SPEAKER_07: We seek a sign from the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_07: From the depths of the earth to the heights of the heavens, let God's sign be known by all.
SPEAKER_07: A young woman shall give birth to joy, hope, and peace.
SPEAKER_07: In love, let us kindle the light of the Lord.
SPEAKER_04: And teach us in growth.
SPEAKER_04: Rejoice shall come to thee all.
SPEAKER_07: As we continue in this Advent season, we open all the dark places in our lives and memories to the healing power of Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Show us the creative power of hope.
SPEAKER_07: Prepare our hearts to be transformed by you that we may walk in the light of Christ.
SPEAKER_07: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be God's family now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_07: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_05: And also with you.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: Ever living God who strengthened your Apostle Thomas with firm and certain faith in your Son's resurrection.
SPEAKER_07: Grant us so perfectly and without doubt to believe in Jesus Christ, our Lord, and our God, that our faith may never be found wanting in your sight, through him who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_07: Significant milestones in the life of a congregation require significant celebration.
SPEAKER_07: And marking of such milestones with a sense of history of how it is that God has brought us to this place.
SPEAKER_07: Today we celebrate the retiring of our debt for our beautiful Brumley Hall alongside 55 full years of ministry, and in due course give up our prayers and our thanks with the burning of that mortgage.
SPEAKER_07: But before we do that, let us take a short walk through our history, praising God and giving thanks for all that God has graciously given to us.
SPEAKER_07: God blesses us abundantly with good gifts in every season.
SPEAKER_07: Give thanks and praise to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_07: God brings to completion all of God's works.
SPEAKER_07: Thank the Lord for working in our midst.
SPEAKER_07: All things become possible with the Lord's help.
SPEAKER_07: Let us follow the Lord in all that we do.
SPEAKER_07: The first planning meeting was held on December 21st, tomorrow, 1964, the feast day of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas, with the right Reverend John E.
SPEAKER_07: Hines, the Bishop of the Diocese of Texas, to discuss establishing a new mission parish in the rapidly expanding Clear Lake area.
SPEAKER_07: The site chosen for the mission was this sixth-acre track owned by the diocese in Nassau Bay, purchased for$90,000.
SPEAKER_07: This was the last mission authorized by Bishop Hines before he became the presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in 1965.
SPEAKER_07: To commemorate the date of the first meeting, our mission was named the Church of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas.
SPEAKER_07: The first worship service, Holy Eucharist, was celebrated by the Right Reverend Scott Field Bailey in a meeting room of a local hotel that no longer exists on January 3rd, 1965, and was attended by approximately 35 people.
SPEAKER_07: Parishioners decided to establish a school for young children, partly as a means of attracting parishioners.
SPEAKER_07: The parish became known as St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas the Apostle Episcopal Church and School.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, the school was built before the church.
SPEAKER_07: Ground was broken for the permanent buildings on March 6, 1966.
SPEAKER_07: The New Day School opened with 78 students in September and a classroom wing near the sanctuary that we now know as Christ Hall.
SPEAKER_07: The first worship service and the new facilities were held on October 2nd, 1966, and the mission became a parish in January 1969 with the Reverend Joe Johnson as first rector.
SPEAKER_07: In November of 1969, construction began on a parish hall in classroom edition.
SPEAKER_07: God guided the people of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas to perceive what is right and granted us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it.
SPEAKER_07: In 1971, the nearly new resale shop opened as what is now the church office area of our buildings.
SPEAKER_07: It grew out of the many successful garage sales held by the women of the church.
SPEAKER_07: Sponsored by the Episcopal Church Women, the ECW, the proceeds from the shop continue to be donated among many deserving outreach projects each year.
SPEAKER_07: Benjamin Carmine, a founding member, built the space that now houses the office in memory of his daughter.
SPEAKER_07: After an arson-caused fire in the church offices in 1996, administrative space was added.
SPEAKER_07: God guided the people of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas to perceive what is right and granted us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it.
SPEAKER_07: Despite some temporary setbacks, the parish and school continued to grow throughout the 70s and 80s, and by 1992, the next major phase of physical growth was underway.
SPEAKER_07: Construction of a new sanctuary in which you now sit with seating for 400, and a renovated and expanded former sanctuary, Christ Hall, was completed on September 23rd, 1994, and the expansion was soon put to use by helping families who were displaced by a major fire at the Ball Harbor apartments.
SPEAKER_07: God guided the people of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas to perceive what is right and granted us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it.
SPEAKER_07: A renovation of our central hallway, which you all came down this morning, and main entry to our facilities took place in 2010.
SPEAKER_07: Designed to both complement the new sanctuary that you're sitting in now and unite the church and school campus under a common, inviting roof, Lee Brumley led the vision and initial fundraising for the hallway.
SPEAKER_07: And shortly after his death in 2015, the Central Hallway was named in his honor, Brumley Hall, and provides a wonderful welcome to the campus, opportunities for fellowship, service, music, and the arts that we are still living into.
SPEAKER_07: God guided the people of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas to perceive what is right and granted us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish it.
SPEAKER_07: St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas is truly out of this world.
SPEAKER_07: NASA's proximity to St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas has always been a factor in the life of our parish.
SPEAKER_07: St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas has served as a spiritual home and school for many of the Apollo astronauts, including Jim Lovell Jr., who circled the moon on Christmas Eve in 1968.
SPEAKER_07: For Charlie Bolden, former NASA astronaut and former NASA administrator, was a member here serving as senior warden and in other capacities.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, the late Christopher Kraft Jr., former flight director and a former director of operations, was a longtime an active member, addressing the church on the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 8 moon rise at the late Christmas Eve service in 2018.
SPEAKER_07: Other NASA astronauts, employees, and contractors are or have been part of our community over the years.
SPEAKER_07: Our communion patent that you're going to receive bread from today and the baptismal shell have literally left the earth in shuttle missions.
SPEAKER_07: St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas has not only been a spiritual home to people literally leaving the world, but also provided invitation and access to the metaphysical sacraments and a spirit of community, invitation, service, and worship that continues to lift the parish and community into God's presence.
SPEAKER_07: God guided the people of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas to perceive what is right and granted us both the courage to pursue it and the grace to accomplish from the book of the Habakkuk.
SPEAKER_02: I will keep watch to see what God will say to me and how God will answer concerning my complaint.
SPEAKER_02: Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision.
SPEAKER_02: Make it plain on tablets so that a runner can read it.
SPEAKER_02: For there is still a vision for the appointed time.
SPEAKER_02: It speaks of the end and does not lie.
SPEAKER_02: If it seems to tarry, wait for it.
SPEAKER_02: It will surely come.
SPEAKER_02: It will not delay.
SPEAKER_02: Look at the proud.
SPEAKER_02: Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.
SPEAKER_02: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Then was our mouth filled with laughter, and our tongues with shouts of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Then they said among the nations, the Lord has done great things for them.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Restore our fortunes, O Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Like the watercourses of the Negek.
SPEAKER_02: Those who sowed with tears will reap with songs of joy.
SPEAKER_02: Those who go out weeping, carrying the seed, will come again with joy, shouldering the sheep.
SPEAKER_00: So that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised.
SPEAKER_00: For yet, in a very little while, the one who is coming will come and will not delay.
SPEAKER_00: But my righteous one will live by faith.
SPEAKER_00: My soul takes no pleasure in anyone who shrinks back.
SPEAKER_00: But we are not among those who shrink back and so are lost, but among those who have faith and so are saved.
SPEAKER_00: Now, faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: But he said to them, Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.
SPEAKER_07: A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them.
SPEAKER_07: Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_07: And then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands.
SPEAKER_07: Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
SPEAKER_07: Do not doubt, but believe.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you've seen me?
SPEAKER_07: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.
SPEAKER_07: The gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_07: Well, I've got to warn you, it's a little bit like chicken cachatory today.
SPEAKER_07: There's all kinds of things in the pot.
SPEAKER_07: It's our festival day.
SPEAKER_07: We turn 56 years old tomorrow.
SPEAKER_07: We're going to burn a mortgage thanks to your generosity that we had no vision for three years ago.
SPEAKER_07: And it's the fourth Sunday of Advent.
SPEAKER_07: Let's talk about all the ingredients and see if they don't cook together for us, okay, on our festival day.
SPEAKER_07: All Advent long, uh, I've tried to get us to consider these Advent candles as making lights visible, not that we're meant to have, but that we are meant to join God in making visible.
SPEAKER_07: So we talked about making hope.
SPEAKER_07: And we talked about making peace.
SPEAKER_07: Last week we talked about making joy, and um I could never say this in the tradition that raised me.
SPEAKER_07: I want you to consider today the Advent discipline of making love.
SPEAKER_07: And I hope it's helpful to hear that the older I get, the more I realize the disservice I have of thinking of love, some sort of emotion or some sort of feeling.
SPEAKER_07: The older I get, the more I understand love to be a set of practices, a way of showing commitment, whether the feelings are there or not.
SPEAKER_07: Of course, I think anybody who's been married more than two years understands this.
SPEAKER_07: That without love as commitment, without love as practices, there is no structure to hold love as feeling.
SPEAKER_07: And inevitably, when I practice love, I put myself in the posture, at least I open the doors of that part of my brain I usually call my heart, to receive those love feelings.
SPEAKER_07: But when I only practice love when I feel like it, there is a whole lot of light I do not see.
SPEAKER_07: And I have to be honest with you because it's Advent and we're talking about light and the darkness.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, I had a really helpful spiritual director once upon a time who told me when I said, I don't feel in love with this significant family member at all.
SPEAKER_07: The spiritual director said, I've been listening to you talk for weeks.
SPEAKER_07: You think about that person all the time.
SPEAKER_07: What stronger love is there than that?
SPEAKER_07: They did not always bring those feelings that I covet.
SPEAKER_07: But this I know.
SPEAKER_07: She was right.
SPEAKER_07: And the person who was able to drive up the most anxiety in me was also the person with whom I practiced the most love.
SPEAKER_07: This, I think, is that Advent image we're offered today to consider not having more love in our lives, but making more love in our lives.
SPEAKER_07: It's awkward for me to say that phrase, but as I've been reading Christian mystics lately, particularly St.
SPEAKER_07: John at the Cross, he in particular has invited this contemplation that sometimes we have an encounter with God and it is strong.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, it might speak to that part of our brain we call our heart, our feeling center, and we might say, this is lovely and wonderful, and then we perceive a vacuum.
SPEAKER_07: Where has God gone?
SPEAKER_07: And St.
SPEAKER_07: John of the Cross says, perhaps it's because we're standing in the entryway where we met God, and we're not following God where God beckons us to go, which is deeper into the home.
SPEAKER_07: And so we stand in the narthex when God calls us into the sanctuary.
SPEAKER_07: And as I mentioned to you, because of the particular tradition that raised me, I have a hard time saying this, but I'm going to say it anyway.
SPEAKER_07: Sometimes we find ourselves very comfortable in the living room with God and we wonder where God has gone when in fact God would draw us into the bedroom.
SPEAKER_07: In the mystical language, sometimes we settle and we look for conversation with God instead of intimacy.
SPEAKER_07: And I want to suggest that that frame, at least for me, makes all the difference in how it is I perceive love both as feeling and practice.
SPEAKER_07: And I think it's the hinge on which the whole story of our patronal, our patron, Saint, Saint Thomas, hinges.
SPEAKER_07: Now we hear this story the second week of Easter every single year.
SPEAKER_07: And of course, many of you have given Thomas this epithet, Thomas the Doubter.
SPEAKER_07: Doubting Thomas.
SPEAKER_07: But please notice that is not what the Bible calls him.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas is not called doubter, he's called Thomas the twin.
SPEAKER_07: Whose twin is he?
SPEAKER_07: The tradition is really clear.
SPEAKER_07: It's not about physicality.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas is called Jesus' twin.
SPEAKER_07: That is to say, Thomas and Jesus seem to share the same laser focus earlier in the book of John.
SPEAKER_07: Jesus says, Let's go to Jerusalem.
SPEAKER_07: The other 11 disciples say, bad idea.
SPEAKER_07: They'll kill you.
SPEAKER_07: We might get hurt too, which would be worse.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas says, Let's go and die with him.
SPEAKER_07: This is Thomas the twin.
SPEAKER_07: So preoccupied with the same things that Jesus is preoccupied, that he is willing to walk with Jesus into the apparent darkness.
SPEAKER_07: Earlier the day in the story that we read, this is Easter Day, where Jesus shows up, resurrected to the disciples.
SPEAKER_07: He walks through the wall and says, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_07: You only have to say, peace be with you, when someone doesn't have peace.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if you've noticed that, right?
SPEAKER_07: They tell Thomas, they tell the twin, we've seen Jesus, and of course, Thomas, not the doubter, Thomas the twin.
SPEAKER_07: Says your experience with God is not going to be sufficient for my own.
SPEAKER_07: I need my own connection.
SPEAKER_07: I need replicable results.
SPEAKER_07: This is Thomas, patron saint of the scientific method.
SPEAKER_07: Bodes well in our chemical engineering and aeronautical engineering community, doesn't it?
SPEAKER_07: I want to not only see, but I need multi-sensory experience.
SPEAKER_07: I want to feel.
SPEAKER_07: And then comes this really interesting exchange where Jesus shows up and says, Fine, don't just see, feel.
SPEAKER_07: It's not clear.
SPEAKER_07: We just know Jesus invites it.
SPEAKER_07: But I want to suggest to you, in my imagination, that Thomas is not being invited to poke.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas is invited to practice divine intimacy.
SPEAKER_07: And building upon the hope and the peace and the joy-making, I want to suggest that Thomas offers us the key experience of both discipleship and resurrection, not just to have, but to make.
SPEAKER_07: After all, if Jesus came back from the dead sometime long ago, it's a great story.
SPEAKER_07: But how do we embody that faith in our lives?
SPEAKER_07: On the other hand, I want to suggest to you that Thomas points us to what resurrection is all about.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas wants to touch, and I think it's okay to say caress, the very spots in which death entered into Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: We know from the story, those are nails and a lance.
SPEAKER_07: But they could just as well have been his alcoholic brother.
SPEAKER_07: They could have just as well been a miscarriage.
SPEAKER_07: They could have just as well been whatever it is that feels like a mortal wound in your life.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas doesn't want to just hear that those places can be overcome, that they will vanish when we die.
SPEAKER_07: This, I think, is the most powerful part of the whole resurrection story.
SPEAKER_07: What we know is that the wounds in the risen Christ never go away.
SPEAKER_07: They're there when he ascends.
SPEAKER_07: No, I put to you that Thomas wants to be able to touch those spots where death enters the body of Christ and instead of feeling mortality and death to experience life around them.
SPEAKER_07: I want to suggest to you that resurrection, that love making is not about perfection, that resurrection and love making is not about our hurts being completely healed over, our opinions vindicated, God checking off on who it is we dislike for all of what seem to be pretty good reasons for us.
SPEAKER_07: No, I want to suggest that resurrection, if it's to have any power, if it's to be something greater than a human mind could just make up, is about life enshrouding wounds in the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_07: And I want to suggest that if we're to have our own faith, I mean the kind of faith, quite honestly, that is both personal and therefore truly communal and transformative, we're invited to caress those wounds in the body of Christ ourselves.
SPEAKER_07: I grew up in a background that said, don't put the Lord your God to the test.
SPEAKER_07: So don't ask for stuff like that.
SPEAKER_07: You should just believe.
SPEAKER_07: But look how Jesus treats his twin.
SPEAKER_07: Go ahead.
SPEAKER_07: You can trust me because I'm trustworthy.
SPEAKER_07: Now, lest this seem like something that just happens on a flannel board or happens in a quiet time I have in the morning before I go about my day, I want to suggest that the Christian journey is marked by our own willingness to offer this experience of divine intimacy with one another.
SPEAKER_07: I can't tell you how transformative it has been in my life for people to bear their wounds to me and say, Go ahead.
SPEAKER_07: You can caress me there.
SPEAKER_07: Yeah.
SPEAKER_07: I lost one of my parents to dementia over a 15-year journey.
SPEAKER_07: You can caress me there, and you will find not only the sharp reality of wounding, but new life encircling.
SPEAKER_07: So put your finger in my wrist.
SPEAKER_07: You've been disappointed by 2020.
SPEAKER_07: You can caress my side.
SPEAKER_07: You can caress my side where I have also been wounded and have found new life.
SPEAKER_07: New life not in spite of the wound.
SPEAKER_07: New and risen life because of the wound.
SPEAKER_07: And I am not saying that God schemes on how to hurt us so we can learn.
SPEAKER_07: No, instead, what I'm suggesting is in the middle of hurt, God is powerful enough to be there as well.
SPEAKER_07: That the miracle of the incarnation we're going to celebrate on Thursday is not that God has to put you on God's kickball team, even though you're not very good, because God just is like that.
SPEAKER_07: But that God chose to go to the very places that we're afraid to go ourselves.
SPEAKER_07: God chose to enter into our own private hells.
SPEAKER_07: God chose to enter into our mortal wounds.
SPEAKER_07: And that woundedness is not the absence of God's presence.
SPEAKER_07: In fact, discipleship is about making visible God's presence precisely in places where it is hard.
SPEAKER_07: Divine intimacy means I'm willing to open my wounds to God.
SPEAKER_07: Divine intimacy means I'm willing to open that part of my brain I call my heart to you.
SPEAKER_07: Divine intimacy means we are willing to open our sanctuary to people who don't always treat it right.
SPEAKER_07: Divine intimacy means we're willing to share the life we've had, even if other people don't pick it up like we do.
SPEAKER_07: And you know the great thing he invites us to do is not just see it one time.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas invites us to replicate that experiment over and over and over again with demonstrable, repeatable results.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas invites us, however, we need to nuance it, to make the love of God visible in our world.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas invites us not to have love in our hearts.
SPEAKER_07: That's a great thing.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas invites us to go the extra mile and to make love in our world.
SPEAKER_07: Now we only have four days left until we celebrate the incarnation.
SPEAKER_07: And our whole goal is to make more room for Jesus to show up in our lives.
SPEAKER_07: But four days is enough for you to make a little bit of love in your life.
SPEAKER_07: I think so.
SPEAKER_07: Four days is enough for you to practice some divine intimacy in the next four days.
SPEAKER_07: And it may not happen in prayer, it may happen in a letter that you write, or a phone call you make, or in something you offer somebody else that you don't even know that you have extra of.
SPEAKER_07: These are ways we're invited to make love in our world.
SPEAKER_07: And it's a great day, isn't it?
SPEAKER_07: This is one of those things I want to suggest to you.
SPEAKER_07: I was talking to a friend about when I look at where we've been this year, it's really pretty remarkable where we've been as a church when you talk about key performance indicators, KPIs.
SPEAKER_07: KPIs like paying down a debt, KPIs like starting a food ministry that meets the needs of 460 people a month, KPIs that have more people involved in Christian education than we've ever seen.
SPEAKER_07: I have to make myself remember those KPIs.
SPEAKER_07: Because I'm going to tell you the malaise that's in the air, it kind of suppresses those memories.
SPEAKER_07: I don't know if that's your experience.
SPEAKER_07: But when I'm able to allow God to be intimate and to open myself to the intimacy of making love visible.
SPEAKER_07: In the middle of a challenging year, we have a whole lot to celebrate as a congregation.
SPEAKER_07: And if I'm honest with you, in the middle of a challenging year, I have a whole lot to celebrate as a father.
SPEAKER_07: I have a lot to celebrate as a son.
SPEAKER_07: I have a lot to celebrate as a husband.
SPEAKER_07: Real faith is not about ignoring hardship.
SPEAKER_07: Real faith is finding God intimately present in our hardship.
SPEAKER_07: Real faith is not about being swarthy heroines and heroes on a flannel board that look like Lou Ferrigno.
SPEAKER_07: Real faith is finding strength and holding on and holding our children and showing up for our parents when they're not even sure that they recognize us anymore.
SPEAKER_07: That is the faith that Thomas portrays and invites us to make visible in the world.
SPEAKER_07: That's what you have done.
SPEAKER_07: Some of you for 55 years.
SPEAKER_07: Well, three of you for 55 years here.
SPEAKER_07: Many of us for fewer years than that.
SPEAKER_07: And that's the beauty of this day.
SPEAKER_07: The beauty of this day is that we all get to weave together, no matter how long we've been here, and no matter how short we'll stay, into the legacy of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas.
SPEAKER_07: We get to walk in his footsteps as we continue this week to make God's light visible in the world by practicing intimacy with one another.
SPEAKER_07: This you may not know about yourselves, but through every clergy transition, what has kept people at St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas is not the priest, it's one another.
SPEAKER_07: If you've been here longer than six years, you know that.
SPEAKER_07: And it's beautiful to behold.
SPEAKER_07: That is the kind of love making that we are being asked to build and to pursue and to follow.
SPEAKER_07: So continue.
SPEAKER_07: To open your sides and your wrists, continue to caress the wounds of God, continue to make life visible even as we find it sometimes for the first time together.
SPEAKER_07: Happy fifty-five years of St.
SPEAKER_07: Thomas Day.
SPEAKER_07: Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.
SPEAKER_07: We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, and the Earth.
unknown: We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ Christ.
SPEAKER_05: True God, true God.
SPEAKER_05: Because we have all things of me.
unknown: We believe in the spirit.
SPEAKER_05: We proceed to find the sun.
unknown: Jesus.
SPEAKER_07: Since 2010, when the idea of a central hallway is conceived, there's hardly been a man, woman, or child who has passed through our doors and has not in some way contributed to the growth of that fund, the building of the Brumley Hall, and the retirement of our debt, which we celebrate today.
SPEAKER_07: Fall festivals, two different capital funds drives, receptions, Italian dinners, proceeds from the nearly new thrift shop, memorial gifts, all have contributed to bring us to this day.
SPEAKER_07: So let us raise our prayers of thanks to Almighty God for the good work done among us.
SPEAKER_07: As in biblical times, we let our prayers rise with incense to the altar of God until the sweet smell of our burned mortgage reaches heaven on high with our prayers to become an acceptable offering to God.
SPEAKER_07: Let our prayers rise before you as incense, O Lord.
SPEAKER_07: And let our prayers and thanksgivings be a fragrant offering in your presence.
SPEAKER_07: From the rising of the sun to its setting, God's name is great among the nations.
SPEAKER_07: And in every place incense is offered to your name.
SPEAKER_07: For my name is great among the nations, says the Lord of hosts.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty God, our prayers rise before you in thanksgiving for all you've done among us, for your blessings of property, buildings, faith, purpose, and mission.
SPEAKER_07: Fill us constantly with faith and the inspiration of your creative spirit, that we may follow your lead all our days and continue to be visionaries in spreading our mission beyond ourselves for the sake of your holy kingdom.
SPEAKER_07: We ask this in Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: The angel was given a great quantity of incense to offer with the prayers of all the saints, and the smoke of the incense with the prayers of the saints rose before God from the hand of the angel.
SPEAKER_07: Almighty and ever-loving God, it is to you that we offer ourselves, our buildings and our properties, and now the retirement of our indebtedness.
SPEAKER_07: As this canceled mortgage burns with the incense, may its smoke rise to your altar in heaven with all your prayers and thanksgivings, and be a sweet smelling offering in your presence, acceptable to you for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: Our mortgage taken out february twelfth, twenty thirteen, of seven hundred and seventy-five thousand dollars, we offer as a prayer to God.
SPEAKER_07: We are blessed, and we are debt-free.
SPEAKER_07: Okay, I am going to share with us a video.
SPEAKER_07: Um we're gonna do our best here because technology is great when it works, and we're gonna do our best.
SPEAKER_07: This is a video from our regional bishop, the right Reverend Hector Monterosso.
SPEAKER_07: He could not be with us today because they had scheduled visitation a year in advance.
SPEAKER_07: Um Bishop Monterosso was meant to be with us back in April, but because of uh COVID rules, he was not able to come.
SPEAKER_07: So he has uh he'll be at St.
SPEAKER_07: Mary's today, and instead he sent this video to um to share the diocesan perspective and celebration for the fantastic work you have done.
SPEAKER_01: Dear friends, I want to join you in this grand celebration.
SPEAKER_01: I would have liked to be with you today, but I had a previous engagement visiting another church.
SPEAKER_01: My calendar is always full.
SPEAKER_01: However, thanks to technology, I can share in this grand celebration with you.
SPEAKER_01: A few months ago, Father Mike contacted me to share some great news.
SPEAKER_01: I always enjoy receiving good news.
SPEAKER_01: The most surprising thing is that this challenging time has affected us in many ways.
SPEAKER_01: However, generosity, solidarity, and love have excelled in triumph.
SPEAKER_01: Paying off debt is a beautiful experience.
SPEAKER_01: It generates a sense of freedom and at the same time provides the confidence that together we can achieve much more.
SPEAKER_01: For those of us who follow Jesus, paying a death also has a deep spiritual meaning.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus prayed for our death and has set us free.
SPEAKER_01: I thank God for the ministry that you developed in us away and the voice of Texas.
SPEAKER_01: I continue praying for the new experiences that the Lord is preparing for you.
SPEAKER_01: May the Lord fill you with blessings.
SPEAKER_01: Merry Christmas to you all.
SPEAKER_01: To you all.
SPEAKER_07: Yes, you know only a bishop is allowed to wish you a Merry Christmas when it's still Advent.
SPEAKER_07: So um Again, uh Bishop Monterroso and Bishop Doyle send not only their greetings, but their love and appreciation and celebration of the ways you have made love visible, and particularly in the way that we have paid off this mortgage.
SPEAKER_07: Um I want to raise to you a couple of announcements.
SPEAKER_07: Some of these you saw on Wednesday, and one of them is a change of plans for today.
SPEAKER_07: So immediately following the service, due to the rain, we're not gonna go to that field because some of you might lose a shoe.
SPEAKER_07: Instead, uh, we're going to be out in the parking lot.
SPEAKER_07: So there's no need to rush.
SPEAKER_07: The band that's gonna be set up directly under the portico chay, that is the part of Brumley Hall that extends out into the lot.
SPEAKER_07: They're going to be there.
SPEAKER_07: And then we're just going to ask that if you're in the middle two rows parked, that you take your time quickly and move your car safely so that we can sit in those first six rows, and we've set up cones to demarcate which spots we need to clear out so that we can safely get our chairs out and enjoy a really fine celebration being in one another's physical presence but six feet apart with masks on.
SPEAKER_07: If you signed up for a lunch, and we do have a we have a couple of extras, Rob, it's all set up in a bag, heated up, grab your bag, take it to your seat, and of course it's prepared to be a lap lunch, right?
SPEAKER_07: Um if you're vegan, sorry, you can join me in not eating that lunch.
SPEAKER_07: Um hopefully you brought something else.
SPEAKER_07: But you'll find uh you'll find all of that on your way out.
SPEAKER_07: So if you need to move your car, just move your car, grab your chair, and then we're gonna celebrate with a really, really fine band, the Gary Michael Dahl band, who's played at our fall festival the last couple of years.
SPEAKER_07: Um and you'll find there's a table that has waters and some sodas, and you'll find a table from our home brewers as well that has some Christmas ale as well.
SPEAKER_07: Um so we get to have a party, and and that's how it's going to look after this service.
SPEAKER_07: Um, couple of reminders for the week.
SPEAKER_07: Today at 4:30 is a service called the Longest Night Service.
SPEAKER_07: It will stream also on YouTube and it'll be here.
SPEAKER_07: You still have time to sign up if you'd like to come.
SPEAKER_07: It'll be about 45 minutes since the contemplative service on the longest uh night of the year.
SPEAKER_07: This Thursday is Christmas Eve, and we'll be offering uh three opportunities to worship.
SPEAKER_07: Uh the first is at 3:30, which is what we call uh the low mass, uh also known not as right one or right two, but as right quick.
SPEAKER_07: And uh we are really lucky to have the story which comes from the godly play lesson.
SPEAKER_07: Some fantastic music from a church and school member, uh Angeli Wadle, will be uh allowing us to hear and celebrate music during that service.
SPEAKER_07: And it'll be over in 45 minutes uh with communion at the longest.
SPEAKER_07: So if you if you need to get home, that's the service for you.
SPEAKER_07: Uh if you come at um 4:30, we're going to have special music for the five o'clock service.
SPEAKER_07: And it's going to look one of two ways.
SPEAKER_07: If it's not raining and the grass is drier than it is today, we'll be outside singing carols with masks on, and we'll have a song sheet and a song leader, and of course we'll be socially distanced.
SPEAKER_07: And then we'll come in about 10 minutes early and hear some fantastic music from our harper and guest organist.
SPEAKER_07: If the soil's wet or if it's raining, we'll just come in at 4.30 and enjoy some beautiful performance music.
SPEAKER_07: I mean, absolutely beautiful performance music.
SPEAKER_07: Um, and the service will begin at 5.
SPEAKER_07: And it'll be a high solemn mass like you're used to.
SPEAKER_07: The same thing happens at 9, special music from 9 to 9.30, either outside, depending on climate, or inside.
SPEAKER_07: Uh, and then high solemn mass, which we call midnight mass at 9.30, because it's midnight somewhere.
SPEAKER_07: So uh so that's what Christmas Eve looks like.
SPEAKER_07: The signups are are online as well.
SPEAKER_07: And next Sunday we'll resume our normal pattern at 8 a.m.
SPEAKER_07: and 10.30 services.
SPEAKER_07: Um celebrating all that we've done, prayers uh that you embrace these last four days of Advent, truly make them holy, so that we have extra cause to celebrate on Thursday evening.
SPEAKER_07: Continue to walk in love.
SPEAKER_07: As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_04: So music was when God filled us rejoice to make an attitude and give you some such race the singer sends to universe of truth in prophets to recall, or tales of three brave use, the song of faith and present through those calls to be a chosen people bearing light for all the world to see when God's ready we want to take flesh to make salvation chore in my heart to strive refuses of choreps when starting all broad breathing to great the death to keep for death was sting and with the gift of my freedom the heart will see.
SPEAKER_07: All that we have is Zine alone, a trust, O Lord, from thee.
SPEAKER_07: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_07: Gracious Lord, we offer you a part of ourselves and a part of our church: brick and mortar, wood and nail, bread and wine, offerings from our labor, hands to do your will, hearts that are ready to serve.
SPEAKER_07: Accept them for the sake of the one who gave himself for us, Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_07: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come, you who have much love and you who have little, you who have been here often and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_07: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come, not because the church invites you, it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.
SPEAKER_07: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_07: Lift up your hearts.
SPEAKER_07: Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.
SPEAKER_07: God of all power, ruler of the universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.
SPEAKER_07: At your command, all things came to be the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets, and their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.
SPEAKER_07: From the primal elements you brought forth the human race and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill.
SPEAKER_07: You made us the stewards of creation, but we turned against you and betrayed your trust, and we turned against one another.
SPEAKER_07: Again and again you called us to return.
SPEAKER_07: Through prophets and sages you revealed your righteous law, and in the fullness of time you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your law, to open for us the way of freedom and peace.
SPEAKER_07: By his love he reconciled us, by his wounds we are healed.
SPEAKER_07: And therefore we praise you, joining with the heavenly chorus, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all those in every generation who have looked to you in hope, to proclaim with them your glory in their unending hymn.
SPEAKER_07: Holy, holy.
SPEAKER_07: Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_07: On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his friends, and said, Take, eat.
SPEAKER_07: This is my body which is given for you.
SPEAKER_07: Do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, gave thanks to God, and said, Drink this, all of you.
SPEAKER_07: This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_07: Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.
SPEAKER_07: Remembering now his work of redemption and offering to you this sacrifice of thanksgiving, we celebrate his death and resurrection as we await the day of his coming.
SPEAKER_07: Lord God of our parents, God of Abraham, Hagar, Sarah, and Keturah, of Isaac and Rebekah, of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel, God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, open our eyes to see your hand at work in the world about us.
SPEAKER_07: Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this table for solace only and not for strength, for pardon only, and not for renewal.
SPEAKER_07: Let the grace of this holy communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ, that we may worthily serve the world in your name.
SPEAKER_07: Risen, Lord, be known to us in the breaking of the bread.
SPEAKER_07: Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ, our great high priest, to whom with you in the Holy Spirit your church gives honor, glory, and worship from generation to generation.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: And now, as our Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray.
SPEAKER_07: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
SPEAKER_07: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.
SPEAKER_07: For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: These are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.
SPEAKER_07: Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_07: And I'd like to invite you to receive either bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right.
SPEAKER_07: In six-foot increments, come forward and then return around the front to your seat.
SPEAKER_03: Should doom to death our universe.
SPEAKER_03: You came, O Savior, to set free your own inglorious liberty.
SPEAKER_04: Come in your holy might we pray, withem us more eternal day.
SPEAKER_04: Defend us while we dwell from all the souls of the second.
SPEAKER_07: Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food in the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.
SPEAKER_07: Now send us forth a people forgiven, healed, renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.
SPEAKER_07: May God, like Thomas, open your wounds to new life, to intimacy with God and to one another.
SPEAKER_07: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.
SPEAKER_07: Amen.