SPEAKER_00: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_00: Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_00: 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_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ, and proclaim to all people the good news of His salvation, that we and the whole world may perceive the glory of His marvelous works, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: The word of the Lord came to Jonah a second time, saying, Get up, go to Neve, that great city, and proclaim it by the message that I tell you.
SPEAKER_04: So Jonah set out and went to Neveh, according to the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: Now Nebh was a large and exceedingly large city, a three days' walk across.
SPEAKER_04: Jonah began to go into the city by doing a day's walk, and he cried out, Forty days more, and Nineveh will be overthrown.
SPEAKER_04: And the people of Nineveh believed God.
SPEAKER_04: They proclaimed a fast, and everyone, great and small, put on sackcloth.
SPEAKER_04: When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil ways, God changed his mind about the calamity, and he said to them he would bring upon them.
SPEAKER_04: And he did not do so.
SPEAKER_04: God alone is my rock and my salvation.
SPEAKER_04: And God is my safety and my honor.
SPEAKER_04: Put your trust in God always, O people.
SPEAKER_04: Those of high degree but are fleeting breath.
SPEAKER_04: On the scales they are lighter than a breath.
SPEAKER_04: Put no trust in extortation, in robbery, take no empty pride.
SPEAKER_04: God has spoken once, and twice have I heard it.
SPEAKER_03: From now on, let even those who have wives be as though they had none, and those who mourn as though they were not mourning, and those who rejoice as though they were not rejoicing, and those who buy as though they had no possessions, and those who deal with the world as though they had no dealings with it.
SPEAKER_03: For the present form of this world is passing away.
SPEAKER_03: Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.
SPEAKER_00: Glory to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Now after John was arrested, Jesus came to Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near.
SPEAKER_00: Repent and believe in the good news.
SPEAKER_00: As Jesus passed along the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen.
SPEAKER_00: And Jesus said to them, Follow me, and I will make you fish for people.
SPEAKER_00: And immediately they left their nets and followed him.
SPEAKER_00: As he went a little farther, he saw James, son of Zebedee and his brother John, who were in their boat mending the nets.
SPEAKER_00: Immediately he called them, and they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired men, and followed him.
SPEAKER_00: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: So I grew up going to VBS, and we had this song, I Will Make You Fishers of Men.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to sing it for you because we're not allowed to sing in church.
SPEAKER_00: I bet you're glad for that.
SPEAKER_00: But we always had this image of going out and fishing for people, and I've heard various slogans along the way, which is sort of like, look, you catch them, God'll clean them.
SPEAKER_00: Or we had these images of us being like good converted folks, throwing out our hooks to kind of snag people from the world.
SPEAKER_00: And sure enough, I've mentioned this before.
SPEAKER_00: In my high school days, I used to go to laundry mats because people can't leave their clothes and try to get them to convert to my church's views about God in heaven, mostly again, because they were stuck in this little eddy and there was nowhere to go.
SPEAKER_00: And you kind of had to be polite because you were in a public place.
SPEAKER_00: That was how I spent my leisure time in high school.
SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, I'm not convinced that's really a great read of what's happening here.
SPEAKER_00: And the tie-in I've got today with Jonah has to do, uh, quite honestly, with mixing metaphors and hooks.
SPEAKER_00: So the interesting thing, right, is that at what point as a fisher person do you go from becoming a fish to a person?
SPEAKER_00: I don't see the imagery in the story, right?
SPEAKER_00: Like when do you make that conversion?
SPEAKER_00: So is it that you're a fish in the water until you believe some sort of proposition, and then you radically transform and become a human being?
SPEAKER_00: The other thing that is really tough, I have to tell you, has to do with hooks.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if any of you have ever had a hook get stuck in your clothing.
SPEAKER_00: Umce in my life have I had that happen, and it was about a month ago, and it had to do with my daughter not hooking the hook to the pole.
SPEAKER_00: So I got a hook stuck in, I think, a pillowcase.
SPEAKER_00: You ever tried to get a hook out of clothes?
SPEAKER_00: It's really dreadful.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, um, my solution was I was either pull and rip the clothes, right, or cut the hook.
SPEAKER_00: That seemed to be the only way to get it out without ripping completely uh the garment.
SPEAKER_00: Uh this, I don't want to be like graphically terrible, but you know, this book in Jonah we get to read about, there's a group of people called the Assyrians, and they come down and they invade Israel and they take people off, hostages, into captivity.
SPEAKER_00: The way they take them into captivity is not with handcuffs, they take them into captivity with fish hooks, so that the people won't run away.
SPEAKER_00: Historically, the evidence is that they put the hooks in people's noses, and that's enough to take them where they want them to go.
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't cut the hook, you see.
SPEAKER_00: You're on the hook, literally.
SPEAKER_00: For this reason, Jonah hates the Assyrian people.
SPEAKER_00: Because the Assyrians led literally, members of his family, from Jerusalem all the way up to modern day Iraq.
SPEAKER_00: That's a journey of about 1,400 miles, and they did it with fish hooks.
SPEAKER_00: God comes to Jonah.
SPEAKER_00: You probably know this story, it really shows up a lot in Sunday school when you're young, especially where Jonah gets swallowed by this really big fish.
SPEAKER_00: God shows up to Jonah and says, I want you to go to that place where they physically led away people you care about, and I want you to tell them to change their ways.
SPEAKER_00: This story isn't really that cute, it turns out.
SPEAKER_00: Jonah says no.
SPEAKER_00: He runs away.
SPEAKER_00: So he's supposed to go east and he goes west.
SPEAKER_00: And then the sea gets so violent that professional sailors, not really known for their kind manners and piety, are crying and sobbing while Jonah sleeps in the boat.
SPEAKER_00: They throw him in the boat, the fish swallows him, right?
SPEAKER_00: The fish vomits him after he prays, and now he's called again today in this story.
SPEAKER_00: Go to Nineveh, the great city, and call against them.
SPEAKER_00: So Jonah goes.
SPEAKER_00: And all he does for three days is says, In 40 days, you're gonna get what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: He doesn't say anything about repent or there's hope for you.
SPEAKER_00: He says, you are gonna get what you deserve.
SPEAKER_00: The people listen and take him seriously, and what do you know?
SPEAKER_00: They repent.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, we're missing some of the verses.
SPEAKER_00: They put on sackcloth and ashes, and they even put sackcloth and ashes on their animals.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's almost like a caricature of like over-repenting.
SPEAKER_00: The last verse of Jonah is really quite interesting because in Hebrew it says, God repented about the evil God spoke to do against the people of Nineveh and did not do it.
SPEAKER_00: God repented, it doesn't say changed mind, repented, about the evil God spoke to do and didn't do it.
SPEAKER_00: And what we miss is that in the next chapter, Jonah is really mad.
SPEAKER_00: Like really mad.
SPEAKER_00: He says, I wish I were dead.
SPEAKER_00: I would rather die than see you, God, pardon people who have committed this egregious crime against my family members.
SPEAKER_00: I would rather die being right than see people have life.
SPEAKER_00: It's an interesting story because, you know, sometimes in our lives we find ourselves feeling like we're in the morally superior place to other people, politically, economically, within family dealings.
SPEAKER_00: This story is for you.
SPEAKER_00: The story is uh great because it takes Jonah's anger really, really seriously.
SPEAKER_00: He's too angry, he could die.
SPEAKER_00: And he really wants to see people get what they deserve.
SPEAKER_00: And the interesting thing about the reading, and Jonah, anyway, is that according to Jonah, what people deserve is the opportunity to repent.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I wonder if you could fast forward that to the kind of fishers for people Jesus is calling the disciples to be, not people who fish with hooks.
SPEAKER_00: And let's be honest, many of us are familiar with people who fish with hooks.
SPEAKER_00: When I was in high school, we could go to like a youth rally where there would be a pizza dinner.
SPEAKER_00: For some reason, this was enough back then.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if it is now.
SPEAKER_00: We'd go to this rally, and if you ate the pizza, you were going to church.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, there were adults who said that.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've heard of ministries that say we will feed homeless people after they go to our church.
SPEAKER_00: And if they don't go to church, they're not getting our food.
SPEAKER_00: You haven't heard of this before?
SPEAKER_00: I'm grateful.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to name the organization that does this as part of their policy.
SPEAKER_00: It's huge.
SPEAKER_00: And they ring bells at Christmas.
SPEAKER_00: This is setting the hook.
SPEAKER_00: It is.
SPEAKER_00: It's setting the hook.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to say that they don't do good work.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to say it's setting a hook.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: Notice, at least in the story, the disciples don't fish with hooks.
SPEAKER_00: They fish with nets.
SPEAKER_00: Now, that may sound strange because again, you're trying to catch things against their will.
SPEAKER_00: But I do want you to know that the kind of nets, actually, Andy Doyle, our bishop, has done a little bit of work on this, the kind of nets that they cast are the kind of nets that drag even like the boots and the tires up off the bottom.
SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus tells the disciples he'll make them fishers of people, you need to know how low Jesus' standards are.
SPEAKER_00: They're going to cast nets that pick up the junk off the bottom because God's interested in the junk.
SPEAKER_00: It's a really interesting frame, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: God's interested in the gar.
SPEAKER_00: You know, when I was a kid and I went fishing with my grandpa, the last thing you wanted on the hook was the gar.
SPEAKER_00: Does anybody know why?
SPEAKER_00: They have teeth, right?
SPEAKER_00: And when you try to get them off the hook, that's a little bit of nefarious business, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because you don't want a gar biting you.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus is interested in the gar grabbed.
SPEAKER_00: Now that's still mixing metaphors a little bit, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because again, how do you become a person throwing a net when you used to be a fish?
SPEAKER_00: And I wouldn't suggest to you, actually, I think Jesus is asking us to really consider the whole frame differently.
SPEAKER_00: The way we fish for people is not with hooks or even with nets.
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, we're all fish.
SPEAKER_00: The way we fish for people is by the way we swim.
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you know anything about schools of fish, they provide some really interesting advantages to fish, right?
SPEAKER_00: So communities really do a lot, even in the natural world.
SPEAKER_00: Like you can watch a school of fish, and they all move in synchronicity, right?
SPEAKER_00: They're all different, but they move in synchronicity, and that gives them things like the ability to look much bigger than they are.
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes when a fish gets big enough, it can actually resist the currents of the water.
SPEAKER_00: Being in the middle of a school of fish is really, really hydrodynamic.
SPEAKER_00: That is to say, you can go to the middle and you can draft.
SPEAKER_00: The people on the outside are the ones moving the water, and you get to rest.
SPEAKER_00: And you know what fish do is they actually change position within the school.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: And of course, predators get scared because when the school moves in synchronicity, it doesn't look like a bunch of little fish, it looks like a giant thing.
SPEAKER_00: Right?
SPEAKER_00: So I want to suggest to you that I think Jesus is inviting us to swim in schools of fish.
SPEAKER_00: And I've got to tell you, this I didn't seem to understand in high school.
SPEAKER_00: I don't know why.
SPEAKER_00: Um it didn't occur to me.
SPEAKER_00: But if there's really nothing life-giving about the school you're swimming in, why would you think anybody would want to join it?
SPEAKER_00: The school I was swimming in is I have an intellectual proposition, and I really want you to have it so I'll feel better about myself.
SPEAKER_00: That's not very attractive.
SPEAKER_00: I just I have to be honest, right?
SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't really interested in the boots and the old toilet seats at the bottom of the lake.
SPEAKER_00: I was really interested in the people that might make me feel better about myself instead of the people who had never found themselves in a school ever in their lives.
SPEAKER_00: I had a really good friend, and he did this.
SPEAKER_00: He said, Yeah, when I was in high school, my dad taught me, and I always loved doing this, I would go to a party and I would look for the person who was sitting by themselves, and that was the person I sat by.
SPEAKER_00: Because they were always really fun when you did that.
SPEAKER_00: It was really interesting advice.
SPEAKER_00: I was not that person.
SPEAKER_00: But I want to suggest to you maybe that's the kind of fishing Jesus has in mind.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the net is not something that's meant to physically catch us and bring us in against our will.
SPEAKER_00: The net is this connection that God has hardwired into the universe.
SPEAKER_00: Maybe you call it energy or maybe you call it light, but I think even better you call it grace.
SPEAKER_00: And the question is whether or not we swim gracefully and graciously, or forgive me for saying this, we swim judgmentally and competitively.
SPEAKER_00: Again, we had a relatively calm week nationally.
SPEAKER_00: I'm really grateful for that.
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think that that's done even at the national level.
SPEAKER_00: The Jonah story, I think, is as much about divided American politics as it is about Russia and the United States, or Iran and the United States.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a policy whiz.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not.
SPEAKER_00: But I do think the Jonah story asks, who do you dislike so much that you don't want God to give them a second chance?
SPEAKER_00: And you may say there's nobody like that, and then I can ask you the same question.
SPEAKER_00: But who do you dislike so much that you don't even want God to give them a second chance in this life?
SPEAKER_00: It's a good meditation.
SPEAKER_00: Would you be willing?
SPEAKER_00: Would you be willing to swim in a net of grace for those people?
SPEAKER_00: Those are the questions I think that we're being called to ponder this week.
SPEAKER_00: And if you think about those kinds of questions, you start to understand, I think, what Paul is trying to say.
SPEAKER_00: If you take Paul literally, I think you're not taking him seriously.
SPEAKER_00: He's not saying, look, marriage is over and give away all your money and just do something really strange.
SPEAKER_00: I think he's trying to say, look, we're invited to live a life we've never experienced before.
SPEAKER_00: We're invited to do something new because God is in fact doing something new and would like us to join God in doing something new because God believes it will be more enjoyable.
SPEAKER_00: So Paul is saying, don't do it the same way.
SPEAKER_00: Do something different.
SPEAKER_00: Don't stand on the shore casting hooks, don't get in the boat throwing nets, get in the water and swim.
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the invitation that we get.
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, Jesus uses this really scary word, or at least Mark does, to describe what all this is about.
SPEAKER_00: The word is good news.
SPEAKER_00: Now that might not scare you, except that's the word.
SPEAKER_00: That's the word from which we get evangelize.
SPEAKER_00: It's a scary word because you know what?
SPEAKER_00: I've had people come to my door and try to evangelize me.
SPEAKER_00: I've even said, look, I'm a priest, and they didn't even slow down.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, they got really excited because they were going to convert the priest.
SPEAKER_00: There's a reason we don't like that word, but please consider the word is, it means good news.
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't mixed news, it doesn't mean news, it means good news.
SPEAKER_00: Good news is the boots matter and the toilet seats matter and the gar matter and even the clownfish, they all matter to God.
SPEAKER_00: They're important.
SPEAKER_00: And the things we would love to swim by or the things we would like to discard can be the very things, frankly, that when folded into the school, give us rest.
SPEAKER_00: And if we do this well enough, we have a chance not just to swim in a school and get some rest and help other people on their way.
SPEAKER_00: This is, I think, the important image.
SPEAKER_00: A big enough school of fish can change the currents of the water.
SPEAKER_00: And there are some currents in the water that could sure use changing.
SPEAKER_00: I don't even care what your politics are, as in what side you're on, there's some currents in the water that need changing.
SPEAKER_00: And that is the kind of invitation that Jesus lays out for us today.
unknown: So
SPEAKER_00: Invite you to try and join the disciples, even if in a small way, and fishing for people.
SPEAKER_00: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_00: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all ideas seen and unseen.
SPEAKER_01: We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Himself, eternally God of the Father, God from God, life and light, true God and true God.
unknown: Our salvation became heavy and heaven.
unknown: By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became until our Savior was crucified and righteous.
unknown: The second death was buried.
unknown: On the third day he rose again in accordance to the scriptures.
unknown: He is the man.
unknown: He will not be anymore to just be in the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: Father, we pray for your Holy Catholic Church.
SPEAKER_02: Grant that every member of the Church may truly and humbly serve you.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for Michael, our presiding bishop, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops.
SPEAKER_02: In the Diocesan Circle of Prayer, San Francisco de Assist Austin, Soko Austin, St.
SPEAKER_02: Albans Manchaca Austen, and St.
SPEAKER_02: Christopher's Austin.
SPEAKER_02: For Justin, Archbishop of Canterbury, for the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, and for all bishops, priests, and deacons.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for all the members of the armed forces, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence, prudence, and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for our parish and our vestry.
SPEAKER_02: We pray for St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas the Apostle School for those who teach and those who learn.
SPEAKER_02: Give us grace to do your will in all that we undertake.
SPEAKER_02: Have compassion on those who suffer from any grief or trouble.
SPEAKER_02: Give to the departed eternal rest.
SPEAKER_02: We praise you for St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas the Apostle and your saints who have entered into joy.
SPEAKER_02: Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially Chris, Jerry, Sean, Jerome, Susie, Joe, Nancy, Helen, Renee, Mark, Janice, Rudy, and those the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, by your Holy Spirit, you have made us one with your saints in heaven and on earth.
SPEAKER_02: Grant that in our earthly pilgrimage we may always be supported by this fellowship of love and prayer, and know ourselves to be surrounded by their witnesses to your power and mercy.
SPEAKER_02: We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ, in whom all our intercessions are acceptable through the Spirit, and who lives on and reigns for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let us confess our sin unto Almighty God.
SPEAKER_00: We acknowledge that we have not always used our gifts, talents, and God-given personalities in the service of creation, our neighbors, and ourselves.
SPEAKER_00: We seek change of heart toward a reflection of steadfast love.
SPEAKER_00: May we forgive and be forgiven, resuming our journey through life with renewed intention.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: God forgive you.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive all others.
SPEAKER_00: Forgive yourself.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Just a few announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_00: One is we have just received this volume, we've been working on it for a while with your help.
SPEAKER_00: Our 55 years in ministry and mission, they're available up at the front counter.
SPEAKER_00: We just ask for$10 to pay for the book itself.
SPEAKER_00: But it really is a fabulous way to hear about where we've been over the last 55 years and stories about how it is that things came to be the way they are.
SPEAKER_00: In the sanctuary, the hallway itself.
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of wisdom in here and a lot of ministry, I think, in the church that maybe you didn't know about, no matter how long you've been here.
SPEAKER_00: So I commend these to you.
SPEAKER_00: Also, I want to mention that next week we've got two opportunities.
SPEAKER_00: Next week is on Saturday morning at 7.45.
SPEAKER_00: We'll be doing our mobile fresh food distribution.
SPEAKER_00: So you show up at 7.45, we're done 10 o'clock shortly thereafter.
SPEAKER_00: We'll serve a hundred people in the parking lot, something like ten to twenty thousand dollars worth of food that we don't pay for, and that they don't pay for, uh, so that we can be supportive, and it's incredible that something quarter of cars live in Nassau Bay, and that something like a fifth to a quarter of the cars are grants.
SPEAKER_00: This is a vital life-sustaining ministry that we're offering, uh, and it's actually the next two weekends.
SPEAKER_00: Normally we do it the first Saturday of the month, uh, but they were closed for the new year, so we're doing the last Saturday in January and the first in February.
SPEAKER_00: Um, next Sunday morning is the parish annual meeting.
SPEAKER_00: It starts at 9, so you can expect a shorter sermon.
SPEAKER_00: And uh we're gonna do this on Zoom, and we're on three things our our new vestry, our annual budget, and our representative council.
SPEAKER_00: So um expect those things to be next week, and I implore you, please do visit the annual meeting.
SPEAKER_00: It's an opportunity not only to do the parish of voting, but also to hear where we're hoping to go this year, quite honestly, and a little bit more uh details about sort of the state of the union, if that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00: Um as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: This is the table not of the church, but of God.
SPEAKER_00: It is ready for those who seek relationship with God, so come and make this journey.
SPEAKER_00: You who have much faith have little, you who have been here often, and you who have not been in a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_00: You who have tried to follow, and you who have lost your way, come and make this journey not because I invite you.
SPEAKER_00: God invites.
SPEAKER_00: It is God's desire that we gather here.
SPEAKER_00: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_00: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: It is right and a good and a joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: Because in Jesus Christ our Lord, you've received us as your daughters and sons, made us citizens of your kingdom, and given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever say this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.
SPEAKER_00: Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.
SPEAKER_00: Hosanna in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna and the highest.
SPEAKER_00: Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love, you made us from yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And when we've fallen into sin and become subjects 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_00: He stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.
SPEAKER_00: On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread, and when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_00: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_00: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he gave thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_00: This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_00: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.
SPEAKER_00: Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_00: We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.
SPEAKER_00: 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_00: Sanctify us also that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace.
SPEAKER_00: And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.
SPEAKER_00: All this we ask through your Son, Jesus Christ, by Him and with Him and in Him.
SPEAKER_00: In the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_00: 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_00: 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.
SPEAKER_00: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Be known to us in the breaking of the bread.
SPEAKER_00: We who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread.
SPEAKER_00: These are the gifts of God, and we are the people of God.
SPEAKER_00: I invite you to come forward and receive bread or blessings by coming to the aisle immediately to your right, coming down forward and returning to your seat on the left.
SPEAKER_00: Before all creation, we acknowledge the mystery of this simple meal.
SPEAKER_00: Let it remind us of our common humanity and our commitment to love one another and all of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Through it may we be strengthened to service.
SPEAKER_00: In it may we find peace.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: May God bless your swim to represent grace, to build God's school on earth, and to cast the threads of grace's net ever wider.
SPEAKER_00: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be among you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.