: Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Michael, our presiding bishop.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, for your sake, men and women forsook all and followed you.
SPEAKER_01: Call many to serve you in religious communities and in the ordained ministry of your church.
SPEAKER_01: Lord Jesus, you called your disciples to take up the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Deepen in each of us a sense of vocation.
SPEAKER_01: You prayed for your church to be one.
SPEAKER_01: Unite all Christians that the world may believe.
SPEAKER_01: You forgave the thief on the cross.
SPEAKER_01: Bring us all to penitence and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: You broke down the walls that divide us.
SPEAKER_01: Bring the people of this world to live in peace and concord.
SPEAKER_01: You taught us through Paul your apostle to pray for kings and rulers.
SPEAKER_01: Bless and guide all in authority.
SPEAKER_01: You were rich, yet for our sake became poor.
SPEAKER_01: Move those who have wealth to share generously with those who are poor.
SPEAKER_01: You sat among the learned, listening and asking them questions.
SPEAKER_01: You cured by your healing touch and word.
SPEAKER_01: Heal the sick and bless those who minister to them.
SPEAKER_01: You were unjustly condemned by Pontius Pilate.
SPEAKER_01: Strengthen our brothers and sisters who were unjustly suffering violence and persecution.
SPEAKER_01: You lived as an exile in Egypt.
SPEAKER_01: Protect and comfort all refugees.
SPEAKER_01: You knew the love and care of an earthly home.
SPEAKER_01: May your presence and protection be made known to all migrant workers and their families.
SPEAKER_01: You open and none can shut.
SPEAKER_01: Open the gates of your kingdom to those who have died, especially Austin and those who have died without hearing your gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You have been glorified in the lives of innumerable saints, especially Saint Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: Give us strength to follow in their footsteps.
SPEAKER_01: Remember our petitions and thanksgivings before God, especially Chris, Ken, Nancy, Amber, Christine, Patrick, Barbara, Jan, Rachel, Marilyn, Lee, Linda, and enhance our vision to see your presence in it.
SPEAKER_01: The congregation is invited to name their own celebration or petitions silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_01: In your infinite compassion, Spirit, hear us.
SPEAKER_01: Compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world.
SPEAKER_01: Comfort those who mourn, strengthen those who are weary, encourage those in despair, and lead us all to fullness of life.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we know that you are good and that you hear all those who call upon you.
SPEAKER_01: Give to us and all people what is best for us, that we may glorify you through your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who is alive and reigns through you and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.
SPEAKER_04: You all in grace have inducted her into the uh Order of Daughters of the King already, but her cross wasn't ready.
SPEAKER_04: So her cross is here now, and uh we will go through the ceremony here.
SPEAKER_04: Bless the Lord this cross and grant to your servant such an abundance of your grace that she may wear this sacred symbol in the spirit of humility and with devotion to the service of the King of Kings.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Accept and wear faithfully the cross of the order, remembering the words of our Lord Jesus.
SPEAKER_04: Take up your cross and follow me.
SPEAKER_06: Help me to serve so joyfully that others may be drawn to you.
SPEAKER_06: May your Holy Spirit guide me each day, and that all I can do or say may be believing in your side.
SPEAKER_04: Their main job is to pray.
SPEAKER_04: And in my experience, they do so profoundly, forcefully sometimes, and they are always seeking to bring to God the needs of the parish and to bring to the parish the blessings of God.
SPEAKER_04: So uh Carrie is taking on a uh this is not an insignificant deal that she's getting herself into.
SPEAKER_04: I hope she's ready.
SPEAKER_04: And and and I hope you will pray with me.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty and merciful God, since it is only by your gift of grace that your faithful people do true and praiseworthy service, bless your servant who has signified her desire to continue in your holy service as a member of the Order of the Daughters of the King.
SPEAKER_04: Guide her to lead a godly life in your church, and grant that having labored faithfully for the extension of your kingdom, that she may finally inherit eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Carry the blessing of God Almighty, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be upon you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Let's give her a hand.
SPEAKER_04: Speaking of which, there is a meeting for the daughters of the king today.
SPEAKER_04: It is a Zoom meeting at 1 o'clock.
SPEAKER_04: Uh if you would like to join it, uh get a hold of one of the daughters if you have.
SPEAKER_04: I just got the link today, so get a hold of one of the daughters and get the link.
SPEAKER_04: Uh I am I'm the speaker.
SPEAKER_04: That's why I mentioned this.
SPEAKER_04: Uh you do not have to be a member of the Daughters of the King to listen to me flap my gums.
SPEAKER_04: So um here you there you are.
SPEAKER_04: Uh are there other announcements, Herb, that I need to make?
SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
SPEAKER_04: Please feel out of visitor cards.
SPEAKER_04: Uh we've already done birthdays at the beginning of the month, so uh walk in love as Christ loved us and gave himself for us as an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_07: And there was no sea for the first time, and the first time.
SPEAKER_04: It is made ready for those who love him and who want to love him more.
SPEAKER_04: So come, 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, you who have tried to follow, and we who have failed, come, not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_04: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.
SPEAKER_07: It is me too.
SPEAKER_04: It is very meat, right, and our bound and duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father, Almighty, everlasting God, but chiefly are we bound to praise thee for the glorious resurrection of thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord, for he is the very past land, who was sacred for us and have to by his life, lasting life, the fall with angels and with all the company of heaven, with love and for the glorious name, praising the body.
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 in his and in his 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, he took bread.
SPEAKER_04: And when he had given thanks to thee, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat, 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.
SPEAKER_04: And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_04: This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for many for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_04: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_04: This is my blood which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sins.
SPEAKER_04: Whenever you drink this, do this in remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Wherefore, O 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 most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us.
SPEAKER_04: 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_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, 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, by whom and with whom and in whom.
SPEAKER_04: In the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to say, Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name.
SPEAKER_02: Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_02: Give us this day our daily bread.
SPEAKER_02: And forgive us our trespasses.
SPEAKER_02: As we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_02: Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_07: One three red.
unknown: What will it create the problem here?
SPEAKER_02: The body or more loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your life, and nourishing us with spiritual food, and the Christ with body and blood.
SPEAKER_02: Now, we are forgiven and healed, that we may proclaim our love to the world and continues for our life.
SPEAKER_11: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant make you perfect in every good work to do God's will, working in you that which is well pleasing in God's sight.
SPEAKER_04: And may the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you and remain with you this day and always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.