WEBVTT 00:02:57.120 --> 00:03:01.199 Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. 00:03:01.520 --> 00:03:05.039 Blessed be God's family now and forever. 00:03:05.280 --> 00:03:05.840 Amen. 00:03:06.000 --> 00:03:07.360 Let's pray together. 00:03:07.680 --> 00:03:15.680 Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires open, and from you no secrets are hid. 00:03:15.919 --> 00:03:28.000 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. 00:03:28.319 --> 00:03:28.960 Amen. 00:03:29.280 --> 00:03:37.120 Hear what our Lord Jesus Christ saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 00:03:37.520 --> 00:03:39.919 This is the first and greatest commitment. 00:03:40.080 --> 00:03:41.919 And the second is like unto it. 00:03:42.080 --> 00:03:44.319 Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. 00:03:44.560 --> 00:03:48.000 On these two commitments hang all the law and the prophets. 00:03:48.719 --> 00:03:55.439 Holy God, holy and mighty, holy immortal one, have compassion upon us. 00:03:55.680 --> 00:03:56.879 The Lord be with you. 00:03:57.120 --> 00:03:58.319 And with Hyper. 00:03:58.639 --> 00:03:59.919 Let us pray. 00:04:01.199 --> 00:04:07.199 O God who wonderfully created and yet more wonderfully restored the dignity of human nature. 00:04:07.520 --> 00:04:20.160 Grant that we may share the divine life of Him who humbled Himself to share our humanity, your Son Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever. 00:04:20.639 --> 00:04:21.279 Amen. 00:04:21.519 --> 00:04:26.639 As you're being seated, our children are invited to children's chapel with Miss Williams in the dark. 00:04:47.439 --> 00:04:54.480 Thus says the Lord, sing aloud with gladness for Jacob, and raise shouts for the chief of the nation. 00:04:54.879 --> 00:05:01.120 Proclaim, give praise, and say, Save, O Lord, your people, the remnant of Israel. 00:05:02.000 --> 00:05:13.839 See, I am going to bring them from the land of the north and gather them from the farthest parts of the earth, among them the blind and the lame, and those with child and those in labor altogether. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:16.800 A great company they shall return here. 00:05:17.439 --> 00:05:22.560 With weeping they shall come, and with consolations, I will lead them back. 00:05:22.800 --> 00:05:28.160 I will let them walk by brooks of water in straight path in which they shall not stumble. 00:05:28.639 --> 00:05:33.920 For I have become a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my firstborn. 00:05:34.160 --> 00:05:39.199 Hear the word of the Lord, O nations, and declare it in the coastlands far away. 00:05:39.839 --> 00:05:48.480 And say, He who scattered Israel will come, will gather him, and will keep him as a shepherd, a flock. 00:05:48.720 --> 00:05:54.319 For the Lord has ransomed Jacob and has redeemed him from his hands too strong for him. 00:05:55.040 --> 00:06:06.879 They shall come and sing aloud on the height of Zion, and they shall be radiant over the goodness of the Lord, over the grain and the wine, and the oil, and over the young of the flock and the herd. 00:06:07.759 --> 00:06:13.279 Their life shall become like a watered garden, and they shall never languish again. 00:06:14.160 --> 00:06:19.839 Then shall the young women rejoice in the dance, and the young men and the old shall be merry. 00:06:20.639 --> 00:06:27.040 I will turn their morning into joy, and I will comfort them and give them gladness for sorrow. 00:06:27.920 --> 00:06:34.639 I will give the priest their fill of fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my bounty. 00:06:37.360 --> 00:06:39.759 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:06:52.480 --> 00:06:54.399 A reading from Psalm. 00:06:58.720 --> 00:07:02.560 How dear to me is your dwelling, O Lord of hosts! 00:07:07.920 --> 00:07:11.279 My heart and my blood rejoice in the living God. 00:07:12.160 --> 00:07:17.680 The sparrow has found her a house and the swallow a nest where she may lay her young. 00:07:24.079 --> 00:07:26.879 Happy are they who dwell in your house. 00:07:30.000 --> 00:07:36.000 And happy are the people whose strength is in you, whose hearts are set upon the pilgrim's way. 00:07:37.120 --> 00:07:42.240 Those who go through the desolate valley will find it a place of springs. 00:07:47.120 --> 00:07:49.439 They will climb from height to height. 00:07:49.519 --> 00:07:52.480 And the God of God will appear in mine. 00:07:53.439 --> 00:07:56.639 Lord, God of hosts, hear my prayer. 00:07:57.040 --> 00:07:59.439 Hearken, O God, too. 00:07:59.839 --> 00:08:05.680 Behold, our defender, O God, and look upon the face of your anointed. 00:08:06.079 --> 00:08:10.399 For one day in your courts is better than a thousand in my own. 00:08:10.800 --> 00:08:16.959 Contend to stand in the threshold of the house of thy God, and to dwell with you. 00:08:18.000 --> 00:08:20.959 For the Lord God is both Son and Shield. 00:08:25.439 --> 00:08:28.399 No good thing will the Lord withhold. 00:09:19.279 --> 00:09:36.639 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love. 00:09:37.279 --> 00:09:50.320 He destined us for adoption of his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace, that he freely bestowed on us in the beloved. 00:09:51.519 --> 00:09:56.399 I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints. 00:09:56.639 --> 00:10:02.960 And for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers. 00:10:03.440 --> 00:10:29.600 I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and revelation as you come to know him, so that with the eyes of your heart enlightened, you may know what is the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance among the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power for us to believe. 00:10:30.320 --> 00:10:33.200 Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people. 00:11:08.320 --> 00:11:22.879 After the Magi had left, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, Get up, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child to destroy him. 00:11:23.200 --> 00:11:29.840 And then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother by night, and went to Egypt, and remained there until the death of Herod. 00:11:30.080 --> 00:11:36.159 This was to fulfill what had been spoken by the Lord through the prophet, out of Egypt I have called my son. 00:11:36.960 --> 00:11:50.080 When Herod died, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt and said, Get up, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child's life were dead. 00:11:50.320 --> 00:11:54.879 And then Joseph got up, took the child and his mother, and went to the land of Israel. 00:11:55.120 --> 00:12:01.840 But when he heard that Archolus was ruling over Judea in place of his father Herod, he was afraid to go there. 00:12:02.080 --> 00:12:06.720 And after being warned in a dream, he went away to the district of Galilee. 00:12:06.960 --> 00:12:13.039 There he made his home in a town called Nazareth, so that what had been spoken to the prophets might be fulfilled. 00:12:13.360 --> 00:12:15.200 He will be called a Nazarene. 00:12:17.279 --> 00:12:19.039 The gospel of the Lord. 00:12:46.960 --> 00:12:49.200 We do each Christmas for twelve days. 00:12:49.679 --> 00:12:53.039 Sometimes it can seem weird to look up here and see this pelican. 00:12:53.279 --> 00:13:06.159 There was this myth in Elizabeth in England, it's a myth, they don't actually do this, that when there was not enough food or water, a mother pelican would literally prick her breast to feed the chicks her own blood. 00:13:06.559 --> 00:13:07.840 This was to keep them alive. 00:13:07.919 --> 00:13:12.159 So this was this image of life giving in the Elizabethan church. 00:13:12.240 --> 00:13:18.080 So if you go to a church in England and see this in a window, it gives you an approximate time when it was made. 00:13:18.240 --> 00:13:23.279 Like I said, they don't really do that, but it is this image of sharing life. 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:26.960 And it might seem funny that we're doing that during Christmas, but don't you see? 00:13:27.279 --> 00:13:34.240 During Easter, we think about how God has shared it with us, but during Christmas, we think about how the whole holy family shared it with God. 00:13:34.799 --> 00:13:36.480 And this is part of our guidance. 00:13:36.559 --> 00:13:42.159 Here in the story, Joseph and Mary are immigrants looking for asilo. 00:13:43.200 --> 00:13:52.960 And they do that on behalf of the Christ child, and they share their life by literally leaving their hometown to keep them safe. 00:13:53.039 --> 00:13:57.679 And it's this great reminder that this is a two-way relationship. 00:13:57.840 --> 00:14:01.440 This is not just some fact pattern that happened a long time ago. 00:14:01.600 --> 00:14:07.600 This is a story that we're invited to live into and to use Matthew's word, fulfill. 00:14:08.320 --> 00:14:13.519 Fulfillment of the scriptures is the theme I want to put forward today. 00:14:13.679 --> 00:14:18.799 Because what that means can be varied depending on, frankly, how we were grounded. 00:14:18.960 --> 00:14:23.919 So one way to look at what Matthew does with Scripture is to say, aha. 00:14:24.480 --> 00:14:34.480 Matthew's reading the prophets, and he's saying, they predicted precisely event A, and Jesus literally did that. 00:14:34.960 --> 00:14:40.799 So all of that business about the prophets was really just about Jesus. 00:14:41.519 --> 00:14:48.879 That's more about prediction and coming to pass than Matthew's use of the word fulfillment. 00:14:49.039 --> 00:14:50.320 I want to put before you. 00:14:50.559 --> 00:14:57.519 Fulfillment actually means something different than I make a prediction and it happens exactly like I said it. 00:14:57.679 --> 00:15:03.840 And the way I'd like to make this alternative reading is by leveraging the two scriptures that Matthew uses. 00:15:04.080 --> 00:15:12.240 The first one, by the way, if you've read the other Gospels, neither Mark nor Luke nor John mention the Holy Family going to Egypt. 00:15:12.480 --> 00:15:13.360 None of them do. 00:15:13.440 --> 00:15:17.919 I'm not saying it didn't happen, it just wasn't important for them in the story that they told. 00:15:18.159 --> 00:15:27.840 Matthew tells the story because most scholars will tell you Matthew's writing to a Jewish community, not a Jewish, not a Gentile community, not even a mixed community. 00:15:28.000 --> 00:15:37.200 He's telling a group of people who are very, very set in rites like circumcision and practicing the feast of Passover and tabernacles. 00:15:37.360 --> 00:15:42.799 He's saying, look, the scriptures resonate in the life of Jesus. 00:15:43.120 --> 00:15:46.000 He's like making them alive again. 00:15:46.639 --> 00:15:53.039 And part of the way he does that is by having Jesus figuratively fulfill them and literally. 00:15:53.279 --> 00:15:56.399 So this phrase, first one, out of Egypt I've called my son. 00:15:56.639 --> 00:16:02.000 You can read that in the book Hosea, and it's very clear who Hosea is talking about. 00:16:02.559 --> 00:16:04.080 The people of Israel. 00:16:04.399 --> 00:16:14.799 You all probably know enough to know, once upon a time in Exodus, the people were in bondage under the Pharaoh, and Moses brought them out of bondage with God's help, right? 00:16:14.960 --> 00:16:19.440 So Hosea is saying, out of Egypt, I've called my child. 00:16:20.720 --> 00:16:24.799 Hosea is using it literally and figuratively. 00:16:24.960 --> 00:16:33.919 And Matthew is saying, Look, holy family goes, and more important, Jesus is going to call us out of bondage. 00:16:35.200 --> 00:16:42.000 Out of Egypt, out from under the pharaohs, God is calling us to be God's people. 00:16:43.600 --> 00:16:50.399 I think we get the Bible wrong when we take it so literally we forget to take it seriously. 00:16:50.639 --> 00:16:54.240 So I will tell you, you can go to Egypt and it's actually really cool. 00:16:54.720 --> 00:16:56.000 It's neat. 00:16:56.720 --> 00:17:00.159 And it allows you to envision the story in new ways. 00:17:00.399 --> 00:17:09.279 But friends, if we just go to Egypt so we can be God's children and forget that God is trying to call us out of bondage, I think we miss the point. 00:17:09.920 --> 00:17:16.480 The point is to hear the story and fulfill it by seeing people who are in bondage and calling them out. 00:17:16.799 --> 00:17:18.960 That's how we fulfill the scriptures. 00:17:19.119 --> 00:17:20.400 We live them out. 00:17:21.440 --> 00:17:23.920 By the way, it may be helpful to hear. 00:17:24.319 --> 00:17:32.400 Sometimes we often gloss over this, that at the time of Jesus, there wasn't one Jewish way. 00:17:32.880 --> 00:17:34.000 This is still true today. 00:17:34.160 --> 00:17:41.039 Most of you know there are groups called Orthodoxy and Chabad and Reformed Judaism and Conservative Judaism. 00:17:41.119 --> 00:17:44.480 And these aren't the only ones, they just tend to be some of the major labels. 00:17:44.640 --> 00:17:46.720 Well, at the time of Jesus, it wasn't any different. 00:17:46.880 --> 00:17:54.240 Some of the principal groups you've already heard of if you read the New Testament, because there's these people called the Sadducees, and these people called the Pharisees. 00:17:54.400 --> 00:17:56.960 And by the way, some of the Pharisees were also Sadducees. 00:17:57.440 --> 00:18:12.240 But one of the core differences, it's good to hear, is that the Sadducees, who were the, in general, the people who controlled the temple at Jerusalem and said, this is where you have to come, they only read the books of the Bible that we call Genesis, Exodus, Liticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. 00:18:12.400 --> 00:18:13.359 Those five. 00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:14.559 That was it. 00:18:15.440 --> 00:18:16.559 Only those five. 00:18:16.720 --> 00:18:17.519 What about the Psalms? 00:18:17.759 --> 00:18:18.559 Didn't read them. 00:18:18.720 --> 00:18:19.680 What about the prophets? 00:18:19.839 --> 00:18:20.559 Didn't read them. 00:18:21.200 --> 00:18:24.240 The Sadducees were conservative religious folks. 00:18:25.519 --> 00:18:33.519 The Pharisees read the same books as the Sadducees, but they also read the prophets and the Psalms. 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:41.279 Forgive me for saying this, but the Pharisees were pretty inclusive in what they called scripture. 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:43.920 So was Matthew. 00:18:44.160 --> 00:18:45.359 He was a liberal. 00:18:46.000 --> 00:18:48.720 A flaming liberal for quoting Hosea. 00:18:49.680 --> 00:18:50.640 But he did. 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:57.279 And Jesus grew up in a Pharisaic school because he quotes the Psalms left and right. 00:18:57.680 --> 00:19:06.240 And what Matthew is doing to his people is saying, look, this story once happened, but it gets to happen again in you. 00:19:07.839 --> 00:19:09.279 Second case. 00:19:21.440 --> 00:19:24.400 When you're from Texas, it's like Texas. 00:19:25.599 --> 00:19:32.079 Well, instead they go to New England, and you know, if you're from Texas, that's like the Yankee place or whatever. 00:19:32.400 --> 00:19:34.640 How is it that they end up in Galilee? 00:19:34.720 --> 00:19:36.319 Well, it gives you an excuse. 00:19:36.799 --> 00:19:38.720 Archolus, what's the problem? 00:19:39.519 --> 00:19:42.960 Nazareth, we usually think of as this like sweet place. 00:19:43.200 --> 00:19:49.519 It was a tiny podent village of about 70 families, and it was a garrison for Roman troops. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:52.480 It was not a place you wanted to go. 00:19:53.119 --> 00:20:00.400 So the story is telling you how this good Bethlehemite, living in God's country, got to be in this place. 00:20:00.480 --> 00:20:04.559 And it uses this really curious phrase: he'll be called a Nazarene. 00:20:05.359 --> 00:20:09.440 This is to fulfill what the prophet's plural said, he'll be called a Nazarene. 00:20:09.599 --> 00:20:12.160 You won't find that phrase in any book of the Bible. 00:20:12.480 --> 00:20:14.640 Any prophet saying he'll be called a Nazarene. 00:20:14.720 --> 00:20:15.920 You won't find it anywhere. 00:20:16.160 --> 00:20:20.480 So either Matthew's read some people that we didn't get in our Bible. 00:20:20.559 --> 00:20:23.119 That's possible, by the way, it's possible. 00:20:23.440 --> 00:20:25.519 Or there's one of two other things happening. 00:20:25.599 --> 00:20:31.200 I'm going to tell you the one I like the least first, just so you can hear it, and give you the other option. 00:20:32.720 --> 00:20:42.480 There's this scripture in Isaiah that we read during Advent that says, out of the stump of Jesse, a new branch will grow. 00:20:42.720 --> 00:20:51.519 And it turns out that that word branch has the letters in the R in Hebrew, from which you hear the word Nazareth, in the R. 00:20:52.319 --> 00:21:08.559 So maybe this is a play on words saying, aha, Jesus is going to be this life-giving branch that grows from the trunk and roots of Judaism to bear fruit with his people spiritually. 00:21:08.880 --> 00:21:10.720 It's a great interpretation, actually. 00:21:11.359 --> 00:21:12.880 But hear how it's a fulfillment. 00:21:12.960 --> 00:21:15.039 He's not actually a stump or a tree. 00:21:15.440 --> 00:21:18.160 This is figurative talk, right? 00:21:18.799 --> 00:21:23.119 The second option I prefer because I think it's right. 00:21:23.200 --> 00:21:25.039 I mean, otherwise I wouldn't prefer it. 00:21:25.359 --> 00:21:27.119 But it's it is about the same. 00:21:27.279 --> 00:21:31.839 There are these people in the Bible that are called not Nazareneans, but they're called Nazarites. 00:21:32.480 --> 00:21:36.799 And most people in the Bible were Nazarites for a short time. 00:21:37.039 --> 00:21:42.720 You took a solemn oath to God, and during the time of that oath, you did three things. 00:21:42.880 --> 00:21:51.599 You did not cut your hair, you didn't touch anything dead, which means you didn't eat meat, and you didn't drink wine. 00:21:51.839 --> 00:21:57.920 Now that's really challenging because wine was had at pretty much every meal. 00:21:58.319 --> 00:21:59.759 But people gave it up temporarily. 00:22:00.720 --> 00:22:08.319 And then when you completed your vow, like when it came to an end, you resumed those behaviors and you shaved your head. 00:22:08.960 --> 00:22:12.480 The Apostle Paul does this if you read the Acts of the Apostles. 00:22:12.640 --> 00:22:13.599 He takes a vow. 00:22:13.759 --> 00:22:19.279 When it's over, he shaves and returns to his lifestyle of eating meat and drinking wine. 00:22:19.519 --> 00:22:26.160 There are only three people in the Bible that seem to be lifelong Nazirites, the most famous of whom is Samson. 00:22:27.119 --> 00:22:31.039 He loses his extraordinary strength when he breaks the final of his three vows. 00:22:31.119 --> 00:22:42.079 So if you know Samson's actually a really bad Nazirite, because he eats honey out of a dead lion and he drinks wine, and then when Delilah cuts his hair, he's broken all three parts and his strength is gone. 00:22:42.240 --> 00:22:43.119 He's one of them. 00:22:43.359 --> 00:22:45.920 The prophet Samuel is a Nazarite. 00:22:46.160 --> 00:22:57.039 Remember, his mom dropped him off at the temple when he was a baby, and he became a priest and a judge, and kind of a de facto king, and he apparently never cut his hair or ate wine or ate meat. 00:22:57.279 --> 00:23:00.319 And the third one is John the Baptist. 00:23:00.559 --> 00:23:00.880 Right? 00:23:01.119 --> 00:23:03.039 Grows up in the wilderness. 00:23:03.359 --> 00:23:05.680 Doesn't eat meat, he eats bugs. 00:23:06.240 --> 00:23:07.200 This is him. 00:23:08.240 --> 00:23:09.279 I know what you think. 00:23:09.519 --> 00:23:10.960 Well, Jesus isn't a Nazirite. 00:23:11.039 --> 00:23:15.519 He drank wine at the Last Supper, and this is where it's good to remember. 00:23:16.400 --> 00:23:25.839 Nazarite means guardian in Hebrew, and it's about guarding, guarding, protecting fidelity to God, and what that looks like. 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:29.920 I would tell you, I think Jesus is a Nazirite. 00:23:31.119 --> 00:23:37.839 His mission is to say, this is what community and life in God looks like, and I'm going to guard it. 00:23:38.319 --> 00:23:40.319 You may not like some of its expressions. 00:23:40.480 --> 00:23:42.480 I'm going to do them anyway because they're right. 00:23:42.640 --> 00:23:44.480 I mean, this is what he does. 00:23:45.759 --> 00:23:47.759 Even though he drinks wine. 00:23:48.720 --> 00:23:54.160 Now, it turns out that Nazareth in Hebrew is really close to Nazarite. 00:23:54.720 --> 00:24:01.279 So I think what Matthew is doing biblically is telling us we get to eat it, we get to have our cake and eat it too. 00:24:02.319 --> 00:24:04.480 Literally, he's from Nazareth. 00:24:04.559 --> 00:24:12.559 But what's more important is not that he's from this little village, but that he's a guardian of what it looks like to live faithfully with God. 00:24:12.960 --> 00:24:18.400 And that's not just some neat fact pattern that we get to hear and appreciate Jesus did that. 00:24:18.559 --> 00:24:23.519 That's an invitation for him, for us to join in doing that work. 00:24:24.400 --> 00:24:29.839 Guarding what open faithfulness looks like. 00:24:30.799 --> 00:24:35.680 Once upon a time, the Hebrew people were slaves in Egypt and they got delivered. 00:24:35.759 --> 00:24:37.200 That's one way to read the Bible. 00:24:37.279 --> 00:24:42.400 But another way to read the story is we get to join that procession. 00:24:43.359 --> 00:24:48.960 I'm probably going to mess this up and Garmin can correct me because he knows more about this than I'm getting ready to say. 00:24:49.119 --> 00:24:53.039 But you know, this last week, Desmond Tutu entered into larger life. 00:24:53.200 --> 00:25:01.839 And Desmond Tutu, whatever you think of the guy who helped chair the Reconciliation Commission in South Africa at the end of apartheid. 00:25:03.039 --> 00:25:08.160 One of the stories I've read about Tutu is his call to become a priest. 00:25:08.880 --> 00:25:13.440 And in my mind, it reflects the fulfillment of the scriptures. 00:25:13.759 --> 00:25:21.359 It goes like this: once upon a time, he and his black mother in South Africa were walking on the sidewalk, and a white person was coming. 00:25:21.519 --> 00:25:28.880 And it was the duty of black people in South Africa to get off the sidewalk so the white person could come through unobstructed. 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:35.440 Before they could do that, the white person got off the sidewalk and walked in the street and went around. 00:25:35.920 --> 00:25:39.440 And Desmond Tutu said to his mother, Who was that? 00:25:39.519 --> 00:25:40.160 Who did it? 00:25:40.400 --> 00:25:45.119 Turns out it was an Anglican priest wearing a clerical collar. 00:25:46.559 --> 00:25:50.079 And his mother said, That was a person of God. 00:25:50.400 --> 00:25:54.559 And Desmond Tutu said, When I grow up, I want to be a person of God too. 00:25:55.839 --> 00:25:57.119 Do you know that one? 00:26:00.000 --> 00:26:01.839 I should have asked him this before the service. 00:26:01.920 --> 00:26:03.200 Go ahead, please correct me. 00:26:03.440 --> 00:26:23.440 Well, he was uh Father Trevor Hansen, who was originally from England, Anglican Peace, who had a very, very strong influence on, who at first wanted to be a doctor, but couldn't afford to go to study medicine and then became a teacher. 00:26:23.599 --> 00:26:51.920 And then when the government took the uh the Anglican church school's uh ability to teach animal away from and for them to teach according to the government's lower standard, uh actually went into a uh and then follow uh advice. 00:26:52.799 --> 00:26:56.960 So even then I think it was reluctant at all. 00:27:00.240 --> 00:27:03.759 So it wasn't a little clear according to this. 00:27:05.839 --> 00:27:13.039 I'm grateful for that correction because I think either way what you hear is that's the fulfillment of the scriptures. 00:27:14.160 --> 00:27:14.720 Right? 00:27:16.319 --> 00:27:21.359 There's a story in the Bible that happened, and there's these stories that happen now. 00:27:21.599 --> 00:27:44.559 And the stories that happen now are meant to resonate with these themes that show up in scripture of being called out of bondage, when we find ourselves far from home, being a home for people who are far from home, of preparing the way of the Lord, even if that means we need to get off of it so other people can travel. 00:27:44.799 --> 00:27:53.440 This is how the scriptures are fulfilled, not just literally, but all the more seriously. 00:27:54.960 --> 00:28:04.319 And I can't help but talk about this passage because it's it's uh it's well, we only get it once a year from the epistle to the Hebrew, uh the Ephesians. 00:28:04.799 --> 00:28:08.240 There's these couple lines in here that are really interesting. 00:28:08.400 --> 00:28:13.279 Um, God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless. 00:28:13.440 --> 00:28:16.720 God destined us for adoption as God's children through Jesus Christ. 00:28:16.880 --> 00:28:21.759 You know, there's this guy, you've heard of him probably called John Calvin that read those words and he said, destined. 00:28:21.839 --> 00:28:23.359 Oh, like predestined. 00:28:23.599 --> 00:28:28.880 And the way John Calvin read this is that the us are the people who think the right things. 00:28:29.039 --> 00:28:33.680 And we're the ones going to heaven, and everybody else not. 00:28:34.160 --> 00:28:42.559 And, you know, God's grace is so valuable that God would even never let us reject it, because that would be an affront. 00:28:42.640 --> 00:28:45.039 So some people just don't even have the choice. 00:28:45.279 --> 00:28:52.559 To put it kind of uh smugly, number six is an affix, and number seven goes to heaven. 00:28:53.279 --> 00:28:55.200 I don't love that line of thinking. 00:28:55.359 --> 00:29:00.880 It doesn't seem particularly gracious to me at all to create somebody who has to go to hell. 00:29:01.039 --> 00:29:03.920 Perhaps it's because I was predestined to think the way I think. 00:29:04.079 --> 00:29:09.920 But I want you to know what's interesting about it is we could take that word so literally we forget to take it seriously. 00:29:10.000 --> 00:29:12.640 And there was this great gift in the 20th century. 00:29:12.799 --> 00:29:15.440 There's this theologian maybe you've heard of called Carl Barth. 00:29:15.599 --> 00:29:24.640 Most people say he was the most, I don't want to say affected, but the most significant Protestant theologian of the last century. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:28.160 Turns out he might have actually taken credit for his secretary's work. 00:29:28.240 --> 00:29:35.359 So whether she wrote it or he did, they both came, they gave us this really interesting idea about predestination. 00:29:35.519 --> 00:29:40.160 It's not individuals that are predestined, says Bart or his secretary. 00:29:40.319 --> 00:29:43.440 It's the mechanism of salvation, and it's Christ. 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:51.599 Before the foundation of the world, God chose to be with us in the incarnation. 00:29:52.240 --> 00:29:54.400 That's what was predestination. 00:29:54.559 --> 00:29:56.400 That God was going to do this. 00:29:58.079 --> 00:30:02.079 God predestined us as adoption through Christ. 00:30:02.240 --> 00:30:09.039 Not predestined Mike and Jim, but not Ella, predestined us through Jesus. 00:30:09.200 --> 00:30:14.480 It was the mechanism that God chose, not who gets it and who doesn't. 00:30:14.640 --> 00:30:20.960 And one of the interesting things we rarely remember is that when Ephesians came out, it wasn't a book. 00:30:21.599 --> 00:30:23.119 It was a sermon. 00:30:23.599 --> 00:30:26.559 And it was preached in the open. 00:30:26.799 --> 00:30:31.599 And I guarantee you, then as now, there were people who didn't wear the right clothes to church. 00:30:32.160 --> 00:30:36.079 And there were people who probably didn't check all the right cognitive boxes. 00:30:36.319 --> 00:30:38.319 And the sermon says, us. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:40.559 Us. 00:30:41.119 --> 00:30:44.240 Like the people who believe aliens built the pyramids. 00:30:44.640 --> 00:30:45.279 Us. 00:30:46.960 --> 00:30:52.400 Like people who wear rose-colored chasubles when it's not Rose Sunday. 00:30:52.640 --> 00:30:53.279 Us. 00:30:54.319 --> 00:30:54.880 Us. 00:30:55.440 --> 00:30:57.759 God predestined us through Jesus. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:03.200 And this is part of where we come back to Christmas, is where this is all going. 00:31:03.759 --> 00:31:09.440 It's going to our invitation to fulfill the scriptures. 00:31:10.240 --> 00:31:13.680 We don't fulfill the scriptures when we talk about some of us. 00:31:14.880 --> 00:31:18.000 We fulfill the scriptures when we talk about all y'all. 00:31:20.240 --> 00:31:22.559 But that's when they come alive. 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:26.799 So go to Egypt when you feel safe and comfortable. 00:31:26.880 --> 00:31:27.599 It's cool. 00:31:27.920 --> 00:31:29.759 Pull people out of bondage. 00:31:29.920 --> 00:31:32.240 That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. 00:31:32.720 --> 00:31:36.880 Sometimes we miss, and Jim sent me this article this week, that was really interesting. 00:31:37.039 --> 00:31:41.680 You know, I grew up in a spirituality in which I always identified with the biblical heroes. 00:31:42.000 --> 00:31:48.400 And I always thought, you know, oh, like I'm those people being called out of bondage from the Pharaoh. 00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:51.839 And to be honest, sometimes I'm probably an Egyptian. 00:31:54.720 --> 00:31:57.119 I don't like to think of myself that way. 00:31:57.359 --> 00:32:01.119 Sometimes I benefit off the toil of other people. 00:32:02.319 --> 00:32:12.559 We fulfill the scriptures when we don't wait for God to overturn all that when we say, okay, alright, we can do something about this now. 00:32:12.720 --> 00:32:17.920 You see, we don't have to do the scriptures just like they're written to fulfill them. 00:32:18.319 --> 00:32:20.720 We don't have to have cataclysms show up. 00:32:20.880 --> 00:32:23.599 No, we get to learn from the scriptures, you see. 00:32:23.759 --> 00:32:25.920 That's how we fulfill them. 00:32:26.480 --> 00:32:28.160 So come out of bondage. 00:32:28.319 --> 00:32:30.079 I see you're far from home. 00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:34.079 Maybe I can have, maybe you can have a room in my house. 00:32:34.319 --> 00:32:37.200 And this is where we make the words of the Psalm true. 00:32:37.440 --> 00:32:42.240 When we talk about God's dwelling place, it's not just here. 00:32:42.960 --> 00:32:49.680 Here is a place, hopefully, we're mindful of it, so that we can cultivate it everywhere else we go. 00:32:50.000 --> 00:32:56.640 We dwell in God's house when we practice justice and we love mercy and we walk humbly with God. 00:32:56.880 --> 00:33:04.079 And we're invited to fulfill that just like the Holy Family shared their life with the infant child Jesus. 00:33:04.480 --> 00:33:10.160 We have to fulfill that by sharing our life with the rest of the world. 00:33:12.880 --> 00:33:19.200 Sometimes the best gifts you get are the ones you also get to share. 00:33:20.160 --> 00:33:26.000 So I hope the fulfillment of the scriptures is a gift you get and share this Christmas tie. 00:33:39.279 --> 00:33:43.680 Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed. 00:33:45.119 --> 00:33:48.960 We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty. 00:33:54.480 --> 00:34:10.960 We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God through God, life from light, true God for true God, begotten of the man, the only being of the Father. 00:34:11.199 --> 00:34:13.199 Through him all things were made. 00:34:13.760 --> 00:34:18.000 For us, for our salvation, he became man from heaven. 00:34:18.320 --> 00:34:24.880 By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnated from the Virgin Mary and was made man. 00:34:25.280 --> 00:34:28.719 For our Savior Jesus crucified and his Father. 00:34:29.199 --> 00:34:31.199 He suffered death and spirit. 00:34:31.760 --> 00:34:36.320 On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the scriptures. 00:34:36.559 --> 00:34:41.119 He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 00:34:41.440 --> 00:34:47.840 He will come and give glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end. 00:34:48.320 --> 00:34:55.440 We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son. 00:34:55.679 --> 00:34:59.519 With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped and glorified. 00:34:59.760 --> 00:35:02.079 He has spoken through the prophets. 00:35:02.400 --> 00:35:06.239 We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church. 00:35:06.559 --> 00:35:10.239 We honor in one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 00:35:10.480 --> 00:35:15.280 We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come. 00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:16.320 Amen. 00:35:57.840 --> 00:36:07.360 For the victims of oppression throughout the world, especially those who have been financed by governments of use and poverty. 00:36:11.519 --> 00:36:16.639 For refugees and those displaced by war or strife. 00:36:19.679 --> 00:36:21.360 For those who hunger. 00:36:21.920 --> 00:36:24.559 Satisfy the Episcopal and spiritual need. 00:36:25.519 --> 00:36:31.039 Mentor and guide elected and appointed officials throughout our world. 00:36:35.199 --> 00:36:42.159 For 43 years of female clergy shining your light in the Episcopal Church. 00:36:42.400 --> 00:36:45.280 We pray we thank you, O Lord. 00:36:45.920 --> 00:36:54.960 Enable our laity, deacons, priests, and bishops to discern your work in the world and boldly join it. 00:36:58.480 --> 00:37:04.000 Bless our day school, its teachers, staff, families, and students. 00:37:04.960 --> 00:37:11.199 May the constant school grow in power wisdom, love, and knowledge in our world. 00:37:11.840 --> 00:37:29.760 We praise you for constant love, compassion, diligence, kindness, and guidance of spouses, siblings, parents, friends, and extended families who have put us and others before themselves. 00:37:34.000 --> 00:37:39.440 Mend broken relationships and comfort those who are alone. 00:37:44.480 --> 00:37:49.119 Equip us to empathize even when we are in pain. 00:37:52.880 --> 00:37:58.239 Protect the dignity of those who are in physical decline or hardship. 00:37:58.559 --> 00:38:13.599 Remembering especially Chris, Sean, Ken, Nancy, Amber, and the celebration or petitions the congregation wishes to name at this time silently or aloud. 00:38:24.400 --> 00:38:25.920 Holy Spirit. 00:38:38.400 --> 00:38:44.719 Compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world. 00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:47.039 Comfort those who mourn. 00:38:47.440 --> 00:38:49.760 Strengthen those who are weary. 00:38:50.480 --> 00:38:56.880 Encourage those in despair, and lead us all to fullness of life. 00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:04.000 Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor. 00:39:08.159 --> 00:39:15.920 God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives. 00:39:16.239 --> 00:39:22.880 We have denied forgiveness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created. 00:39:23.360 --> 00:39:30.960 We were cleansed of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done in our high. 00:39:31.599 --> 00:39:41.599 Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will. 00:39:42.239 --> 00:39:42.880 Amen. 00:39:43.440 --> 00:39:54.719 The Almighty and Compassionate Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit. 00:39:55.280 --> 00:39:55.920 Amen. 00:40:06.079 --> 00:40:08.400 The peace of the Lord be always with you. 00:40:22.880 --> 00:40:25.280 Good morning, and thank you for worshiping with St. 00:40:25.440 --> 00:40:26.159 Thomas today. 00:40:26.480 --> 00:40:31.280 A few announcements I'd like to just bring to your awareness. 00:40:31.360 --> 00:40:33.920 But first, it is the first Sunday of January. 00:40:34.079 --> 00:40:41.039 So if you were born this month, I'd like to invite you forward so we can celebrate your birthday and offer you a blessing. 00:40:43.119 --> 00:40:54.639 And as you're coming up, our custom is that we say our name, the day of our birth, and either where we were born, when we were born, or both of those. 00:40:59.440 --> 00:41:00.960 Just for the whole month of January. 00:41:01.199 --> 00:41:01.679 Awesome. 00:41:02.079 --> 00:41:05.679 Sean Shelton, January 8th, 1984, Galvison, Texas. 00:41:05.840 --> 00:41:06.079 Yeah. 00:41:06.320 --> 00:41:07.440 38 years old. 00:41:07.599 --> 00:41:08.159 Thank you. 00:41:08.400 --> 00:41:09.760 I'm Lauren Hill. 00:41:09.840 --> 00:41:15.119 I was born on the 19th of January, 1942, in Covington, Kentucky. 00:41:16.079 --> 00:41:20.960 Kathy Bigler, born 1959, Fort Rucker, Alabama. 00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:26.559 Ken Jurgen is born in Austin, Texas on January 10th. 00:41:27.679 --> 00:41:35.440 Ellen Maston, born in Charleston, West Virginia, on January the 12th, and I will be 83 years old. 00:41:37.920 --> 00:41:39.280 Oh, we've got one of this. 00:41:40.000 --> 00:41:44.400 Hadley Snap, January 20th, and she's born in Houston. 00:41:45.039 --> 00:41:49.599 Hadley Snap, How's the youngest of four, January 20th in Houston. 00:41:50.079 --> 00:41:52.480 Let's say a blessing for our birthdays. 00:41:52.960 --> 00:41:59.119 God, we know every year, every moment of our lives is in your hand and in your heart. 00:41:59.519 --> 00:42:05.199 Look with continued love and wonder on these, your children, as they begin another year. 00:42:05.519 --> 00:42:15.920 Grant that they would continue to grow in wisdom and grace, and above all, strengthen their trust in your goodness and your love all the days of their lives through Christ our Lord. 00:42:16.239 --> 00:42:16.880 Amen. 00:42:40.719 --> 00:42:44.960 Okay, so a few announcements to call to your attention, really just three. 00:42:45.440 --> 00:42:57.039 One is a reminder that a week from Thursday, that's January the 13th, we're gonna start a five-part series through the season of Epiphany that are geared to helping us have epiphanies of respect. 00:42:57.199 --> 00:43:03.440 So there's going to be different leaders from different faith traditions in our area who are gonna come and tell their story. 00:43:03.599 --> 00:43:05.119 How did you become an Imam? 00:43:05.199 --> 00:43:06.800 Or how did you become a rabbi? 00:43:06.960 --> 00:43:10.320 What are some of the things you wish Christian people knew about what you did? 00:43:10.559 --> 00:43:18.960 Are there practices you can guide us through so that we can not only hear, but connect with the spirituality that undergirds you? 00:43:19.119 --> 00:43:23.199 So next Thursday night, which will be the first, Dr. 00:43:23.280 --> 00:43:30.239 Stephen Terry from the University of Houston Clear Lake, who's a practicing Tibetan Buddhist, is gonna say how he became a Tibetan Buddhist. 00:43:30.320 --> 00:43:33.760 And he's probably gonna guide us through a mindfulness meditation. 00:43:33.840 --> 00:43:42.559 I don't know if you've done that before, but it's an opportunity to do this with a practitioner and hear more person to person what he wished we knew. 00:43:43.199 --> 00:43:48.480 Two rabbis are going to be coming a conservative rabbi and a reform rabbi. 00:43:48.719 --> 00:43:53.760 Uh, one of our imams from the Islamic Center who lives in this neighborhood is going to come soon. 00:43:53.840 --> 00:43:55.519 I hope you make time for these. 00:43:55.760 --> 00:43:59.760 We're gonna figure out how we can record them, but as of now, the plan is that. 00:44:00.079 --> 00:44:07.119 Will be in Christ Hall distanced and massed so that we can be in person and see one another, and that seems really important. 00:44:07.280 --> 00:44:12.880 So that will start this, not this Thursday, but the one following on the 13th. 00:44:15.039 --> 00:44:24.559 Also want to name that today is Christmas too, but it is also the Sunday we call Take a Poinsettia Home Sunday. 00:44:24.719 --> 00:44:27.280 Now, a lot of people aren't sure what that means. 00:44:27.760 --> 00:44:29.679 You take a poinsettia home. 00:44:29.920 --> 00:44:39.199