SPEAKER_00: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: There is one body and one spirit.
SPEAKER_00: One Lord, one faith, one baptism.
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: Almighty God, you've knit together your elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of your Son, Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Give us grace so to follow your blessed saints in all virtuous and godly living, that we may come to those ineffable joys that you have prepared for those who truly love you.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to who with you in the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, in glory everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_02: After this, I, John, looked, and there was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: They were robed in white with palm branches in their hands.
SPEAKER_02: They cried out in a loud voice, saying, Salvation belongs to our God who is seated on the throne and to the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: And all the angels stood around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures.
SPEAKER_02: And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, singing, Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might to be to our God for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, Who are these robed in white and where have they come from?
SPEAKER_02: I said to him, Sir, you are the one who knows that.
SPEAKER_02: Then he said to me, These are they who have come out of the great ordeal.
SPEAKER_02: They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.
SPEAKER_02: For this reason they are before the throne of God and worship him day and night within his temple.
SPEAKER_02: And the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them.
SPEAKER_02: They will hunger no more and thirst no more.
SPEAKER_02: The sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat.
SPEAKER_02: For the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.
SPEAKER_02: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Taste and see that the Lord is good.
SPEAKER_02: Fear the Lord, you holy ones.
SPEAKER_02: The young lions lack and suffer hunger.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord ransoms the life of those chosen to serve.
SPEAKER_04: See what love the Father has given us, that we should be called children of God, and that is what we are.
SPEAKER_04: The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
SPEAKER_04: Beloved, we are God's children now.
SPEAKER_04: What we will be has not yet been revealed.
SPEAKER_04: What we do know is this when he is revealed, we will be like him, for we will see him as he is, and all who have this hope in him purify themselves just as he is pure.
SPEAKER_04: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are the merciful, for they will receive mercy.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are those who are persecuted for righteousness' sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are you, when people revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.
SPEAKER_00: Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven.
SPEAKER_00: For in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: You got it.
SPEAKER_00: A couple of weeks ago, I was uh driving through the Davis Mountains National Park, and one of the very few, uh State Park, one of the very few stores that was open was an art gallery, and there was a photographer there named Robert Haspel who happened to be in the gallery in order to explain his work.
SPEAKER_00: And um I have to tell you, I was really taken with this picture because it's a picture of a cruet, which under normal circumstances is something that we would put the holy water in when we celebrate the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: Eucharist is one of those Greek words that means thanksgiving.
SPEAKER_00: We come every week not only to say, God, we are grateful that you're feeding us and you've included us, like we heard in 1 John, as your children and your family, but it's when we show up at God's table with the assurance that God is grateful for us.
SPEAKER_00: This symbol was really powerful for me.
SPEAKER_00: It's really hard to see it, perhaps from where you are, so I'll put it out there.
SPEAKER_00: Um, the photographer noticed by putting this here, there's a really wide angle of vision you can't see.
SPEAKER_00: The stopper of the cruid is solid glass, which means it's acted as another lens.
SPEAKER_00: And in the lens, you can see more than you can see from the camera view.
SPEAKER_00: And because the cruid is full of holy water, you can see more than you can see with your own eye.
SPEAKER_00: And because it's a lens using a lens, the image is inverted.
SPEAKER_00: That is to say, it's turned upside down.
SPEAKER_00: And what you can see, again, you have to look at this close-up, is a beautiful mesa with a lonely fir tree growing out upon it.
SPEAKER_00: It's something your naked eye cannot see.
SPEAKER_00: This is our theology, frankly, of the Eucharist.
SPEAKER_00: You show up, and the Eucharist is a lens for you to see and perceive the world wider than you did before.
SPEAKER_00: Often the way God perceives the world, frankly, is inverts what we give glory and honor to.
SPEAKER_00: God calls attention and glory to things like peacemaking, to being poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: God inverts what we settle for so that we can strive and see and pass on the beauty that God imagines.
SPEAKER_00: The Eucharist is a way to be nourished to do that.
SPEAKER_00: And the saints are the people who do it.
SPEAKER_00: And the inversion, I can't think of a better inversion story than Jesus' teaching and what we often call the Beatitudes.
SPEAKER_00: And you heard me say it wrong.
SPEAKER_00: That's because the Greek word makarias means joyful, not blessed.
SPEAKER_00: Look, we all know you can suffer through it and you can get an award later, and we might call that blessed.
SPEAKER_00: No, Jesus says joyful are those who are poor in spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Joyful are the peacemakers.
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't mean that they'll be joyful when they die.
SPEAKER_00: He means they're joyful right now.
SPEAKER_00: That inversion is cognitive dissonance.
SPEAKER_00: It does not make sense to us except when we think about the saints who have given us a glimpse of God's imagination because they said, I love you too much to settle for where you are now.
SPEAKER_00: God's love is bigger, God's joy in you is greater, and I love you enough to do something about it.
SPEAKER_00: So have a look with me at what I see in you.
SPEAKER_00: Have a look with me at what God sees in you.
SPEAKER_00: And right off the bat, we get to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are the poor in spirit, and you know that word spirit could just as easily be translated as blessed are those who are out of breath.
SPEAKER_00: Spirit means breath or it means wind, because they'll be full.
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is sort of like that old Buddhist proverb when your cup is already full, you don't have room for anything else.
SPEAKER_00: And the saints are the people who not only make room for somebody else, but they care enough to breathe life into them.
SPEAKER_00: And maybe the image of the saints is that the stopper is their goal, and very frequently they pour themselves out for other people so that we can all get to the goal God has in mind together.
SPEAKER_00: And the curious thing is, when you pour yourself out for somebody in God's name, God will fill you right back up.
SPEAKER_00: And the paradox we live in is that when we breathe out life into somebody else for God's sake, we run and don't grow weary.
SPEAKER_00: In fact, that's when we find our second wind.
SPEAKER_00: The saints are people who do curious things.
SPEAKER_00: Notice Jesus does not say joyful are the peacekeepers.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus says joyful are the peacemakers.
SPEAKER_00: We're going to baptize a child right now.
SPEAKER_00: I mean, in a few minutes, right?
SPEAKER_00: We're going to do this today.
SPEAKER_00: And there is something incredible about small children.
SPEAKER_00: If we say good behavior amounts to being quiet, we've missed what God's peace is all about.
SPEAKER_00: Peace and beauty and wonder and awe are often really loud and jarring.
SPEAKER_00: And the saints say, I'm not going to settle for quiet.
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to make peace.
SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to settle for rest alone.
SPEAKER_00: Rest is meant to inform me getting up and breathing life again.
SPEAKER_00: This wonderful image about making room shows up in a Jewish book called the Zohar.
SPEAKER_00: It's underneath the tradition of the Kabbalah.
SPEAKER_00: It says that when God wanted to create the world, since God was everywhere, God, just like a pregnant woman, had to make room inside of God's self.
SPEAKER_00: So God drew back.
SPEAKER_00: God made space so the world could be, so you and I could be.
SPEAKER_00: And God didn't just pull back, God blew life into that space.
SPEAKER_00: It's a wonderful image, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That saints are people who make room for you.
SPEAKER_00: And having made room for you, they dare to blow life into it as well.
SPEAKER_00: Especially when it's different.
SPEAKER_00: We don't hear that joyful are the people who are persecuted because they're jerks.
SPEAKER_00: That's normal.
SPEAKER_00: We hear that joyful are people who are persecuted for the sake of making room for other people because, frankly, it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are not people who follow their feelings.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who follow God's commitments.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are not people who see the world they want.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are the people who see through the lens of the Eucharist, who see through the lens of God's Thanksgiving, and they dare to go there with you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a curious bit of theology because in general we come to All Saints Day and we want to think about people we've never met.
SPEAKER_00: And it's really easy to glorify people you've never met because you didn't have to.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Francis was probably really a wonderful guy, but I bet he got annoying sometimes, you know?
SPEAKER_00: And so, actually, I'm sure he got annoying a lot of times.
SPEAKER_00: You can read the biography.
SPEAKER_00: He was not always easy to live with.
SPEAKER_00: To be honest with you, Jesus wasn't easy to live with either.
SPEAKER_00: His friends are constantly scratching his head saying, What on earth do you mean?
SPEAKER_00: This is really important.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are not always likable people, and they're never perfect people.
SPEAKER_00: The word saint in Greek, just like in Hebrew, it really just means someone who does something extraordinary for a second.
SPEAKER_00: Even if it's one second in their whole life, a saint is someone who points you to God, to larger life.
SPEAKER_00: You can see this if you look at Renaissance art.
SPEAKER_00: John the Baptist, in every picture of Renaissance art, is pointing away from himself.
SPEAKER_00: Kind of like this.
SPEAKER_00: He points at Jesus every time.
SPEAKER_00: He points and has in store for us the ways in which God would invert the way we look at the world, like in that picture, so we can see beauty.
SPEAKER_00: The saints do that.
SPEAKER_00: And how fitting, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00: That we declare, and we're gonna do this in a few minutes, that Blake is a saint.
SPEAKER_00: She hasn't made any of her own moral decisions.
SPEAKER_00: And yet, when you look at her, if you don't see all and wonder and God manifest in the world, you've got to think again.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to say, Blake, join the fellowship of saints because God is fully manifesting you right now before you even make a decision.
SPEAKER_00: That's good theology, don't you know?
SPEAKER_00: That's theology we come to every week and say, not only do we thank God for what God's given us, this is where God says, I love you, come to my table.
SPEAKER_00: Blake, come to my table, Mike.
SPEAKER_00: Come to my table, people who have opinions Mike hates.
SPEAKER_00: Because even if I can't see it, God can.
SPEAKER_00: God can see wonder and awe in every single one of us.
SPEAKER_00: So I think it's important to hear.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people like Martin Luther King Jr.
SPEAKER_00: who helped the nation wake up a little bit more.
SPEAKER_00: And I would not want to be that man's wife.
SPEAKER_00: And that does not take away from his sainthood.
SPEAKER_00: Because saints don't have to be perfect.
SPEAKER_00: Saints point to something bigger than themselves.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people like Ruth Bader-Ginsburg.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to like her politics.
SPEAKER_00: What she did for women in this country is expansive and it embodies the gospel.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people like my mother who graded papers in high school and handed them back the next day.
SPEAKER_00: She was the only teacher I've ever had in my life that did that every time, handed them back the next day.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who are faithful in the smallest things, especially when they don't feel like it.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who win moral victories, and saints are people who show up for the daily grind.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who show up on a Friday night and trunk or treat so that a school of 64 kids can have a COVID-safe alternative.
SPEAKER_00: And saints are mostly women and a few men who have shown up at the nearly new thrift shop for more than 40 years without pay.
SPEAKER_00: And they don't just do it so they can sell stuff and make money for ministry.
SPEAKER_00: In doing it, they show up and they give pastoral care to people who didn't even know they needed it.
SPEAKER_00: Those are called consumers.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who don't talk themselves out of serving because there might be something better to do.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people who say, I can do that, and they do that.
SPEAKER_00: And they find and they show God in the smallest of things.
SPEAKER_00: Saints are people like every single one of you.
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to offer you a spiritual discipline because it's November, and it's my own.
SPEAKER_00: I have a book in my office called The Golden Legend, and I meant to bring it.
SPEAKER_00: It's all about the lives of those famous people that are dead.
SPEAKER_00: It's like 800 pages long.
SPEAKER_00: It's full of things like St.
SPEAKER_00: George killing a dragon and St.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas making people sick and miraculously well based on their faith.
SPEAKER_00: They're neat stories.
SPEAKER_00: People in the Middle Ages probably knew most of them.
SPEAKER_00: Most of us don't.
SPEAKER_00: The Golden Legend.
SPEAKER_00: I'm writing my own golden legend this November.
SPEAKER_00: Every day it's my spiritual discipline to think of a saint in my life.
SPEAKER_00: And even if I don't think them directly, to write down or hold up in prayer, God, you gave me larger life to that person.
SPEAKER_00: Especially in small, tiny moments alongside the big.
SPEAKER_00: There they are.
SPEAKER_00: Because in the communion of saints, those lights don't go out.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to knit them into the permanent fabric of God's family.
SPEAKER_00: See, here's a second part of the spiritual discipline, though, the one that might be harder for some of you than the first.
SPEAKER_00: It definitely is harder for me.
SPEAKER_00: When I remember a saint in My life, I am also called to remember a way in which I have shown somebody a larger life.
SPEAKER_00: Don't you see?
SPEAKER_00: We don't join the communion of saints when we die.
SPEAKER_00: We're already a part of it.
SPEAKER_00: And as we celebrate what God is doing, not only to us and with us, but through us, we find ourselves inextricably woven into a fabric that only God is powerful and created enough to do.
SPEAKER_00: If you think you do not belong in that fabric, repent.
SPEAKER_00: Because you're wrong.
SPEAKER_00: So says the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: If you think that the candidate you oppose for the presidency does not belong in that fabric, repent because you are wrong.
SPEAKER_00: God is greater than our bar and standards.
SPEAKER_00: God is able to build a temple out of the most possible stones, and this is the assurance of faith of the saints of life.
SPEAKER_00: You don't have to be perfect, God is.
SPEAKER_00: We are just called to show up.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to celebrate this.
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want you just to look at Blake.
SPEAKER_00: I want you to imagine the person at work or on the television you have the hardest time with.
SPEAKER_00: And imagine them as a beautiful child just like Blake.
SPEAKER_00: And imagine the Holy Spirit utterly enshrouding them, like just getting ready to happen with this water.
SPEAKER_00: And then find a way to show up for them.
SPEAKER_00: And that, friends, is the communion of saints.
SPEAKER_00: And you know it's holy?
SPEAKER_00: Because it's hard.
SPEAKER_00: Let's do something easy.
SPEAKER_00: Would you guys come up so we can celebrate God's new life and sainthood of Blake?
SPEAKER_00: And this is why it's great, right?
SPEAKER_00: Because even if we're cranky, new birth still works.
SPEAKER_00: Saint Hood's still there, even when we're cranky.
SPEAKER_00: It's a good practice for adults.
SPEAKER_00: Okay, you guys ready?
SPEAKER_00: The candidate for holy baptism will now be presented.
SPEAKER_00: This is for you guys as godparents and parents, all family and friends as well.
SPEAKER_00: Will you be responsible for seeing that this child you present is brought up in the Christian faith and life?
SPEAKER_00: Will you, by your prayers and witness, help Blake to grow into the full stature of Christ?
SPEAKER_00: Now, this isn't just for y'all, this is for everybody, because here we are with an opportunity to recommit ourselves to the sainthood God has in mind.
SPEAKER_00: Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures of God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you from the love of God?
SPEAKER_00: Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?
unknown: I do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?
unknown: I do.
SPEAKER_00: Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?
unknown: I do.
SPEAKER_00: Will you who witness and take part in these vows do all in your power to support Blake and her life with Christ?
unknown: We will.
SPEAKER_00: Then let us join with those who are committing themselves to Christ and renew our own baptismal covenant, standing as you are able.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in God the Father?
SPEAKER_00: I believe in God the Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in Jesus Christ, the Son of God?
SPEAKER_00: I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of a Virgin Mary.
SPEAKER_00: He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
SPEAKER_00: He descended to the dead.
SPEAKER_00: On the third day he rose again.
SPEAKER_00: He ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
SPEAKER_00: He will come again to judge the living and the dead.
SPEAKER_00: Do you believe in God the Holy Spirit?
SPEAKER_00: I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting.
SPEAKER_00: Will you continue in the apostles' teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread and in the prayers?
SPEAKER_00: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Will you persevere in resisting evil?
SPEAKER_00: And whenever you fall into sin, repent and return to the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Will you proclaim by word and example the good news of God in Christ?
SPEAKER_00: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Will you seek and serve Christ in all persons, loving your neighbor as yourself?
SPEAKER_00: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_00: Will you strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being?
unknown: I will with God's help.
SPEAKER_03: Deliver her, O Lord, from the way of sin and death.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Open her heart to your grace and truth.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Fill her with your holy and life-giving spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Keep her in the faith and communion of your holy church.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Teach her to love others in the power of the Spirit.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Send her into the world in witness to your love.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Bring her to the fullness of your peace and glory.
SPEAKER_03: Lord, hear our prayer.
SPEAKER_03: Grant, O Lord, that all who are baptized into the death of Jesus Christ your Son may live in the power of his resurrection and look for him to come again in glory, who lives and reigns now and forever.
SPEAKER_03: Amen.
SPEAKER_03: The Lord be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Almighty God, for the gift of water.
SPEAKER_00: Over it the Holy Spirit moved in the beginning of creation.
SPEAKER_00: Through it you led the children of Israel out of their bondage in Egypt into the land of promise.
SPEAKER_00: In it, your Son Jesus received the baptism of John and was anointed by the Holy Spirit as the Messiah, the Christ, to lead us through his death and resurrection from the bondage of sin into everlasting life.
SPEAKER_00: We thank you, Father, for the water of baptism.
SPEAKER_00: In it we are buried with Christ in his death.
SPEAKER_00: By it we share in his resurrection.
SPEAKER_00: Through it we are reborn by the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore, in joyful obedience to your Son, we bring into His fellowship to succumb to him in faith, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And now sanctify this water, we pray you, by the power of your Holy Spirit, that Blake, who is here to be cleansed from sin and born again, may continue forever in the risen life of Jesus Christ our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: To him, to you, and to the Holy Spirit, be all honor and glory, now and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
unknown: Okay, you're ready.
SPEAKER_00: Something big's gonna happen.
SPEAKER_00: Blake, I baptized you in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_00: And all of God's people said, Blake, you are seen by the Holy Spirit.
unknown: And God describes them forever and ever.
SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you that by water and the Holy Spirit you've bestowed upon poor child the forgiveness of sin, and you've raised her to the new life of grace.
SPEAKER_00: Sustain her, O Lord, with the Holy Spirit, give her an inquiring and discerning heart, courage to persevere, spirit to know and to love you, and the gift of joy and wonder in all your works.
SPEAKER_00: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Let us welcome the newly baptized.
SPEAKER_00: We receive you into the household of God, confess the faith of Christ crucified, proclaim his resurrection, and share with us in his eternal priesthood.
SPEAKER_00: And now we can do it the secular way.
SPEAKER_00: Please be seated.
SPEAKER_00: Especially as we celebrate a new saint in the life of the body of Christ.
SPEAKER_00: There are a few announcements I want to call to your attention.
SPEAKER_00: Some of these will be in your emails and some of them won't.
SPEAKER_00: One of them that's great, if you drove by the pumpkin patch today, you saw it's gone.
SPEAKER_00: This is the first time we've ever sold every single pumpkin.
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for your support.
SPEAKER_00: And our scouts raised more than$5,000 this year for the pumpkin patch.
SPEAKER_00: Great.
SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
SPEAKER_00: So on Saturday morning, uh beginning at 7 45 and ending at 10, we're doing through the Galveston Food Bank a fresh fruit distribution.
SPEAKER_00: We serve in general about a hundred cars representing 450 people in two hours.
SPEAKER_00: We hand out something like$18,000 in retail worth of food.
SPEAKER_00: That's Saturday, 7 45 in the morning till 10.
SPEAKER_00: It is a fabulous way to Saints of Light, I've got to tell you.
SPEAKER_00: And you don't have to sign up.
SPEAKER_00: You can just show up.
SPEAKER_00: We do have a COVID screening that you fill out, but then we're fit to serve, and it really is a great way to practice Saint Tune.
SPEAKER_00: Another opportunity you have this week that is really rare, honestly.
SPEAKER_00: I know that's that's uh um repetitive, but this Wednesday night, I've been saying the wrong day for a week.
SPEAKER_00: This Wednesday night, November the 4th, uh, we have an evening with Johnny Ward on Zoom.
SPEAKER_00: Johnny Ward was incarcerated at the age of 20.
SPEAKER_00: And throughout his time in prison, uh he accrued first an AA and then an MA and then two master's degrees through the University of Houston Clear Lake.
SPEAKER_00: He has served his time.
SPEAKER_00: He's out, and he's going to talk to us, talk to us frankly about his entire experience, his his faith, his education and turnaround moment, um, his master's project, which included uh compiling stories of people he was incarcerated with to represent their viewpoints, challenges for us as a church, honestly, uh, to reconceive people we'd rather not think about.
SPEAKER_00: So I hold this up to you.
SPEAKER_00: It's a fantastic way to open our ears to how to be saints in the communion that God has called us to be.
SPEAKER_00: That's this Wednesday night at seven, and you'll see the Evite again in your uh Wednesday newsletter.
SPEAKER_00: There's a link to just hop on to Zoom.
SPEAKER_00: And if you can't find it, email me.
SPEAKER_00: I'm happy to give it to you.
SPEAKER_00: Um, you heard me mention the Nearly New people, and I think this is a great thing to remember.
SPEAKER_00: Uh, there are mostly women and a few men who have volunteered at the Nearly New Shop.
SPEAKER_00: It is all volunteer driven, and um, they have been not only faithful but extremely creative in figuring out how to be open during COVID because there are a number of people who rely on that shop in order to buy their groceries.
SPEAKER_00: They sell things through consignment.
SPEAKER_00: And there are a number of people, having been in the shop, who really need a little more love.
SPEAKER_00: They come in there and they get it.
SPEAKER_00: So I want you to not only be in all of these people, but consider being one of those people yourself.
SPEAKER_00: And if you're interested at all in volunteering at the Nearly New Shop, uh, they're open three days a week, including Saturdays.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm happy to give you more information because it's a wonderful ministry of faithfulness, these people have done for years and years and years.
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think the last thing I want to commend to you is that uh we are halfway through our pledge drive for next year.
SPEAKER_00: So we're going to consecrate our pledges not only of financial gifts but also intended ministry, whether that's in the altar guild or the holy smoker or near the new thrift shop.
SPEAKER_00: Um we're gonna consecrate those on Sunday, November the 22nd.
SPEAKER_00: And I want to tell you it is really important to me as your priest to consecrate your pledge.
SPEAKER_00: Really important.
SPEAKER_00: Ask God to bless our pledge more than we can ask or imagine, whether through uh finances, through the church to fund ministry, but also through our leadership.
SPEAKER_00: So I implore you, please uh pray about those pledge cards and get them in quickly so that we can have them and bless them on the last day of the church year, which is November the 22nd.
SPEAKER_00: And if you need a pledge card, I've got one.
SPEAKER_00: Just let me know.
SPEAKER_00: Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.
SPEAKER_00: All things come a good.
SPEAKER_00: This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.
SPEAKER_00: So come, you who have much faith and you who have little, you who have been here often and who have not been for a long time or ever before.
SPEAKER_00: You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.
SPEAKER_00: Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.
SPEAKER_00: And he invites you to appear.
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 truly right to glorify you, Father, and give you thanks.
SPEAKER_00: For you alone are God, living and true, dwelling in light and accessible from before time and forever.
SPEAKER_00: Fountain of life and source of all goodness, you made all things and filled them with your blessing.
SPEAKER_00: You created them to rejoice in the splendor of your radiance.
SPEAKER_00: Countless throngs of angels stand before you to serve you night and day, and beholding the glory of your presence, they offer you unceasing praise.
SPEAKER_00: Joining with them, and giving voice to every creature into heaven, we acclaim you and glorify your name as we say.
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 in the highest.
SPEAKER_00: We acclaim you, holy Lord, glorious in power.
SPEAKER_00: Your mighty works reveal your wisdom and love.
SPEAKER_00: You formed us in your own image, giving the whole world into our care, so that in obedience to you, our Creator, we might rule and serve all your creatures.
SPEAKER_00: When our disobedience took us far from you, you did not abandon us to the power of death.
SPEAKER_00: In your mercy you came to our help, so that in seeking you we might find you.
SPEAKER_00: Again and again you called us into covenant with you, and through the prophets you taught us to hope for salvation.
SPEAKER_00: Father, you love the world so much that in the fullness of time you sent your only Son to be our Savior.
SPEAKER_00: Incarnate by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, he lived as one of us, yet without sin.
SPEAKER_00: To the poor he proclaimed the good news of salvation, to prisoners freedom, to the sorrowful joy.
SPEAKER_00: To fulfill your purpose, he gave himself up to death, rising from the grave, destroyed death, and made creation new.
SPEAKER_00: God sent the Holy Spirit, God's own first gift to those who believe, to complete Jesus' work in the world, and to bring to fulfillment the sanctification of all.
SPEAKER_00: When the hour had come for Jesus to be glorified by you, Father, having loved his own who were in the world, he loved them to the end.
SPEAKER_00: At supper with them, he took bread.
SPEAKER_00: And 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.
SPEAKER_00: And 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: Father, we now celebrate this memorial of our redemption, recalling Christ's death and his descent among the dead, proclaiming his resurrection and ascension to your right hand, awaiting his coming in glory and offering to you from the gifts you've given us this bread and this cup.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you and we bless you.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you, we bless you, we give thanks to you, and we pray to you, Lord our God.
SPEAKER_00: Lord, we pray that in your goodness and mercy your Holy Spirit may descend upon us and upon these gifts, sanctifying them and showing them to be holy gifts for your holy people.
SPEAKER_00: Bread of life and the cup of salvation, body and blood of Son Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Grant that all who share this bread and cup may become one body and one spirit, a living sacrifice in Christ to the praise of your name.
SPEAKER_00: Remember, Lord, your one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, redeemed by the blood of your Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Reveal its unity, guard its faith, and preserve it in peace.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Michael, our presiding bishop, Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, and all who minister in your church.
SPEAKER_00: Remember all your people and those who seek your truth.
SPEAKER_00: Remember Chris, Jerry, Sean, Jerome, Susie, Ted, Joe, Larry, and Nancy.
SPEAKER_00: We seem to give them back to you, dear God, who gave them to us.
SPEAKER_00: Yet you do not lose them in giving, since we have not lost them by their returning.
SPEAKER_00: Not as the world gives, do you give, O lover of souls.
SPEAKER_00: What you give, you do not take away.
SPEAKER_00: For what is yours is ours always if we are yours.
SPEAKER_00: Life is eternal and love is immortal, and death is only a horizon.
SPEAKER_00: And a horizon is nothing but the limit of our sight.
SPEAKER_00: Lift us up, strong Son of God, that we may see further.
SPEAKER_00: Cleanse our eyes that we may see more clearly.
SPEAKER_00: Draw us closer to yourself, that we may know ourselves nearer to our beloved who are with you.
SPEAKER_00: And while you prepare a place For us, prepare us for that joyful place for where they are.
SPEAKER_00: We too may be.
SPEAKER_00: Remembering that the light is shining through Stan Elson.
SPEAKER_00: Jim Pemberton.
SPEAKER_00: Stefan Peniuski.
SPEAKER_00: Ashley Didden.
SPEAKER_00: Ray Trevino.
SPEAKER_00: Joanne.
SPEAKER_00: Irving Rosinski.
SPEAKER_00: Anson.
SPEAKER_00: Al Corley.
SPEAKER_00: Gail Hammond.
SPEAKER_00: Chris Baker.
SPEAKER_00: Justice Ruth Bader Genster.
SPEAKER_00: John Peake.
SPEAKER_00: Mary Hollins.
SPEAKER_00: Juan Nguyen.
SPEAKER_00: For all your other righteous servants known to us and through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: And granted we might find our inheritance of all the saints who have found favor with you in ages past.
SPEAKER_00: We praise you in union with them and give you glory through your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Through Christ and with Christ.
SPEAKER_00: Honor and glory of yours, Almighty God and Father, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, forever and ever.
unknown: 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.
SPEAKER_00: 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.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: Captiver is sacrificed for us.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore to be these are the gifts of God for you.
SPEAKER_00: Behold who you are.
SPEAKER_00: Become gifts of God what you receive.
SPEAKER_00: And I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle immediately to your right.
SPEAKER_00: I'll give you bread or a blessing in six footballs, and then send you back to your period to your seat, and I'll begin here on my right.
SPEAKER_00: Fed your people in the wilderness with the bread of angels and use them as to be the bread of God.
unknown: We may repeat us with prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Through Jesus Christ our Savior.
unknown: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: May the Holy Spirit who hovered the waters when the world was created, breathe new you, make you joyful in the service of the Lord, and bring the world alive with the love of the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_00: The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.