SPEAKER_04: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_04: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_04: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known.
SPEAKER_04: From you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_04: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_04: O God, by the leading of a star, you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth.
SPEAKER_04: Lead us who know you now by faith to your presence, where we may see your glory face to face through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: A reading from Isaiah.
SPEAKER_02: Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.
SPEAKER_02: For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.
SPEAKER_02: But the Lord will rise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.
SPEAKER_02: Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.
SPEAKER_02: Lift up your eyes and look around.
SPEAKER_02: They all gather together, they come to you.
SPEAKER_02: Your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurses' arms.
SPEAKER_02: Then you shall see and be radiant, your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you.
SPEAKER_02: The wealth of the nation shall come to you.
SPEAKER_02: A multitude of camels shall cover you.
SPEAKER_02: The young camels of Midian Epitaph, all those from Sheba shall come.
SPEAKER_02: They shall bring golden frankincense and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God, to people.
SPEAKER_02: The psalm appointed for today is Psalm 72.
SPEAKER_02: We will read responsively by half verse.
SPEAKER_02: Give the king your justice, O God.
SPEAKER_02: That he may rule your people righteously.
SPEAKER_02: That the mountains may bring prosperity to the people.
unknown: And the low people will bring righteousness.
SPEAKER_02: He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure.
SPEAKER_06: From one generation to another.
SPEAKER_02: He shall come down like rain upon the moon fill.
SPEAKER_02: In this time, in his time shall the righteous flourish.
SPEAKER_02: The kings of Tarshus and of the isle shall pay tribute.
SPEAKER_02: All kings shall bow down before him.
SPEAKER_06: And all nations.
SPEAKER_02: For he shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress.
SPEAKER_02: He shall have piety on the lowly and poor.
SPEAKER_02: He shall redeem their lives from oppression and violence.
SPEAKER_01: This is the reason that I Paul am a prisoner for Christ Jesus for the sake of you Gentiles.
SPEAKER_01: For surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.
SPEAKER_01: In former generations, this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: That is, the Gentiles have become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power.
SPEAKER_01: Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundary riches of Christ, and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden of the ages in God who created all things.
SPEAKER_01: So that through the church, the wisdom of God, in its rich variety that might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly places.
SPEAKER_01: This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that He has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.
SPEAKER_04: When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all Jerusalem with him.
SPEAKER_04: And calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.
SPEAKER_04: They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, and you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.
SPEAKER_04: Then Herod secretly called for the Magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.
SPEAKER_04: Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you found him, bring me word, so that I may also go and pay him homage.
SPEAKER_04: When they'd heard the king, they set out, and there ahead of them went the star that they had seen at its rising, until it stopped over the place where the child was.
SPEAKER_04: When they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.
SPEAKER_04: On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.
SPEAKER_04: Then opening their treasure chests, they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.
SPEAKER_04: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: This uh feast day culminates when the magi show up, and according to most scholars, this doesn't happen uh when the child is just born, but Jesus might have been as old as two.
SPEAKER_04: Um, so so we don't know.
SPEAKER_04: They're late to arrive.
SPEAKER_04: That's important to hear.
SPEAKER_04: And uh this starts the season of Epiphany.
SPEAKER_04: So normally what happens is we have a high holy season like Christmas or Easter, in which we see the white light, the full light of God, and then we're invited to grow into that light during a green season.
SPEAKER_04: Epiphany is going to be green, so is Pentecost, and then we're gonna follow that up with a penitential season because we realize we've still got room to grow.
SPEAKER_04: That's what happens in Lent and in Advent.
SPEAKER_04: So that's sort of the church cycle, right?
SPEAKER_04: Epiphany, uh, you know, we use this word a little bit more pedestrianly ever since James Joyce, who said an epiphany is just sort of like an aha moment, right?
SPEAKER_04: But for a long, the longest time, Epiphany was when uh God became manifest in human experience, whether you were Greek or you were Jewish or you were Christian.
SPEAKER_04: This isn't like you discovered a new cleaning product.
SPEAKER_04: This is like you saw God, and then your life must change.
SPEAKER_04: We talk about light because the Magi followed this particular star, but I think it's probably helpful to differentiate, to do a little bit of just discussing what light looks like, you know, especially when we think about stars, and that matters a lot here in Houston, not just because of the space program, but also because of the Houston Astros, which after all means stars, right?
SPEAKER_04: Uh we look at outer space and we normally think, oh, like the stars are the things that are light, and the rest of outer space is dark.
SPEAKER_04: And of course, that's completely wrong.
SPEAKER_04: Outer space, what appears black to our eye, is full of light.
SPEAKER_04: It just happens to be invisible to our retina.
SPEAKER_04: Um read this book.
SPEAKER_04: It's a fine book if you have an all the light we do not see, that um sort of makes the science very palatable, that uh light occupies this much of a spectrum and our eyes can only perceive that much of it.
SPEAKER_04: So consider that microwaves are invisible to your eye, but that box in your kitchen is full of light even when the bulb's not on.
SPEAKER_04: So an epiphany, I would suggest to you, is not necessarily that the light has just shown up, it might be that we start to visualize what's always been there.
SPEAKER_04: Just to say that again.
SPEAKER_04: It may not be the light bulb turned on, it may be that we discovered the light that was always there and we were able to visualize it.
SPEAKER_04: And of course, when you think about our trajectory as people of faith who are supposed to be disciples, part of discipleship is making visible the light of God in our lives that folks otherwise might not perceive.
SPEAKER_04: Epiphany is about this.
SPEAKER_04: These moments of, aha, aha, I've discovered light that was always there, and how can I make it visible?
SPEAKER_04: So I'm going to talk about these characters a little bit, and I also want to talk about their star, because you know we don't get to do this a lot.
SPEAKER_04: A lot of times when we think about what's happening in this particular story and these people following a star, we kind of imagine one that looks like this.
SPEAKER_04: And you can see this one up here that's on top of the angel.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, nothing wrong with this set, it's really lovely to behold.
SPEAKER_04: Um, this is the kind of star most of us like to draw because it's easy.
SPEAKER_04: And of course, most folks know that uh when you see a six-pointed star, that's got kind of a little bit of tragic history, right?
SPEAKER_04: But this is the star of David.
SPEAKER_04: Now nobody knows exactly why.
SPEAKER_04: It's just been identified with David for a long time.
SPEAKER_04: It's on the flag of the nation of Israel, right?
SPEAKER_04: And of course, Jewish folks were made to wear this during pogroms, most recently during the Holocaust.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but not everybody realizes that there's an ancient tradition that the star looked nothing like the ones I've just shown you, but rather that the star the Magi followed looked like that.
SPEAKER_04: If you've been to Catholic Church, you've probably seen it.
SPEAKER_04: Of course, it's the combination of two Greek letters, the chi and the ro.
SPEAKER_04: Now, look, there's a popular bumper sticker out there called Keep Christ in Christmas.
SPEAKER_04: And I think this bumper sticker came about because people were writing Xmas, but I want you to hear this means Christ.
SPEAKER_04: So he didn't go anywhere.
SPEAKER_04: EXMUS is the same as Christmas because it's the Greek letter chi which makes the sound ha, and then you've got the ro which makes the ra sound.
SPEAKER_04: So these are the first two letters of Christ.
SPEAKER_04: You put them together and you get that.
SPEAKER_04: It's called the chi ro.
SPEAKER_04: If you know anything about your church history, this was the symbol that the Emperor Constantine saw in a vision before the Battle of the Milven Bridge in 312 that said, in this sign you will conquer.
SPEAKER_04: And on the eve of that battle, Constantine painted this symbol on the shields of all of his soldiers.
SPEAKER_04: What do you know?
SPEAKER_04: They won the battle, and Constantine legalized the Christian religion in the Roman Empire, which prior to that battle had been illegal.
SPEAKER_04: It wasn't the official religion under Constantine, it was legalized.
SPEAKER_04: And Constantine produced uh the Nicene Creed, uh, not quite like we say it today, but he did that in 323.
SPEAKER_04: So this symbol goes back to the Magi.
SPEAKER_04: You've probably heard a bit about magi.
SPEAKER_04: Normally what we say is there's three kings, or we call them wise men, and uh if you've been to Cologne in Germany, you can visit their tombs.
SPEAKER_04: There's a kind of a whole story that gets built up around these guys called Melchiar, Caspar, and Belshazzar.
SPEAKER_04: And again, their bodies are in the Cologne Cathedral if you follow that strand.
SPEAKER_04: They were rich, they were rulers, they were wise men.
SPEAKER_04: But the text doesn't say that at all.
SPEAKER_04: And this is what's really important to hear.
SPEAKER_04: That could be true, and there's nothing wrong with it.
SPEAKER_04: It's just that there's room for some other ways of hearing the story.
SPEAKER_04: And uh you've heard many of this, much of this before, if you've been here before, and that's fine.
SPEAKER_04: So uh it's good to hear it again.
SPEAKER_04: Uh the text does not say wise men or kings, nor does it say that they're masculine, nor does it say uh that there's three of them.
SPEAKER_04: It says magi.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, this story doesn't show up in Mark, Luke, or John.
SPEAKER_04: It's just in Matthew.
SPEAKER_04: And the word magi, you might be thinking, oh, that's like magistrate.
SPEAKER_04: No, it's like magician.
SPEAKER_04: Don't think David Copperfield magician.
SPEAKER_04: Think astrology, think wizard, think hogwarts.
SPEAKER_04: Some wizards show up.
SPEAKER_04: Now, this is bizarre, isn't it?
SPEAKER_04: And it's helpful to know that Matthew, unlike the other gospelers, is writing to a predominantly Jewish congregation, a Jewish audience, and he writes that these wizards show up from a long way away.
SPEAKER_04: Wizards.
SPEAKER_04: Most scholars would tell you these wizards are probably Zoroastrian priests who practice astrology, so they're following this star.
SPEAKER_04: There could have been two, it's plural, right?
SPEAKER_04: So there's at least two.
SPEAKER_04: We don't know how many there are.
SPEAKER_04: There could have been women.
SPEAKER_04: They might have worn curly-toed shoes and turbans and other things that our folks up here aren't wearing.
SPEAKER_04: I mean, let's just be clear about this.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, we don't know that they had any crowns.
SPEAKER_04: They show that bearing gifts.
SPEAKER_04: And by the way, why these folks are interested in making a thousand-plus mile journey to see the king of the Jews, we're not quite sure because there's no evidence that they converted.
SPEAKER_04: They went home and did whatever they did.
SPEAKER_04: That's apparently what happened.
SPEAKER_04: I just want to be really clear.
SPEAKER_04: Whatever wizardry they were practicing, whether that was Zoroastrianism or Hinduism, fill in the blank, they came and then they went back to where they'd come from.
SPEAKER_04: They bring these gifts that we've interpreted symbolically.
SPEAKER_04: Mr.
SPEAKER_04: is what you get buried with, and frankincense is what you use in incense.
SPEAKER_04: So this is proclaiming that Christ is a priest and that he's going to die, and then gold is a gift you give the king.
SPEAKER_04: You've probably heard this before.
SPEAKER_04: Nothing wrong with that interpretation, but he would like you to know what these things are and what they do, so you can have a different possibility.
SPEAKER_04: You know, we now carry cash, well, most of us don't even carry cash anymore, if we're honest, because you don't need it.
SPEAKER_04: You can use your charge card or you can even use PayPal at a terminal.
SPEAKER_04: So think about the good old days when we carried cash or we carried checks.
SPEAKER_04: And of course, you have to remember that gold coins were the equivalent of cash in the ancient world when they didn't use paper money.
SPEAKER_04: How much gold did they give the Christ child?
SPEAKER_04: Not enough to pay for his burial.
SPEAKER_04: Joseph of Aerith Matthew had to give him a loan or two.
SPEAKER_04: So please don't think that the baby Jesus comes away with like gold bars in this encounter.
SPEAKER_04: When you hear they gave gold, it's possible they gave a great sum.
SPEAKER_04: It's also possible they gave him$20.
SPEAKER_04: When I was growing up, my aunt gave me$20 on my birthday.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if that was normal for you.
SPEAKER_04: It was extravagant as a kid at the time, a$20 bill, because we just didn't get stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04: That would have been a small gold coin.
SPEAKER_04: Keep that in mind.
SPEAKER_04: But it's within the realm of possibility that they gave what was in their wallet, not some gold brick.
SPEAKER_04: Here's some myrrh.
SPEAKER_04: You know, myrrh and frankincense, they're both resins.
SPEAKER_04: That is, they're tree sap that has come outside and hardened up.
SPEAKER_04: Turns out myrrh is a little harder than frankincense.
SPEAKER_04: Like if you tried to chew this, it would be crunchy.
SPEAKER_04: It is true that myrrh has a little bit of a bitter smell and that folks do use it when they embalm bodies.
SPEAKER_04: But it's also true up until this day that myrrh is considered to be antimicrobial and antibacterial.
SPEAKER_04: And folks who live in places like Oman, Iran, Iraq, like where the magi would have come from, they take this and they put it in hot water and they make tea out of it and they drink it to up their immune system.
SPEAKER_04: It apparently works.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, do not try this with essential oil because it will make you terribly sick.
SPEAKER_04: It's way too strong.
SPEAKER_04: You've got to use like this stuff.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you've ever taught before, but having talked before, a lot of times you get the flu season, and we use this other thing called emergency or like zip fizz, which are like these little tablets of vitamin C and niacin and magnesium that you put in water, supposed to boost your immune system, and you drink that.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, people travel with stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04: It's possible that the magi were honoring his death.
SPEAKER_04: It's also possible they were giving him a vitamin C supplement that they would have had anyway in their travel bag.
SPEAKER_04: Frankincense is another resin.
SPEAKER_04: It's more like a gum.
SPEAKER_04: You can chew it.
SPEAKER_04: You can.
SPEAKER_04: It won't like hurt you.
SPEAKER_04: It's not poisonous.
SPEAKER_04: It tastes like it smells, which is pretty sweet.
SPEAKER_04: Now, it is true that frankincense has been used, just like myrrh and a couple other things, like nard, which shows up in our New Testament, and cinnamon to make an aromatic incense.
SPEAKER_04: That's true.
SPEAKER_04: Turns out though that frankincense does something else, and I didn't see it until I went to the land of the Magi about five years ago myself.
SPEAKER_04: It is used as perfume.
SPEAKER_04: So this is kind of a crude example.
SPEAKER_04: I didn't want to set the smoke alarm off, so I didn't put a hot coal in.
SPEAKER_04: This one's electric.
SPEAKER_04: But what I noticed when I went to Dubai for the very first time is that there were these little things all over the place that either had coal, or like I said, this one's electric, and you just take one of these little pieces of frankincense, or maybe you blend it with myrrh or cinnamon, and you put it here in this sort of heating element, and of course, what it does is it starts to relax the gum back into sap, and then it's aromatic.
SPEAKER_04: It's not just doing like what a glade house plug-in would do, it's actually used like perfume before there was an eau de toilette spray.
SPEAKER_04: So, what you will see people do today is stand over the thing and perfume their clothes with the smoke.
SPEAKER_04: You gotta remember that the ancient world smelled pretty bad.
SPEAKER_04: Flushing toilets.
SPEAKER_04: People used the street.
SPEAKER_04: And there weren't a lot of synthetic smells.
SPEAKER_04: So this stuff was really expensive.
SPEAKER_04: When you live in the middle of the desert and they don't even have trees, you've got to go somewhere they got trees that have aromatic sap, and then you've got to bring it back.
SPEAKER_04: That's a long journey.
SPEAKER_04: And then you've got to convert it into smoke, which is kind of inefficient, and waft it on you, or else you could distill it.
SPEAKER_04: Like I say, they could have been honoring him with incense, or they could have been sharing deodorant.
SPEAKER_04: I want to hold both of them out because so often we think of these magi as being kings and wise, which means we can never be those things.
SPEAKER_04: We think of their gifts as being something extremely extravagant, only fit for a king.
SPEAKER_04: But I want to suggest to you that there's another possibility in the story.
SPEAKER_04: They gave what they had.
SPEAKER_04: They didn't go looking for stuff they didn't have, they gave what they had.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, surely, surely, God wants you to share what you have, not lament what you don't have.
SPEAKER_04: There's another amazing part about this story.
SPEAKER_04: Like I said, the magi didn't go back converted.
SPEAKER_04: It's just, think how bizarre this would be.
SPEAKER_04: I might, but it's not intentional.
SPEAKER_04: But just sort of imagine this would be like a Christian person really interested in the next embodiment of the Dalai Lama.
SPEAKER_03: Curious.
SPEAKER_03: And paying the child, the new Dalai Lama, homage, and then just going back to church.
SPEAKER_04: Or going to the annual pilgrimage in Mecca called the Hajj.
SPEAKER_04: And then just going back to church at the end.
SPEAKER_04: You may say, well, what's the point of that?
SPEAKER_04: Well, I think there's an epiphany in the story about who God cares about, to be honest with you.
SPEAKER_04: God doesn't just care about Christian folk or Jewish folk.
SPEAKER_04: God cares about magi who have curly-toed shoes.
SPEAKER_04: God cares about magi who don't necessarily share extravagant gifts.
SPEAKER_04: What they offer is what they got.
SPEAKER_04: God cares about people that don't convert.
SPEAKER_04: That's the story we get from Paul.
SPEAKER_04: This is the mystery, he says.
SPEAKER_04: The mystery of God is that God's including Gentiles, people you think don't fit in.
SPEAKER_04: That's mysterious.
SPEAKER_04: And that's the story Paul gives us.
SPEAKER_04: The goal of this epiphany is that the Lord will rise above us, that God will be our light source.
SPEAKER_04: The truth is, it's not like God's waiting to turn the light on.
SPEAKER_04: We're just waiting until we can see it.
SPEAKER_04: And the epiphany reminds us we don't have to wait.
SPEAKER_04: We don't have to wait.
SPEAKER_04: So often what we say is, I'll believe it when I see it, and what we forget is we only see what we already believe unless we're jarred into it.
SPEAKER_04: Now, I've got to tell you, this is one of the better trips I've taken in my life.
SPEAKER_04: When I went to Iran in 2016 on a lark, I'd seen a video about Rick Steves doing it.
SPEAKER_04: You know, Rick Steves, the travel guy of Europe.
SPEAKER_04: He says Iran's his favorite country in the world.
SPEAKER_04: And I knew at the time I'd better go now, or it's going to be a long time because the way politics were going, it was going to be really tough to visit the country, you know?
SPEAKER_04: And so I went.
SPEAKER_04: And there were some interesting things.
SPEAKER_04: Like everybody in the streets got one of these.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you've seen them before.
SPEAKER_04: This is where we got the idea from the rosary in the Christian church.
SPEAKER_04: We got from the Crusades, because Muslim people do this to count either the 99 names of Allah, or they do it as a way of cycling through prayers of like petition and celebration and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_04: These are prayer beads.
SPEAKER_04: The rosary came from these.
SPEAKER_04: Because Christian people saw that's a valuable practice.
SPEAKER_04: I wish I had it.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm on the bus and everybody's got these sorts of things.
SPEAKER_04: And unlike the publicity you hear, and I don't want to be silly, but I do want to say there's always a difference between national press and your private experience.
SPEAKER_04: When people found out I was American, they wanted to take their picture with me, because Americans don't go to Iran.
SPEAKER_04: Like in a good way.
SPEAKER_04: And of all the countries I've been to in the Middle East, if I were a woman, I'd feel most comfortable going to Iran.
SPEAKER_04: Because no one will touch you there.
SPEAKER_04: These were surprises for me, by the way.
SPEAKER_04: These were surprises.
SPEAKER_04: The end of my journey, I went to a store that was across from the hotel I was going to stay at.
SPEAKER_04: And I had a lovely experience with the salesperson.
SPEAKER_04: Because if you've been to the Middle East particularly, sales is a conversation more than it is anything else.
SPEAKER_04: There's gifts of like tea and there's food, and you chat it up, and a sale may or may not happen.
SPEAKER_04: And you know, as an American, I always feel bad wasting somebody's time if I don't buy stuff.
SPEAKER_04: That's just what they enjoy, you know.
SPEAKER_04: So I was talking to the seller who had the strangest accent I had ever heard.
SPEAKER_04: He'd spent some time at Oxford and he'd gone to India some.
SPEAKER_04: His accent was incredible.
SPEAKER_04: And I told him I was a priest, and he said that had to be really, really hard.
SPEAKER_04: And not you know how this came about, but he decided to show me that he and some of his friends had gone to Dubai, and in Dubai, what a lot of Iranian folks do is uh something against the law.
SPEAKER_04: They choose to drink alcohol.
SPEAKER_04: So he's showing these pictures about he was like a normal person because Americans drink alcohol.
SPEAKER_04: This was the perception in an Iran, you cannot do that.
SPEAKER_04: Uh he went on to tell me, uh, and I didn't know why, maybe the risk was pretty low, um, about a carpet that I bought.
SPEAKER_04: And then he went on to tell me about how he was gay and that he could be killed for that in his country, and he couldn't really tell anybody, including his parents, about that.
SPEAKER_04: And so there was this interesting moment where this magi chose to share the treasure of his heart with somebody he'd never met before.
SPEAKER_04: And it was an epiphany to me.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know what I did to earn his story.
SPEAKER_04: It could just be I was different, and therefore what did he have to lose?
SPEAKER_04: It could be he thought I demonstrated a willingness to listen and talk to him.
SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
SPEAKER_04: It's not like a light turned on.
SPEAKER_04: Exactly.
SPEAKER_04: It's that I saw for a moment that there was this incredible opportunity to show up in lives of people I didn't think would want to share stuff like that.
SPEAKER_04: People like fundamentalist Christians in my life, because you know, like I've been there, done that, and yet I know some of these folks.
SPEAKER_04: And they share the gifts from their treasure chests.
SPEAKER_04: They're not frankincense and myrrh and gold necessarily.
SPEAKER_04: They might be stories of pain or growth or fear.
SPEAKER_04: And by showing up and receiving them, don't you see, we're able to make the light of God visible in most people's lives, whether they convert or not.
SPEAKER_04: This is not about converting somebody to a proposition, it's about making God visible in what we do.
SPEAKER_04: Now I'm gonna tell you.
SPEAKER_04: I'm never gonna convert to Islam.
SPEAKER_04: It's not my story.
SPEAKER_04: But seeing people do this on a bus instead of looking at their smartphones, I thought, man, we could use that.
SPEAKER_04: I hope you don't mind me saying that.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, I look at my smartphone a lot.
SPEAKER_04: I kind of wish I carried these instead.
SPEAKER_04: I mean it.
SPEAKER_04: Look, I know I could set my alarm and pray five times a day.
SPEAKER_04: I know I could do that, but I gotta tell you I admire when people do that and they leave a meal to go pray and they come back, or they leave an argument to go pray and they come back, and the way they come back is different.
SPEAKER_04: I know I could do that, it's just that I'm not doing that.
SPEAKER_04: And it's beautiful, it's beautiful.
SPEAKER_04: We have these opportunities when we look at folks who dress different and talk different and pray differently from us to say it's different and it's wrong, or we can say, God, I don't know where you got all those ideas for creativity and diversity, and thank you for them.
SPEAKER_04: I'm not talking about appropriating people's stuff, I'm talking about respecting it.
SPEAKER_04: So I'm hoping that this epiphany season that we start to see the light of God that's already been enshrouding us since before we were born, that we start to see it more and more, and we start to help other people see it by the way we live our lives.
SPEAKER_04: That'd be a real epiphany.
SPEAKER_04: You know why most people don't go to church in the United States for the top reasons?
SPEAKER_04: They say it's because Christians are homophobic, number one, hypocritical, number two, judgmental, number three.
SPEAKER_04: By the way, all of those are the same thing.
SPEAKER_04: All come from the same thing.
SPEAKER_04: Instead of saying there's only the stars in the sky that are what we believe, there's this opportunity to say, man, the universe is teeming with God's light.
SPEAKER_04: And I want to open my eyes even wider to see it, and I want to open my life even wider to shine it.
SPEAKER_04: I think if we could do that sort of business, we might be the new magi in the story.
SPEAKER_04: Or we might learn from them.
SPEAKER_04: Now, uh, in order to avoid having the final word, I do want to share with you a poem that I encountered this week.
SPEAKER_04: It just follows the theme that, hey, we don't quite know the station of these folk, or even their gender, and I don't know what it'll do for you.
SPEAKER_04: Um, but I thought it was at least touching to read.
SPEAKER_04: This is a poem by Jan Richardson.
SPEAKER_04: It's called Wise Women Also Came.
SPEAKER_04: Wise Women also Came.
SPEAKER_04: The fire burned in their wombs long before they saw the flaming star in the sky.
SPEAKER_04: They walked in shadows, trusting the path would open under the light of the moon.
SPEAKER_04: Wise women also came, seeking no directions, no permission from any king.
SPEAKER_04: They came by their own authority, their own desire, their own longing.
SPEAKER_04: They came in quiet, spreading no rumors, sparking no fears to lead to innocent's slaughter, to their sister Rachel's inconsolable lamentations.
SPEAKER_04: Wise women also came, and they brought useful gifts.
SPEAKER_04: Water for labor's washing, fire for warm illumination, a blanket for swaddling.
SPEAKER_04: Wise women also came, at least three of them, holding Mary in the labor, crying out with her in the birth pangs, breathing ancient blessings into her ear.
SPEAKER_04: Wise women also came and they went, as wise women always do, home in a different way.
SPEAKER_04: I pray that we will go home in a different way, week, week after week, and not only have an epiphany, but let it be one for a world that could use a whole lot more visible light.
SPEAKER_04: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_04: We believe in one God.
unknown: And of all that is seen and unseen.
unknown: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ.
unknown: We only are God.
SPEAKER_06: Eternity, I think we change, truly, change, each, too, Jesus change, trust our change, you can change.
SPEAKER_06: He wants to be changed.
SPEAKER_06: He's a change.
SPEAKER_06: He will come to the world to church with you, and the kingdom of the name.
SPEAKER_06: You believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord in your life, you receive the Father and Son.
SPEAKER_06: He has something for us.
SPEAKER_06: We believe in the Holy Hand as a church.
unknown: We have sense to be able to resurrect the day and the life of the world to come.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Your spirit lives in us, lives in us, and we in your spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Hear us, for it is your spirit who speaks through us as we pray.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, you created the heavens and the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the produce of our land and the works of our hands.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, you created us in your own image.
SPEAKER_00: Teach us to honor all of your children.
SPEAKER_00: Grant good grains for our crops.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, you inspired the prophets of old.
SPEAKER_00: Grant that your church may faithfully proclaim your truth to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Gracious God, you sent your Son into the world.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal him to others through his life in us.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, you sent your apostles to make disciples of all nations.
SPEAKER_00: Bless the clergy and the laity of our diocese and the church, together with Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay.
SPEAKER_00: Our bishops in the Diocesan Circle of Prayer, Church of the Cross, Lake Travis, Epiphany Burnett, and Good Shepherd Austin.
SPEAKER_00: Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, and Michael, our presiding bishop.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, for your sake, men and women forsook all and followed you.
SPEAKER_00: Call many to serve you in religious communities and in the ordained ministry of your church.
SPEAKER_00: Lord Jesus, you called your disciples to take up the cross, deepen in each of us a sense of vocation.
SPEAKER_00: You prayed for your church to be one, unite all Christians that the world may believe.
SPEAKER_00: You forgave the thief on the cross to bring us all to penitence and reconciliation.
SPEAKER_00: You broke down the walls that divide us, bring the people of this world to live in peace and concord.
SPEAKER_00: You taught us through Paul your apostle to pray for kings and rulers.
SPEAKER_00: Bless and guide all in authority.
SPEAKER_00: You were rich, yet for our sake became poor.
SPEAKER_00: Move those who have wealth to share generously with those who are poor.
SPEAKER_00: You sat amongst the learned, listening and asking them questions.
SPEAKER_00: Inspire all who teach and all who learn.
SPEAKER_00: You cured by your healing touch and word, heal the sick and bless those who minister to them.
SPEAKER_00: You were unjustly condemned by Pontius Pilate, strengthen our brothers and sisters who are unjustly suffering violence and persecution.
SPEAKER_00: You lived as an exile in Egypt, protect and comfort all refugees.
SPEAKER_00: You knew the love and care of an earthly home.
SPEAKER_00: May your presence and protection be made known to migrant workers and their families.
SPEAKER_00: You open and none can shut.
SPEAKER_00: Open the gates of your kingdom to those who have died without hearing your gospel.
SPEAKER_00: You have been glorified in the lives of innumerable saints, especially St.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas.
SPEAKER_00: Give us strength to follow in their footsteps.
SPEAKER_00: Holy Spirit, you help us in our weakness and intercede for us when we cannot.
SPEAKER_00: Remember our petitions and thanksgivings before God, especially Chris, Sean, Ken, Nancy, and Amber, and enhance our vision to see your presence in them.
SPEAKER_00: The congregation is invited to name their own celebration or petitions, silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_00: In your infinite compassion, compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world.
SPEAKER_00: Comfort those who mourn, strengthen those who are weary, encourage those in despair, and lead us all to fullness of life.
SPEAKER_00: Father, we know that you are good and that you hear all those who call upon you.
SPEAKER_00: 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: Let us humbly confess our sin unto Almighty God.
SPEAKER_04: Holy God, creator of all that is, donor of grace, and giver of life, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_04: There are chasms in our lives, deep valleys that separate us from one another and from you.
SPEAKER_04: We confess that we have allowed these rifts to grow for fear of admitting our part in the separation, for fear of being rejected when we reach out.
SPEAKER_04: You call us to a reconciled life, to healed relationships, to a wholeness with each other and with you.
SPEAKER_04: Mend us, we pray, and make us new creations through the power and love of Christ, in whose name we pray.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Friends, hear this good news.
SPEAKER_04: The love of God is beyond all measure, and you are included in that love.
SPEAKER_04: Know that you are forgiven and thus freed to serve.
SPEAKER_04: Hallelujah.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The peace of the Lord be always with you.
SPEAKER_04: Good morning and peace, and thank you for worshiping with us at St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas today.
SPEAKER_04: Um, there's a few announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_04: Uh, one is that this coincides with Epiphany, uh, we're starting a series of adult ed uh this coming Thursday night called Epiphanies of Respect.
SPEAKER_04: And for the next five weeks, we're inviting people from different faith traditions to come in and share with us about their faith traditions.
SPEAKER_04: So there's some scripted questions like how did you become a Tibetan Buddhist?
SPEAKER_04: And what do you wish we knew about Tibetan Buddhism?
SPEAKER_04: And there's a practice that's been meaningful for you that you would share with us and maybe walk us through.
SPEAKER_04: So this Thursday night from 6 to 7 here in the sanctuary, Dr.
SPEAKER_04: Stephen Cherry, who is a Tibetan Buddhist, will be coming from University of Houston Clear Lake.
SPEAKER_04: We're going to um simulcast this on YouTube.
SPEAKER_04: So you can watch it at home from 6 to 7, but we're not allowed to upload it per our presenter's request.
SPEAKER_04: He says there's better teachers than me out there, so uh people can watch internet videos, but you can't stream it in real time.
SPEAKER_04: So we'll be streaming this from 6 to 7.
SPEAKER_04: You're welcome to bring any questions you have about Tibetan Buddhism because after Dr.
SPEAKER_04: Cherry's done with answering sort of the five main questions, there'll be room for others.
SPEAKER_04: So this week we'll be learning about Tibetan Buddhism.
SPEAKER_04: Next week, um, Ibrahim Eskahir from the uh Clear Lake Islamic Center, who lives in this neighborhood, um, will be coming to share with us about Islam.
SPEAKER_04: Uh delighted to tell you that we have a conservative rabbi and a uh reform rabbi coming in two separate weeks so you can hear more about variations within Judaism.
SPEAKER_04: And then one other presenter in the middle, just making sure we we get them here.
SPEAKER_04: So that's this coming Thursday and the next five Thursdays here from six to seven.
SPEAKER_04: I also want to draw your attention to this little handout that's next to the bulletins in the Narthex.
SPEAKER_04: As per our bylaws, we are showing you our slate for new Vestry candidates.
SPEAKER_04: Um, gives you a short bio about these four incredibly thoughtful uh Loving and generous folk who are choosing to share their time with us in leadership investory.
SPEAKER_04: Our annual meeting will be January 30th, so that's three weeks from today.
SPEAKER_04: It'll be in here from 9:15 to 10.15.
SPEAKER_04: So we're having it in between services as per usual.
SPEAKER_04: We're doing it in here both so we can stream it and so that we can be a little more distanced.
SPEAKER_04: Due to the unfortunate rise in what we're looking at with Omicron, uh, we're gonna skip breakfast this year, but we'll be in here.
SPEAKER_04: And we will simulcast this so you can watch on YouTube at home, and you can call in with questions or comments, either through a phone line or comment on the internet.
SPEAKER_04: So we're trying to make this hybrid meeting work as best as it can.
SPEAKER_04: Um please do make time for this.
SPEAKER_04: It includes the three items of approving our budget, our vestry candidates, our council reps, and also kind of getting an update on the year that is coming up for us in Michen and Ministry here at St.
SPEAKER_04: Thomas.
SPEAKER_04: Uh one other announcement to call to your attention is that the school is ramping up for its biggest uh fundraising effort, which is the annual Gala.
SPEAKER_04: And um it's it's a party that is held over at South Shore Harbor Resort in just across the lake here on February the 19th.
SPEAKER_04: So many of you will see some invitations in the e-news, um, and there's some more information up front, but this is uh the biggest effort for raising money for financial aid and for helping refurbish the playground.
SPEAKER_04: So that's the big goal for this year.
SPEAKER_04: There's an ask in the e-news like, hey, maybe you have items to contribute to the silent auction.
SPEAKER_04: People can always go, or they can sponsor tickets for faculty to go as well.
SPEAKER_04: So I just raise that up to you because the school is our most visible outreach in the community.
SPEAKER_04: It's the reason we have cars in the parking lot five days a week beyond Sunday.
SPEAKER_04: And uh it does an incredible job, my opinion, informing children in both wisdom and virtue, but also faith, right?
SPEAKER_04: And that happens not only through the excellent efforts of our teacher, but through the daily chapels that we offer in the morning.
SPEAKER_04: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_04: Yes, ma'am.
SPEAKER_04: Oh, thank you.
SPEAKER_04: ECW, Episcopal Church Meeting.
SPEAKER_04: Women.
SPEAKER_06: It's a reorganizational meeting.
SPEAKER_06: We're starting a new phase with ECW, all Episcopal Church women aged 18 and 9, or in 50 friends.
SPEAKER_06: And if you're friends in the 10th third, please go down.
SPEAKER_04: So just to be clear, this isn't a business meeting.
SPEAKER_04: This is a formation meeting for women.
SPEAKER_04: You may think, hey, I've been to one of those before and it wasn't what I thought.
SPEAKER_04: I would encourage you to give another try.
SPEAKER_04: And that's next Sunday, the 16th, from one to three.
SPEAKER_04: Now walk in love.
SPEAKER_04: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_04: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_04: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.
SPEAKER_04: So come.
SPEAKER_04: You who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_04: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_04: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_04: He invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_04: Our service continues on page 361 of your red prayer book, just in front of you there in the pew.
SPEAKER_04: Page 361.
SPEAKER_04: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_04: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_04: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_04: It is right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, because in the mystery of the word made flesh, you've caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory, Hosanna and the highest.
SPEAKER_04: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna and the highest.
SPEAKER_04: Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love, you made us for yourself.
SPEAKER_04: And when we've fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you in your mercy 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_04: Jesus stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.
SPEAKER_04: On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.
SPEAKER_04: And when he'd given thanks to you, he broke it and gave it to his disciples and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_04: This is my body, which is given for you.
SPEAKER_04: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he'd 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 all, for the forgiveness of sin.
SPEAKER_04: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_04: Therefore we proclaim the mystery of faith.
SPEAKER_04: Christ has died.
SPEAKER_04: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_04: Christ will come again.
SPEAKER_04: We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_04: Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament, and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace.
SPEAKER_04: And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Now, as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: Hallelujah, Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_04: These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.
SPEAKER_04: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_04: 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_04: 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_04: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: May God Almighty, who led the magi by the shining of the star to find the Christ, the light from light, lead you also in your pilgrimage to find the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_04: Amen.