SPEAKER_07: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: There is one body and one spirit.
SPEAKER_07: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
SPEAKER_07: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_07: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ says.
SPEAKER_07: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.
SPEAKER_07: This is the first and greatest commitment, and the second is like unto it.
SPEAKER_07: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
SPEAKER_07: On these two commitments hang all the law and the prophets.
SPEAKER_07: Evermore give us this bread, that he may live in us and we in him, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: A prayer for peace.
SPEAKER_07: God of the nations, whose sovereign rule brings justice and peace.
SPEAKER_07: Have compassion on our broken and divided world.
SPEAKER_07: Shed abroad your peace in the hearts of all, and banish from us the spirit that makes for war, that all races and peoples may learn to live as members of your family and in obedience to your way.
SPEAKER_07: Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: As you're being seated, our children are invited to children's church with Mr.
SPEAKER_07: Alex in the back.
SPEAKER_05: And so that place is called Gilgal to this day.
SPEAKER_05: While the Israelites were camped in Gilgal, they kept the Passover in the evening on the 14th day of the month in the plains of Jericho.
SPEAKER_05: On the day after the Passover, on that very day, they ate the produce of the land.
SPEAKER_05: Unleavened cakes and parched grain.
SPEAKER_05: The manna ceased on that day, they ate the produce of the land, and the Israelites no longer had manna.
SPEAKER_05: They ate the crops of the land of Canaan that year.
SPEAKER_05: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_05: Psalm 32.
SPEAKER_05: Happy are they whose transgressions are forgiven.
SPEAKER_05: Happy are they to whom the Lord imputes no guilt.
SPEAKER_05: While I held my tongue, my bones withered away.
SPEAKER_05: Then I acknowledged my sin to you.
SPEAKER_05: I said, I will not confess my transgressions to the Lord.
SPEAKER_05: I will confess.
SPEAKER_05: Excuse me.
SPEAKER_05: Then, okay, therefore all the faithful will make their prayers to you in time of trouble.
SPEAKER_05: You are my hiding place.
SPEAKER_05: You preserve me from trouble.
SPEAKER_10: You surround me to the house of deliverance.
SPEAKER_05: I will instruct you and teach you in the way that you should go.
SPEAKER_05: Do not be like horse or mule, which have no understanding.
SPEAKER_05: Great are the tribulations of the wicked.
SPEAKER_01: Even though we want to do Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.
SPEAKER_01: If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.
SPEAKER_01: Everything old has passed away.
SPEAKER_01: See, everything has become new.
SPEAKER_01: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation.
SPEAKER_01: That is, in Christ, God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting the message of reconciliation to us.
SPEAKER_01: So we are ambassadors for Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Since God is making his appeal through us, we entreat you on behalf of Christ be reconciled to God.
SPEAKER_01: For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin.
SPEAKER_01: So that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
SPEAKER_07: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Now all the tax collectors and sinners were coming near to listen to Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: And the Pharisees and the scribes were grumbling and saying, This fellow welcomes sinners and eats with them.
SPEAKER_07: So Jesus told them this parable.
SPEAKER_07: Now there was a man who had two sons.
SPEAKER_07: The younger of them said to his father, Father, give me my share of the property that will belong to me.
SPEAKER_07: So the father divided the property between them.
SPEAKER_07: A few days later the younger son gathered all he had and traveled to a distant country, and there he squandered his property and dissolute living.
SPEAKER_07: When he'd spent everything, a severe famine took place throughout that country, and he began to be in need.
SPEAKER_07: So he went and hired himself out to one of the citizens of that country who sent him to his fields to feed the pigs.
SPEAKER_07: He would gladly have filled himself with the pods that the pigs were eating.
SPEAKER_07: No one gave him anything.
SPEAKER_07: But when he came to himself, he said, Self, how many of my father's hired hands have bread enough and despair?
SPEAKER_07: But here I am, dying of hunger.
SPEAKER_07: I will get up, go to my father, and I will say to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and before you.
SPEAKER_07: I am no longer worthy to be called your son, so treat me like one of your hired hands.
SPEAKER_07: So he set off and went to his father.
SPEAKER_07: But while he was still far off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion.
SPEAKER_07: He ran and put his arms around him and kissed him.
SPEAKER_07: And then the son said to him, Father, I have sinned against heaven, and before you I am no longer worthy to be called your son.
SPEAKER_07: But the father said to his slaves, Quickly bring out a robe, the best one, and put it on him, put a ring on his finger and sandals on his feet, and get the fatted cap, and kill it, and let us eat and celebrate.
SPEAKER_07: For this son of mine was dead and is alive again.
SPEAKER_07: He was lost and is found.
SPEAKER_07: And they began to celebrate.
SPEAKER_07: Now his elder son was in the field.
SPEAKER_07: And when the elder son came and approached the house, he heard music and dancing.
SPEAKER_07: He called one of the slaves and asked him what was going on.
SPEAKER_07: The slave replied, Oh, your brother has come, and your father has killed the fatted calf because he has got him back safe and sound.
SPEAKER_07: Then the elder son became angry and refused to go in.
SPEAKER_07: His father came at him again to plead with him, but the son answered his father, Listen, for all these years I've been working like a slave for you, and I've never disobeyed your command.
SPEAKER_07: Yet you have never given me even a young goat so that I might celebrate with my friends.
SPEAKER_07: But when this son of yours came back, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fatted calf for him.
SPEAKER_07: Then the father said to him, Son, you are always with me, and all that is mine is yours.
SPEAKER_07: But we had to celebrate and rejoice, because this brother of yours was dead and has come to life.
SPEAKER_07: He was lost and has been found.
SPEAKER_07: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_07: The fourth Sunday in Lent, like the third Sunday in Advent, is set apart as Rose Sunday, sometimes called Refreshment Sunday, and in Advent called Gaudete Sunday.
SPEAKER_07: It's a reminder that this work that we're supposed to be doing in Lent is toward a purpose which is our communal joy.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we forget that and we say, oh, I'm gonna make myself miserable to please God.
SPEAKER_07: And Rose Sunday exists to correct that perception.
SPEAKER_07: This is not about misery, it's about joy.
SPEAKER_07: And how joyful then to do something irregular.
SPEAKER_07: Baptisms in Lent on Rose Sunday.
SPEAKER_07: And with, well, a little bit of an irregular reading, because you know the lectionary sometimes can be rather long-winded.
SPEAKER_07: And it's interesting when the lectionary chooses to cut.
SPEAKER_07: Today they chose to cut.
SPEAKER_07: So if all we had was this reading, you've probably heard this story before.
SPEAKER_07: You might call this the parable of the prodigal son.
SPEAKER_07: Well, I hope you will enter into uh suspending disbelief with me as I tell you the lectionary forgot the other two stories that are pretty important.
SPEAKER_07: The lost sheep, the lost coin, and the lost sons.
SPEAKER_07: So let me start with the let me start with the middle story.
SPEAKER_07: Once upon a time there was a lady who had ten coins, and they were really valuable.
SPEAKER_07: And then she couldn't find one.
SPEAKER_07: What a worthless coin! Evil, lazy, sinful.
SPEAKER_07: How dare that coin leave her?
SPEAKER_07: What a jerk.
SPEAKER_07: Bet God hates that coin.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, that's not how the story goes.
SPEAKER_07: Who lost that coin?
SPEAKER_07: Well, she did.
SPEAKER_07: So what did she do?
SPEAKER_07: She didn't yell at the coin.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, it was valuable.
SPEAKER_07: She went looking for it.
SPEAKER_07: She swept the floor.
SPEAKER_07: And when she found it, she did something highly irregular that I don't think any of us would do.
SPEAKER_07: She went around and knocked on her neighbor's doors.
SPEAKER_07: Now just imagine your neighbor knocks on your door.
SPEAKER_07: Ned, I lost a dollar.
SPEAKER_07: And then I swept and I found it.
SPEAKER_07: Come have a party at my house because I found a book.
SPEAKER_07: Luck.
SPEAKER_07: That's the story.
SPEAKER_07: The sheep one we usually get wrong.
SPEAKER_07: That's why I wanted to start with the with the coin story.
SPEAKER_07: The sheep one we usually get wrong because you've probably heard it before.
SPEAKER_07: Once upon a time there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep, and one of them wandered away, and then the shepherd left 99 sheep and found a lost one and came back and had a party.
SPEAKER_07: Well, that one makes a little more sense to me than a buck.
SPEAKER_07: But you know what we usually get wrong is we blame the sheep.
SPEAKER_07: Or we say things like, sheep are so stupid.
SPEAKER_07: Sheep are dumb, just like all those people who don't think and vote like I do.
SPEAKER_07: What we don't realize, of course, is that there's a difference between wild sheep and domesticated sheep.
SPEAKER_07: And it's about the same difference there is between a wolf and a dog.
SPEAKER_07: They have different DNA.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you realize that.
SPEAKER_07: Now you can tame a wild animal, but that doesn't make it domesticated.
SPEAKER_07: Domesticated animals rely on human beings.
SPEAKER_07: They need us to survive.
SPEAKER_07: And by the way, we made them that way.
SPEAKER_07: We did that.
SPEAKER_07: So let me tell you what a wild sheep will do when it smells a wolf.
SPEAKER_07: It'll be quiet, it'll run away.
SPEAKER_07: Wild sheep don't have as many lambs because that's harder to support.
SPEAKER_07: Wild sheep don't eat the blade of grass and then the root.
SPEAKER_07: Because if they did, there'd be no more grass.
SPEAKER_07: Wild sheep are able to look for their own water.
SPEAKER_07: Domesticated sheep are completely different.
SPEAKER_07: A domesticated sheep will eat the blade of grass and the root, which means if you don't move them, they will eat themselves to death.
SPEAKER_07: Wild sheep do not look for their own water.
SPEAKER_07: I'm sorry, domesticated sheep.
SPEAKER_07: When a domesticated sheep smells a wolf, it will bleat because it wants you to help it.
SPEAKER_07: But you can understand it is telling the wolf exactly where to find it.
SPEAKER_07: Something we often forget when we hear the story of the lost sheep.
SPEAKER_07: Is that it's the shepherd's fault.
SPEAKER_07: The sheep trusts the shepherd to look for them.
SPEAKER_07: And we made them that way.
SPEAKER_07: Now I've always taken issue with the story because, quite frankly, I'm one of those 99 good sheep.
SPEAKER_07: Or maybe I'm just not bold enough.
SPEAKER_07: It depends how you consider it.
SPEAKER_07: Instead of the sheep being the villain, don't you see?
SPEAKER_07: This story is about a shepherd who goes looking for the lost sheep, and the sheep trust the shepherd to do it.
SPEAKER_07: The shepherd made them that way.
SPEAKER_07: And that sets the stage for this being about lost sons, plural, instead of prodigal ones.
SPEAKER_07: Now, if it helps you have a little bit of empathy, probably most of us in our lives have had one of those hinge moments where we saw this amazing opportunity that may not come again.
SPEAKER_07: This is my chance to get this job or go to this school.
SPEAKER_07: If I just had the resources to do it, I could do it.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you've had one of those moments.
SPEAKER_07: But what if that's what's happening in the story?
SPEAKER_07: What if the younger son sees an opportunity that he thinks will never come again and he says, Dad, look, this is never gonna come my way again.
SPEAKER_07: I know you're saving like a college fund, and I know you've got some stuff.
SPEAKER_07: Could you just divide it now?
SPEAKER_07: Because this won't come again.
SPEAKER_07: Unlike me, the dad does this.
SPEAKER_07: Divests himself of everything he owns.
SPEAKER_07: I want to be really clear.
SPEAKER_07: The dad now owns nothing.
SPEAKER_07: The son goes off and squanders it in dissolute living, which could be playing the commodities market.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if any of y'all do that.
SPEAKER_07: I would discourage you from doing it if you do, right?
SPEAKER_07: Because you can go to bed a millionaire and wake up and not own your shirt.
SPEAKER_07: We don't know how he loses the money.
SPEAKER_07: We just know it's gone.
SPEAKER_07: And then he has this great idea.
SPEAKER_07: I'll go back and work for my dad.
SPEAKER_07: It's really important, I think, to hear this.
SPEAKER_07: That the son is not wicked, the son is not evil, the son is not malignant.
SPEAKER_07: He's lost.
SPEAKER_07: And he does what I tell my daughter to do.
SPEAKER_07: When you can't find us, right?
SPEAKER_07: Go back to the safe place.
SPEAKER_07: Now, dad probably doesn't know where to look for his son.
SPEAKER_07: The world's a big place.
SPEAKER_07: Where are you gonna go?
SPEAKER_07: But dad has been looking.
SPEAKER_07: And sure enough, he sees a son while he's far away.
SPEAKER_07: And dad runs to him.
SPEAKER_07: And the son says this thing Oh, I'm not worthy to tell, I'm not worthy to be your son.
SPEAKER_07: And the dad says, Hey, Go get some of his brother's stuff.
SPEAKER_07: Because dad doesn't own it anymore.
SPEAKER_07: Give him the best of his brother's stuff.
SPEAKER_07: Give him that robe and that ring, and let's have a party.
SPEAKER_07: And this is really helpful to hear this language because the son was lost and now is found, is dead and is now alive.
SPEAKER_07: And of course, he wasn't actually dead.
SPEAKER_07: This is a reminder to us that the Bible uses language figuratively sometimes.
SPEAKER_07: And that, frankly, we're all going to die, and that's not the worry.
SPEAKER_07: The worry is that we're living in death with a capital D.
SPEAKER_07: Like in a place where we long to be filled with the food of unclean animals, and we think our Father has written us off.
SPEAKER_07: Whoever that is.
SPEAKER_07: So there's a party.
SPEAKER_07: Then comes the older son who is also lost, don't you see?
SPEAKER_07: The older son is very mad and says, You didn't ever give me anything, and this kid spent a bunch of money on prostitutes.
SPEAKER_07: Freudian slip tells you what the older son really wanted to do, because the story didn't say that, right?
SPEAKER_07: And he even does this thing that I sometimes do as a parent, maybe you've done too when I'm at my worst.
SPEAKER_07: When I tell my wife, I say, guess what your daughter did?
SPEAKER_07: This son of yours.
SPEAKER_07: And notice how the dad answers that.
SPEAKER_07: This brother of yours puts it right back.
SPEAKER_07: This is your brother.
SPEAKER_07: And the dad says, Look, you know, son, everything I have is yours.
SPEAKER_07: And by the way, that's true.
SPEAKER_07: He already divided the estate.
SPEAKER_07: And we don't know if the elder son goes to the party.
SPEAKER_07: We don't know if he finds his way or if he stays lost.
SPEAKER_07: And see, what the older son has chosen to do is to be right instead of to being joyful.
SPEAKER_07: And if I have to say, the biggest danger in the Christian life I grew up in is choosing to be right instead of choosing to be joyful.
SPEAKER_07: Now look, the scriptures are not asking us to be chief enablers.
SPEAKER_07: You all know what that is.
SPEAKER_07: When somebody has an addiction, alcohol or drugs are the most notorious ones, the ones we disapprove of the most.
SPEAKER_07: We don't like to talk about work addictions, but they're just as real.
SPEAKER_07: The chief enabler is the one who enables them to stay there.
SPEAKER_07: The story isn't about that.
SPEAKER_07: And I think actually what this story does is it helps us understand what the whole gospel of Jesus Christ to me is about.
SPEAKER_07: See, when you look at somebody who's bothering you and you blame them or think they've chosen to be whatever, it's pretty hard to love them.
SPEAKER_07: On the other hand, what if they were lost?
SPEAKER_07: Any of y'all like being lost?
SPEAKER_07: I've actually never met a person in my life who woke up and said, I'm planning on getting lost today.
SPEAKER_07: It's terrifying, meaning lost.
SPEAKER_07: I even remember playing hide and seek when I was a kid.
SPEAKER_07: Finding a really good hiding spot.
SPEAKER_07: So fun for a couple of minutes.
SPEAKER_07: And then you start to worry they're not gonna find you.
SPEAKER_07: Or they're gonna give up looking.
SPEAKER_07: And I would do things like give them nonverbal cues so that they could find me.
SPEAKER_07: Because if they stop looking, the fun's over, don't you see?
SPEAKER_07: The fun's over.
SPEAKER_07: Now a lot of times we hear the story and we hear, oh, God's the shepherd.
SPEAKER_07: God's the lady.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe, but maybe we're the shepherds, and maybe we're the lady, and maybe we're called to do what these people do, go looking for the lost.
SPEAKER_07: Looking for the lost.
SPEAKER_07: Put a different way.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we're really judgmental at the burdens people carry instead of having curiosity and wonder about how it is they carry the burdens that they carry.
SPEAKER_07: I think this is what Paul had in mind when he talks about all things being made new and having a human point of view or a divine point of view.
SPEAKER_07: And Paul believes we can trade the human point of view for the divine one.
SPEAKER_07: It's unlikely you hate your keys when you can't find them.
SPEAKER_07: They're just lost.
SPEAKER_07: And I hate being lost.
SPEAKER_07: And what if we're called to play hide and seek together?
SPEAKER_07: See, the thing about the shepherd, and this is the thing about the incarnation, get rid of the idea that Jesus is like a person with a staff and everybody else is a lamb.
SPEAKER_07: See, the incarnation says Jesus came as one of the lambs.
SPEAKER_07: And the way Jesus goes looking is he says, come on, there's food over here.
SPEAKER_07: I once I was at this church, it was really interesting.
SPEAKER_07: They did this big event where they brought in a Montana cowboy, and he was going to tame a horse in front of a crowd for about four hours.
SPEAKER_07: Now, look, I don't know a lot about horses, I don't, except I know that there's in general, and there's more than two, but there's kind of two approaches.
SPEAKER_07: One way is you break the horse.
SPEAKER_07: You put the saddle on and you sit on till it's done bucking and then it's submitted to your will.
SPEAKER_07: Maybe you all are familiar with this.
SPEAKER_07: You could train a dog like that too, by the way.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, the dog and the horse, they won't love you.
SPEAKER_07: They'll be afraid of you.
SPEAKER_07: They're just worried you'll punish them.
SPEAKER_07: A lot of us think God acts that way.
SPEAKER_07: What the cowboy did though, this is quite interesting, is he did the Native American way.
SPEAKER_07: And for four hours, he taught that horse to trust him.
SPEAKER_07: And the horse came to him.
SPEAKER_07: The horse accepted the saddle.
SPEAKER_07: It didn't buck.
SPEAKER_07: And the cowboy said, that's how God is.
SPEAKER_07: God goes looking for us, tries to earn our trust, but is not interested in breaking us.
SPEAKER_07: See, it's not just that God wants us to do a certain thing, it's that God wants us to do a certain thing for a reason, which is our joy, not our fear.
SPEAKER_07: So it's great that it's Rose Sunday, because I ran into this, I think, rather lovely poem about roses that I want to read to you.
SPEAKER_07: It actually comes from a book called The Inner Game of Tennis, and it was written by Timothy Galway.
SPEAKER_07: When we plant a rose seed in the earth, we notice that it is small.
SPEAKER_07: But we do not criticize it as rootless and stemless.
SPEAKER_07: We treat it as a seed, giving it the water and nourishment required of a seed.
SPEAKER_07: When it first shoots up out of the earth, we don't condemn it as immature and underdeveloped, nor do we criticize the buds for not opening when they appear.
SPEAKER_07: We stand in wonder at the process taking place and give the plant the care it needs at each stage of its development.
SPEAKER_07: The rose is a rose from the time it is a seed to the time it dies.
SPEAKER_07: Within it, at all times, it contains its whole potential.
SPEAKER_07: It seems to be constantly in the process of change.
SPEAKER_07: And yet at each state, at each moment, it is perfectly all right as it is.
SPEAKER_07: And that's the gospel of Jesus Christ in a point.
SPEAKER_07: And we're invited, I put to you, to wear rose-colored glasses.
SPEAKER_07: Because that's how God looks at us.
SPEAKER_07: If you ask me, can you prove it?
SPEAKER_07: I don't think I can.
SPEAKER_07: But I can tell you, even if I'm wrong, life will be more joyful if we pretend.
SPEAKER_07: And here's the thing about living in God's rose garden, because I've done I've happened into a couple of books by accident this year, to talk about the secret life of plants, and it turns out plants aren't always competing with each other.
SPEAKER_07: Through things like microrhizal networks, when one plant needs water or sugar, the other one shares.
SPEAKER_07: Some roses just need a little more nourishment to bloom.
SPEAKER_07: And we get to join God in doing that.
SPEAKER_07: Now I have to tell you, my favorite Catholic nun story ever.
SPEAKER_07: And I told it to you last year.
SPEAKER_07: So you can tune out if you heard it.
SPEAKER_07: I used to work in a heart hospital with a bunch of modern nuns.
SPEAKER_07: Now they don't wear the habit anymore, but they do have some nun habits.
SPEAKER_07: And one of the habits is giving out these prayer cards and saints' medallions, and that's lovely stuff I didn't grow up doing.
SPEAKER_07: Well, one of the nuns one day gave me one of these prayer cards, and it looked like something my grandma would give me from my birthday.
SPEAKER_07: It had like scripty font, and there was a picture of these roses.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you all are familiar with those kind of cards.
SPEAKER_07: It was real sweet.
SPEAKER_07: Well, I had to read it like more than once and more than four times, because see, I wanted to fill in the blank.
SPEAKER_07: It said, God help me to accept the truth about myself no matter how blank it is.
SPEAKER_07: Well, I didn't even read it because we all know how to fill in that blank, no matter how hard it is, no matter how ugly it is, no matter how disappointing it is.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, what that card said was God help me to accept the truth about myself, no matter how beautiful it is.
SPEAKER_07: That's why we're gonna have Rose Sunday again next year.
SPEAKER_07: And that's why we're in this together.
SPEAKER_07: That's why we're getting ready to make some vows to some folk who are gonna be baptized.
SPEAKER_07: At least one of them probably ain't gonna remember.
SPEAKER_07: But we will remember because we're gonna promise we're gonna remember you.
SPEAKER_07: And if we can support you through our mycorrhizal network, we as roses will lend what we can because we can do more together.
SPEAKER_07: And how fitting that we have this giant shell so that you can see the birth of Venus and you can see four pearls in God's oyster today.
SPEAKER_07: And if you're ever not sure what to do something with something that's irritating you, do the same thing as that oyster does and make it beautiful.
SPEAKER_07: Because that's what God is getting ready to do in our presence.
SPEAKER_07: So I'm gonna invite our families to come up here behind the shell.
SPEAKER_07: And congregation, we're gonna follow along here.
SPEAKER_07: Please do bring your bulletins up, families, because we have a speaking part.
SPEAKER_07: You okay right there?
SPEAKER_07: Okay, so I'm gonna ask you guys, this is your speaking part, to do these presentations.
SPEAKER_07: So you guys will go first.
SPEAKER_07: The candidates for holy baptism will now be presented.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, parents, I'm gonna ask you to go one at a time and let's start with Edison.
SPEAKER_07: Edison, do you desire to be baptized?
SPEAKER_07: That counts as I do.
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: Ainsley, do you desire to be baptized?
SPEAKER_07: Do you desire to be baptized?
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: Now, parents and godparents who are watching in Oregon or wherever you are, will you be responsible for seeing that these children you present are brought up in the Christian faith and life?
SPEAKER_07: Will you, by your prayers and witness, help them to grow into the full stature of Christ?
unknown: I will with God's self.
SPEAKER_07: Now we're doing this together, so I'm going to ask y'all to do this with us here following.
SPEAKER_07: Do you all renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?
unknown: I renounce them.
SPEAKER_07: Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
unknown: I renounce them.
SPEAKER_07: Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?
unknown: I renounce them.
SPEAKER_07: Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?
unknown: I do.
SPEAKER_07: Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
SPEAKER_10: I do.
SPEAKER_07: Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?
unknown: I do.
SPEAKER_07: Will you, like all y'all who witness these vows, do all in your power to support Sophia, Edison, Ainsley, and McKinley in their lives in Christ?
unknown: We will.
SPEAKER_07: Then I'm going to invite you to stand as you're able and join as we commit ourselves to Christ and renew our own baptismal covenant.
SPEAKER_07: Do y'all believe in God the Father?
unknown: I believe in God the Father, Almighty, creator of heaven.
SPEAKER_07: Do y'all believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
SPEAKER_10: I believe in Jesus Christ, the only Son of our Lord.
SPEAKER_10: He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_10: He suffered under unto child, was crucified by God and spirit.
SPEAKER_10: He descended to the dead.
SPEAKER_10: On the third day he rose again.
SPEAKER_10: He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_08: He will come again to judge the living of the dead.
SPEAKER_07: Do y'all believe in God the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_08: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
SPEAKER_07: Will y'all continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers?
unknown: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_07: Will y'all persevere in resisting evil?
SPEAKER_07: And whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
unknown: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_07: Will y'all proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
unknown: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_07: Will y'all seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
unknown: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_07: Will y'all strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
SPEAKER_10: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Prayers for the candidates.
SPEAKER_00: Let us now pray for Sophia, Edison, Ainsley, and McKinley, who are to receive the sacrament of new birth.
SPEAKER_00: Deliver them, O Lord, from the way of sin and death.
SPEAKER_06: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Open their hearts to your grace and truth.
SPEAKER_08: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Fill them with your holy and life-giving spirit.
SPEAKER_09: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Keep them in the faith and communion of your holy church.
SPEAKER_08: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Teach them to love others in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_10: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Send them into the world and witness to your love.
SPEAKER_08: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Bring them to the fullness of your peace and glory.
SPEAKER_08: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Grant, O Lord, that all who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his resurrection and look for him to come again in glory, who lives and reigns now and forever.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_07: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_08: It is right to give God thanks to Christ.
SPEAKER_07: We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water.
SPEAKER_07: Over it, the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
SPEAKER_07: Through it, you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.
SPEAKER_07: In it, your son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us through his death and resurrection from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
SPEAKER_07: We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.
SPEAKER_07: In it we are buried with Christ in his death.
SPEAKER_07: By it we share in his resurrection.
SPEAKER_07: Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit, and therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into his fellowship those who come to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: And now sanctify this water, we pray you by your Holy Spirit, that those who are here cleansed from sin and born again may continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_07: To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit be all honor and glory, now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Now we're going to do these one at a time, and after each one, we're going to sing the song on the adjacent page that welcomes each one of God's children into the family of God here in our presence.
SPEAKER_07: Sophia, do you want to go first?
SPEAKER_07: Okay.
SPEAKER_07: You want to hold her daddy or are you trust me.
SPEAKER_10: Whatever you're talking about.
unknown: Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_07: Sophia, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Sophia, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as God's very own forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let's sing her into the family of God.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, Edison, you're up.
SPEAKER_07: I'm just going to ask you to lean over just a little bit.
SPEAKER_07: Edison, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: And all God's people said, Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Edison, you are marked, sealed by the Holy Spirit, and marked as God's very own forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let's sing Edison into the family of God.
SPEAKER_11: Edison, God makes you and God helps.
SPEAKER_11: You protect you and loves you to we stay to hold up me, a child can you always be as God claims you, God helps you, protects you, and loves you too.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, Ainsley.
SPEAKER_07: Ainsley, I baptize you in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: And all of God's people said, Ainsley, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as God's very own forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let's sing Ainsley into God's family.
SPEAKER_11: Ainsley, Ainsley, God pleases you.
SPEAKER_11: God helps you, protects you, and loves you too.
SPEAKER_11: We stay too hold hungry.
SPEAKER_11: A child of God you always be.
SPEAKER_11: Ains me, ains me, God pleases you, God helps you, protects you, and loves you too.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, McKinley.
SPEAKER_07: McKinley, I baptize you in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and all of God's people said.
SPEAKER_07: McKinley, you are sealed by the Holy Spirit and marked as God's very end forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let's sing McKinley into God's family.
SPEAKER_11: God helps you, protects you, and loves you.
SPEAKER_11: We mistake all of me, a child of God.
SPEAKER_11: You always be forgiving, God leaves you, God helps you, protects you, and loves you to.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: Heavenly Father, we thank you by what that by water and the Holy Spirit you've bestowed on these, your children, the forgiveness of sin, and raised them to the new life of grace.
SPEAKER_07: Sustain them, O Lord, in your Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_07: Give them an inquiring and discerning heart, the courage to will and persevere, the Spirit to know and love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Now here we're on page seven, right under the song, and this is your line.
SPEAKER_07: Let us welcome the newly baptized.
SPEAKER_07: We feed you into the household of God, confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.
SPEAKER_07: It's okay to do this thing we do outside.
SPEAKER_07: And now, friends, the peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_07: 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 it the Narthex, there's these little cards that say welcome, and we would be tremendously grateful if you would fill one of those out so we have a record of your visit.
SPEAKER_07: And thank you for worshiping with us today.
SPEAKER_07: And it's not often that we get to do four baptisms of all ages, but man, it's lovely.
SPEAKER_07: And you know, there's this other great thing that's sitting in front of you here.
SPEAKER_07: Um this is a rose marking the birth of our oldest parishioner, Kitty Carmy.
SPEAKER_07: She's gonna be 99 in September, and her great great granddaughter, Finley Ward, was born this past week.
SPEAKER_07: So this is a rose for Finley, and a reminder that uh if any of you have a new member of your family, even if they don't live here, just let me know because it's an honor to put a rose up on the Lord's table to celebrate their birth.
SPEAKER_07: Few announcements I want to call um to your attention.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we don't always know what's going on on the campus, even though we know it's a lot.
SPEAKER_07: So grateful to tell you that we had an art opening on Friday night.
SPEAKER_07: Super lovely.
SPEAKER_07: Continue to enjoy Becca's work on your way in and out of the hall.
SPEAKER_07: Um there's some great little guides that tell you about the work last night.
SPEAKER_07: Um Margaret Mary Hunter hosted a recital to benefit people of Ukraine.
SPEAKER_07: And there were almost 150 people in attendance.
SPEAKER_07: Super lovely.
SPEAKER_07: So if you see Margaret Mary, please thank her for sharing her gift and her students with us.
SPEAKER_07: Many of you know that she had a Ukrainian refugee who came to League City just a few weeks ago to escape the current conflict here by playing the violin.
SPEAKER_07: So it was really, really something.
SPEAKER_07: Um, one more thing looking back that's really great to know.
SPEAKER_07: Um, Bishop Andy Doyle, our Bishop Diocesan, is making a 360-degree tour of the diocese, which means he's visiting each convocation and kind of having an open forum.
SPEAKER_07: And uh he did this in Lamarque this past week, and a couple of us from St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas were there.
SPEAKER_07: And I've got to tell you, it was really lovely because it's this great reminder that we belong to something even greater than ourselves.
SPEAKER_07: And part of what the program was was talks about how the diocese is doing some wonderful work in reaching out in service, supporting uh churches in education, uh, supporting seminarians, doing things like cleverly leveraging endowments to support all clergy health care, all clergy insurance, to support seminarians at the Southwest so that they no longer pay tuition.
SPEAKER_07: Because let me tell you, graduating with seminary debt is a double tough.
SPEAKER_07: No longer a thing in our diocese.
SPEAKER_07: So incredible work for the bishop.
SPEAKER_07: And then he took like four questions from the floor.
SPEAKER_07: They were all the same question.
SPEAKER_07: Really?
SPEAKER_07: Everybody asked, how do we get more young people to come to our church?
SPEAKER_07: I mean, four times.
SPEAKER_07: And I want to tell you, I think somebody here must have told the bishop what to say.
SPEAKER_07: The bishop said.
SPEAKER_07: Well, first you have to decide if you really want young people coming to your church, because most of y'all don't.
SPEAKER_07: You want people to come act like you.
SPEAKER_07: So you have to decide.
SPEAKER_07: Are you gonna put up with noise and different opinions and people who don't do it right?
SPEAKER_07: Then you've got to decide, you got anything worth coming to?
SPEAKER_07: Are you healthy?
SPEAKER_07: Because if you're not, nobody wants to come.
SPEAKER_07: And then you gotta decide, why do they have to come here?
SPEAKER_07: What are you doing out there?
SPEAKER_07: I think y'all taught the bishop a lesson.
SPEAKER_07: Because that's who you are.
SPEAKER_07: That's who you are.
SPEAKER_07: The most open and accepting congregation I've ever been a part of.
SPEAKER_07: Everything he said, I think, could have just come right out of who you are.
SPEAKER_07: And I'm grateful for that.
SPEAKER_07: So it was nice to hear the bishop follow your way of formation.
SPEAKER_07: A couple of things coming up that I want to draw your attention to.
SPEAKER_07: You know, um Ian Merzinski, who's here in the back, go ahead and stand at the end so we can see.
SPEAKER_07: He is the one doing his Eagle Scout project here on San Sebastian.
SPEAKER_07: If you haven't seen it, look at it.
SPEAKER_07: It is a huge project.
SPEAKER_07: He could have done one bid and that would have done it, but he's doing six.
SPEAKER_07: So please have a look.
SPEAKER_07: It's lovely.
SPEAKER_07: The transformation is is is stark.
SPEAKER_07: Um couple things coming up this week.
SPEAKER_07: Our fresh food distribution, which again is one of those things y'all do here, out there.
SPEAKER_07: It's one of those things y'all do where people don't have to come to church here to serve there.
SPEAKER_07: That's this Saturday, 7.45 in the morning.
SPEAKER_07: We'll be done by 9.30.
SPEAKER_07: We'll probably feed 375 people.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, you don't have to sign up.
SPEAKER_07: You can just you can just show up, and that's this coming Saturday.
SPEAKER_07: Also, this coming Saturday is a, you know, many of you know that back in February we were scheduled to have the school gala, the thing that supports financial aid, so that we can bring families here to the our our most visible outreach here in the community who otherwise can't afford it.
SPEAKER_07: So because Omicron was spiking, we had to push it, and it's been pushed to this Saturday.
SPEAKER_07: It's not a ticketed event, it's just over here at the Java Owl, which is right behind a Kimi.
SPEAKER_07: Um it's a like a Dutch treat, so you can buy coffee or wine, there's some like little goodies.
SPEAKER_07: They sell wine there, and uh they'll have the coffee bar open, and and we're gonna have some auction items.
SPEAKER_07: There's a student art that's up.
SPEAKER_07: Um students are gonna come play their ukuleles, which we teach our kids here how to play the ukulele.
SPEAKER_07: Um there's five Southwest round trip tickets with no blackout days anywhere Southwest flies, including Hawaii, up forbidding.
SPEAKER_07: There's a couple of camps like Camp Allen and Camp Choye have given us camper ships for the summer.
SPEAKER_07: So uh I hope you'll take time to come support your school and just enjoy what the students put on.
SPEAKER_07: And again, that's this coming Saturday.
SPEAKER_07: The other thing I want to make you aware of is that uh two weeks from yesterday is a really lovely guitar concert.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, you would have to drive into town to get this caliber of guitar concert and some flamenco dance.
SPEAKER_07: So it's Spanish-style finger guitar.
SPEAKER_07: It'll be here in the sanctuary April the 9th, and there's flyers out there if you're interested.
SPEAKER_07: There's also flyers about the school night at Java Owl.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, I know it's a lot of announcements, but uh the one big thing to let you know is that I'll be here next week and then I'll be back in August.
SPEAKER_07: So just a reminder, my sabbatical's coming up, and enough people have asked that I'm just gonna bore you with it.
SPEAKER_07: If you already know this, then look at the glass, it's really pretty.
SPEAKER_07: Um a lot of people said, What are you doing?
SPEAKER_07: So I'm going to National Outdoor Leadership School, 10 days in Wyoming.
SPEAKER_07: I'll be learning Wilderness First Responder.
SPEAKER_07: So I'll be a first aid certified kind of wilderness guy, short of the MT.
SPEAKER_07: Then we're gonna drive down to the Four Corners area of Utah to do uh backpacking and canyoneering for about two and a half weeks and two weeks of swift water canoeing and swift water rescue.
SPEAKER_07: So that'll be me solo.
SPEAKER_07: I'll be back May 30th, and then in June I'm taking my girls to Hawaii along with a couple of nieces for two weeks, and then kind of going on a family reunion in uh the Smokies for the end of June, and then July I'll be back here sweating with the rest of you.
SPEAKER_07: But I probably won't show up until August.
SPEAKER_07: So in the meantime, you get Father Jim McGill.
SPEAKER_07: Now, I gotta tell you in advance, you don't get to keep him.
SPEAKER_07: I'm coming back, whether you like it or not.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and you'll see on that little sheet and in the e-news, Jim's cell phone number if you have pastoral emergencies only.
SPEAKER_07: Please don't call Jim about the paint in the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_07: Call her Meyer for that.
SPEAKER_07: So you'll find that in my email and also in the e-news as well.
SPEAKER_07: Who do I call if I have a question about what?
SPEAKER_07: So be looking for that.
SPEAKER_07: But reminder, um, this is good for all of us.
SPEAKER_07: This is good for all of us.
SPEAKER_07: I am the first priest at St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas in 58 years to take a sabbatical.
SPEAKER_07: And I have to tell you what I love about it is everybody says, I'm so glad you're getting to go.
SPEAKER_07: Thank you for that gift.
SPEAKER_07: And I'm looking forward to coming back new and refreshed.
SPEAKER_07: Y'all are gonna do things while I'm gone, that you should.
SPEAKER_07: And I'll come back and figure out where you've been, and we'll figure out how we're gonna go forward together and continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_07: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_07: All things come of you, O Lord.
SPEAKER_10: And of your own.
SPEAKER_07: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come.
SPEAKER_07: You who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_07: You who have tried to follow, and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_07: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_07: Our service continues on page three hundred and sixty-one of your red prayer book page three hundred and sixty-one.
SPEAKER_06: The Lord be here with you.
SPEAKER_06: It is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_06: You bid your faithful people cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast, but fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by your word and sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which you have prepared for those who love you.
SPEAKER_06: Therefore, we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.
SPEAKER_07: And when we'd fallen and descend and become subject to evil and death, you in your compassion sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.
SPEAKER_07: He stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.
SPEAKER_07: On the night he was handed over to suffering and death.
SPEAKER_07: Our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.
SPEAKER_07: And when he given thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_07: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_07: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.
SPEAKER_07: And when he given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_07: This is my blood of the new covenant, which is shed for all y'all, for the forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_07: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.
SPEAKER_07: Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.
SPEAKER_07: We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07: Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.
SPEAKER_07: Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the body and blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in Him.
SPEAKER_07: Sanctify us also, that we may faithfully receive this Holy Sacrament and serve you in unity, in constancy, and peace.
SPEAKER_07: And at the last day, bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_07: All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ, by him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_07: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_07: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.
SPEAKER_07: And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_07: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_07: Therefore, these are the gifts of God for you, the children of God.
SPEAKER_07: Receive them by faith and feed on them in your hearts with grace and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07: And I'm going to invite us to the rail for Eucharist.
SPEAKER_07: If you don't feel comfortable or can't make it, I'll come to you.
SPEAKER_07: But I'm going to start with the section to my right coming to the right, and this section here starting right here on this rail.
SPEAKER_07: And a shell that went to outer space.
SPEAKER_07: So that we do what we do here is truly out of this world.
SPEAKER_07: What a gift.
SPEAKER_07: Because what we do here is out of this world.
SPEAKER_07: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_07: Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image, and nourishing us with spiritual food in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.
SPEAKER_07: Now send us forth a people, forgiven, healed, renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Do not pray for easy lives, for easy marriages, for easy friendships, for easy discipleship.
SPEAKER_07: Pray to be stronger people, stronger couples, stronger community and stronger Christians.
SPEAKER_07: Do not pray for opportunities equal to your strengths.
SPEAKER_07: Pray for God's grace and gifts to equip you for the opportunities in front of you.
SPEAKER_07: And in the living of your faith will be no miracle.
SPEAKER_07: You will be the miracle.
SPEAKER_07: Every day you will be assigned to our world of God's presence and God's grace, and you will look at yourself in wonder.
SPEAKER_07: 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_07: Amen.