SPEAKER_02: Hallelujah, Christ is risen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord is risen indeed.
SPEAKER_02: Alleluia.
SPEAKER_02: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_02: Almighty God, do you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_02: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name.
SPEAKER_02: Through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The Lord be with you, and also with you.
SPEAKER_02: Let us pray.
SPEAKER_02: O God, you've prepared for those who love you such good things as surpass our understanding, pour into our hearts such love towards you, that we, loving you in all things and above all things, may obtain your promises which exceed all that we can desire, through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_04: I'm reading from Acts.
SPEAKER_04: Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, Athenians, I see a hell extremely religious you are in every way.
SPEAKER_04: For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription to the unknown God.
SPEAKER_04: What therefore you worship is unknown, this I proclaim to you.
SPEAKER_04: The God who made the world and everything in it, he is the Lord of heaven and earth.
SPEAKER_04: Does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands as though he needed anything, since he himself gives all the mortal mortals life and breath of all things.
SPEAKER_04: From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and boundaries of their places where they could live, so they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him.
SPEAKER_04: Though indeed is not far from each one of us.
SPEAKER_04: For in him we live and move and have our being.
SPEAKER_04: And even some of your own poets have said, for we too are his offspring.
SPEAKER_04: Since we are God's offsprings, we ought to not think that the deity is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by art or imagination of mortals.
SPEAKER_04: While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent.
SPEAKER_04: Because he has fixed a day in which he will have the world judged by righteousness by a man whom he has appointed.
SPEAKER_04: And this is given assurances by all by raising him from the dead.
SPEAKER_04: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Bless our God, you peoples.
SPEAKER_00: Make the voice of praise be heard.
SPEAKER_00: God holds our souls in life and will not allow our feet to slip.
SPEAKER_00: For you, O God, have proved us.
SPEAKER_00: You have tried us just as silver is tried.
SPEAKER_00: You brought us into the snare.
SPEAKER_00: You laid heavy burdens on our backs.
SPEAKER_00: You let enemies ride over our heads.
SPEAKER_00: We went through fire and water.
SPEAKER_00: But you brought us out of into a place of refreshment.
SPEAKER_00: I will enter your house with burnt offerings and will pay you my vows, which I promised with my lips, and spoke with my mouth when I was in trouble.
SPEAKER_00: I will offer you sacrifices of fat beasts with the smoke of rams, I will give you oxen and goats.
SPEAKER_00: Come and listen, all you who fear God, and I will tell you what God has done for me.
SPEAKER_00: I called out with my mouth, and God's praise was on my tongue.
SPEAKER_00: If I had found evil in my heart, the Lord would not have heard me, but in truth God has heard me and has attended to the voice of my prayer.
SPEAKER_00: Blessed be God who has not rejected my prayer, nor withheld steadfast love from me.
SPEAKER_00: A reading from Peter.
SPEAKER_03: Now who will harm you if you are eager to do what is good?
SPEAKER_03: But even if you do suffer for doing what is right, you are blessed.
SPEAKER_03: Do not fear what they fear, and do not be intimidated, but in your hearts sanctify Christ as Lord.
SPEAKER_03: Always be ready to make your defense to anyone who demands from you an accounting for the hope that is in you.
SPEAKER_03: Yet do it with gentleness and reverence.
SPEAKER_03: Keep your conscience clear, so that when you are maligned, those who abuse you for your good conduct in Christ may be put to shame.
SPEAKER_03: For it is better to suffer for doing good, if suffering should be God's will, than to suffer for doing evil.
SPEAKER_03: For Christ also suffered for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, in order to bring you to God.
SPEAKER_03: He was put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit, in which also he went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison, who in former times did not obey.
SPEAKER_03: When God waited patiently in the days of Noah during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
SPEAKER_03: And baptism, which this prefigured, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body, but as an appeal to God for a good conscience through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels, authorities, and powers made subject to him.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus said, If you love me, you will keep my commandments, and I will ask the Father, and the Father will give you another advocate to be with you forever.
SPEAKER_02: This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him.
SPEAKER_02: You know him because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
SPEAKER_02: I will not leave you orphaned, I am coming to you.
SPEAKER_02: In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me.
SPEAKER_02: Because I live you also will live.
SPEAKER_02: On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
SPEAKER_02: They who have my commandments and keep them are those who love me, and those who love me will be loved by my Father, and I will love them and reveal myself to them.
SPEAKER_02: The Gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Praise to you, Lord Christ.
SPEAKER_02: In this sixth week since Easter, Jesus is preparing us, the church is preparing us for things to be really, really different.
SPEAKER_02: In fact, we know and we celebrate the gift of the Holy Spirit on Pentecost two weeks from now.
SPEAKER_02: But Jesus does, I think, what all good educators and parents and friends do.
SPEAKER_02: He tries to help us with a really big transition by giving us a great bit of lead time.
SPEAKER_02: And it's interesting again that the gospel turns us backward to things Jesus said before Friday, before he was crucified.
SPEAKER_02: I'm going to leave, but I'm not going to leave you orphaned.
SPEAKER_02: You're not going to see me, but I'm going to abide with you.
SPEAKER_02: God is going to be with you in ways more deep or powerful than you can imagine.
SPEAKER_02: And this is part of what I think resurrection is about, as opposed to resuscitation.
SPEAKER_02: Old ways change, and we have to be willing, or we're invited to be willing, to let go of what we're used to for the sake of where God is leading us.
SPEAKER_02: It's almost as if, again, some of the things we hold on can be anchors, but they also can prevent us from rising with the tide.
SPEAKER_02: They can literally pull us down under the water.
SPEAKER_02: And so this week, Jesus says, I'm going to send you the advocate.
SPEAKER_02: This word in Greek, this is the one we usually say, aha, this is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: This is called the Paraclete, the one who comes along beside us.
SPEAKER_02: So we'll get different few different options here.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes interpreters will just leave this word paraclete.
SPEAKER_02: Sometimes we'll see this word as advocate or comforter.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to raise to you, I think, a really interesting possibility for this is the opposite of the beginning of Jesus' ministry.
SPEAKER_02: At the beginning of Jesus' ministry, of course, remember, he's baptized in the Jordan.
SPEAKER_02: He goes under the water of chaos.
SPEAKER_02: And when he comes out, he hears a voice from heaven that says, I love you just like you are before you do anything.
SPEAKER_02: And then he's off into the wilderness where he's tempted by, and here is really important, not Satan, but the Satan or the Diablos.
SPEAKER_02: Those words have specific meanings.
SPEAKER_02: So in Hebrew, the word Satan is the accuser, the one who in the book of Job says to God, Look, Job only loves you because of what you give him.
SPEAKER_02: And that's not love.
SPEAKER_02: That's like customer satisfaction.
SPEAKER_02: You take away the goods and services, and you'll find out he doesn't really love you.
SPEAKER_02: He just loves what you give him.
SPEAKER_02: Now this is a really interesting accusation, isn't it?
SPEAKER_02: It's one I think that we could apply not just to God, but in any human relationship.
SPEAKER_02: How do you know your spouse, your parents, your children?
SPEAKER_02: How do you know they love you?
SPEAKER_02: Is it just because of what you do for them, or is it because they appreciate who you are?
SPEAKER_02: And the accuser, the Satan, comes to Jesus and says, Look, you think God loves you just who you are?
SPEAKER_02: It's just because you've been good.
SPEAKER_02: It's just because you haven't sinned.
SPEAKER_02: When you mess up, when you find yourself on a cross, when you start to feel God forsaken, we'll see if you really trust God's love or not.
SPEAKER_02: Similarly, the word in Greek, the word diablos, it means a different kind of accusation.
SPEAKER_02: It means slander.
SPEAKER_02: It means knowing the truth and intentionally speaking something that's different, or even if not knowing, it means speaking rumors that are unconfirmed, that are meant to degrade, that are meant to bring one's reputation and confidence down.
SPEAKER_02: Slander is absolutely the sources of criticism of not being enough, of being too cool.
SPEAKER_02: It is the bedrock of shame.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus, I think, is very aware, and I'm not, this is not just figurative, I think this is a real spiritual force, that one of the strongest things in my own life that removes me from the love of God are forces like accusation and slander.
SPEAKER_02: Whether anybody else says them to me or my interior voice just says them, Jesus left you because you didn't treat him right.
SPEAKER_02: If you don't do faith right, God might just end up sending you to hell.
SPEAKER_02: That friend that left you, it's because you weren't good enough.
SPEAKER_02: That time you tried and failed just proves you're a loser.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the kinds of voices I think that are spiritually significant and powerful and degrade us.
SPEAKER_02: Those are the voices that inspire a parent and a child to say, look, there's someone different looking in our neighborhood, and there's these crimes, it must be the different and the other.
SPEAKER_02: So let's just go and take care of that problem.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, I'm not gonna leave you alone with voices like that.
SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna leave you alone, enslaved to spiritualities of isolation and fear.
SPEAKER_02: Instead, I'm gonna send to you the advocate.
SPEAKER_02: I want you to think through that if the Satan is the accuser, if the Satan stands before God in court and says, listen, Job's love isn't genuine, Mike's faith isn't good enough, then of course, what we appreciate as Americans is the right to a fair trial with a court-appointed defense attorney.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to suggest to you that the Holy Spirit, the comforter, the paraclete, the advocate, might be exactly the personality that advocates on our behalf not only before God, not only before Jesus, but as God and to ourselves and to the rest of the world.
SPEAKER_02: I'm suggesting to you that the legal imagery here is that the advocate is none other than the court-appointed defense attorney in heaven about our fundamental dignity and value to God, and that unlike in the court system we're familiar with, in which court-appointed defense attorneys are underpaid, definitely underappreciated, and have way too many clients to possibly spend the time that they need or deserve.
SPEAKER_02: Unlike that, this court-appointed defense attorney, the comforter, the advocate, is none other than God.
SPEAKER_02: This is really interesting to think about as a metaphor, completely changing the way we think about the heavenly court.
SPEAKER_02: So God's the judge, and here comes accusation, and the one who defends us before God is God.
SPEAKER_02: Is the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: The one who stands up for us in front of the judge is the judge.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus says, look, that's going to be different.
SPEAKER_02: It's not going to be what you're used to seeing.
SPEAKER_02: It's not going to be what you're used to doing.
SPEAKER_02: But this is insight into the resurrected life and into the hope we have.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to suggest to you that this is not just about something that will happen.
SPEAKER_02: It is something that will happen.
SPEAKER_02: To be honest with you, lately my faith is predicated on this: that God is going to accomplish this kind of reconciliation and advocacy for us after we die, if we can't join God while we're alive.
SPEAKER_02: But I think the nature of my own faith is since God's going to do that, why should I wait to enjoy it?
SPEAKER_02: Because this is what God has in mind when God has daydreams.
SPEAKER_02: That we get to do it now and enjoy it.
SPEAKER_02: So what would it mean to advocate for somebody else in our community?
SPEAKER_02: Well, for one thing, it would mean that we hold back on accusation and we hold back on slander.
SPEAKER_02: What does that look like?
SPEAKER_02: Well, it doesn't mean that people run rampant and that there's no accountability.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: I have to tell you, I'm really grateful to Brene Brown for suggesting how it is we ought to or can accomplish accountability in the workplace, even as supervisors.
SPEAKER_02: She suggests that instead of sitting on the opposite side of a table with an employee when we're going to have a what we call a growth meeting, instead of sitting on the opposite side, putting the table between us, instead of having separation, we come and sit next to them.
SPEAKER_02: Instead of saying, this is where you're missing, this is where you're wrong, fix it around.
SPEAKER_02: She suggests that we always start with some advocacy where we're able to say to somebody, listen, what I really appreciate about your contribution to our organization is your attention to detail.
SPEAKER_02: I really appreciate your punctuality.
SPEAKER_02: And so because you have those gifts, I need you to use them to help with these deficiencies that are coming from your office.
SPEAKER_02: So what Brene Brown suggests is that we pay attention enough, that we're creative enough to recognize the strengths that we have in giving these sorts of meetings that are about accountability, and we target them at growth.
SPEAKER_02: And I have to tell you, um the one who taught me that before Brene Brown is none other than Herb Meyer here at St.
SPEAKER_02: Thomas, who told me very early on listen, if I don't have something to say that's going to enrich and employee, I'm not going to say it.
SPEAKER_02: So Herb taught me not to waste my breath getting wound up about why I'm upset or trying to make somebody put in their place, but rather to only try and say what's going to help them grow, what's going to help them function.
SPEAKER_02: And look, we know sometimes that isn't going to work.
SPEAKER_02: We know that.
SPEAKER_02: And so what does advocacy look like then?
SPEAKER_02: It allows, um I think it requires us to think as hard as we can: how do we provide exits with dignity?
SPEAKER_02: Um, whether that's severance or celebration for us to try and say, look, this is not the right fit for us at this time.
SPEAKER_02: So how can we honor you?
SPEAKER_02: Here are our normal ideas.
SPEAKER_02: What do you think?
SPEAKER_02: Now, I'm not just talking about employment.
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about, quite honestly, a culture that we live in, in which whether or not somebody appears to wear a mask is completely judged.
SPEAKER_02: And I want to suggest to you we're called not to buy into slander and accusation.
SPEAKER_02: We're called to do some really difficult work of advocacy.
SPEAKER_02: When it's a stranger, of course, it's harder, which is why I think it's interesting that some of the people who make us the most upset are people we don't know when we have no idea why it is that they're living out this value that we don't value.
SPEAKER_02: And here again, I think Jesus is suggesting to us look, maybe that person needs more than ever an advocate, and you don't know.
SPEAKER_02: Maybe you don't know what's going on in their life.
SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you one of the interesting things, this priest, that is really growing my faith.
SPEAKER_02: That sometimes I hear things about other people that are not glowing, and I do try to cut that off.
SPEAKER_02: And I also hear in the back of my head, I'm raising this advocacy.
SPEAKER_02: It's funny you've said that because what you don't know about that person is how much disappointment is going on in their life, how difficult that is.
SPEAKER_02: I will tell you what I'm allowed to do as minimal advocacy, minimal advocacy, that I think is a really fantastic skill as a resurrected community, is not to say, hey, you know, that person's going through divorce, so you should lighten up.
SPEAKER_02: No, what I am able to say is, huh, that's not my experience of them at all.
SPEAKER_02: I've experienced that person as being extremely thoughtful, cautious on behalf of the rest of us.
SPEAKER_02: The trick is, I think we are so used to buying into the energy we get from slander and accusation that we don't even really know what advocacy looks like as a culture.
SPEAKER_02: So, one more word about that.
SPEAKER_02: One of the fastest ways we can try and make friends is by telling a secret about somebody else.
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of hot wiring connection because if the other person listens and agrees, then aha, we're on the same side.
SPEAKER_02: Of course, that connection is false because you know if you'll speak poorly about somebody else to your friend, when are you going to speak poorly about them?
SPEAKER_02: It's a really insecure footing.
SPEAKER_02: And why do we do it?
SPEAKER_02: Because these kinds of things I want to suggest to you divide us into tribes good, bad, right, wrong, Republican, Democrat, Episcopalian, Missouri Senate, Lutheran, whatever it is you want to do, when they divide us up like that, they they play to our survival urges, which are extremely reptilian.
SPEAKER_02: And hearing criticism and being part of it releases in our brain neurepinephrine, which we usually call adrenaline.
SPEAKER_02: It gets the adrenaline response going, gets our pulse going, makes us a little bit stronger.
SPEAKER_02: And one interesting thing that it does is it makes our breathing much more shallow.
SPEAKER_02: It gets us going like we're ready for activity.
SPEAKER_02: There's this really interesting finding that you know we get the adrenal response when we're faced with a lion, but we get the same adrenal response of fight, flight, or freeze when we're faced with criticism, when we're faced with slander and accusation.
SPEAKER_02: And Jesus is suggesting, I think, that the Holy Spirit would be our advocate and comforter.
SPEAKER_02: And spirit is an important word here because spirit means moving air, it means breath.
SPEAKER_02: And even though we don't get the same wired up response, I want to suggest to you the Holy Spirit is the one that allows for deep and full breaths, for serotonin and oxytocin, for connection instead of opposition.
SPEAKER_02: Jesus says, I'm not going to leave you alone.
SPEAKER_02: Breathe me in, breathe deeply, and breathe in so deeply this advocacy by God on your behalf that you can then breathe it out on your brother and your sister against all odds, seemingly, which is the right the wrong response.
SPEAKER_02: The odds are God's going to do this.
SPEAKER_02: We just don't have to wait.
SPEAKER_02: So I encourage you as we look toward the arrival of the Holy Spirit historically, as we look to that celebration on Pentecost, celebrate God's advocacy for you today.
SPEAKER_02: When you hear that interior voice, you're not blank enough.
SPEAKER_02: Ask God, let me hear the voice of your advocate, your Holy Spirit, your comforter, advocate for me to me.
SPEAKER_02: When you hear voices from your friends or your community about others, you have the choice to advocate for them.
SPEAKER_02: You can say, I don't feel comfortable talking about them, whether or not hear it.
SPEAKER_02: Or you can say, hey, I don't feel comfortable talking about them, particularly because that isn't my experience.
SPEAKER_02: And then don't let that be the last word.
SPEAKER_02: Offer another way to reconnect with somebody when we stop that behavior and advocate.
SPEAKER_02: And that's the way in which we advocate for people, frankly, who get caught up in accusation and slander.
SPEAKER_02: We don't say, you either do it my way or you're not good enough.
SPEAKER_02: We say, hey, that's not my experience.
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to do it that way.
SPEAKER_02: And now let me reach out to you.
SPEAKER_02: These may sound like small things, but I have to tell you again, the more I see tribalism on social media, the more I see tribalism when I go outside and see people holding masks in a store that they're not wearing, the more I'm reminded that God is not just bound up in the adrenal response that would have me go off on them with some kind of righteous anger.
SPEAKER_02: No.
SPEAKER_02: God is in reconciling communities that advocate for one another.
SPEAKER_02: I invite you to breathe that in, that breath of God deeply this week.
SPEAKER_02: Let us reconsider and renew our faith as we pray the words of a new creed from the United Church of Canada.
SPEAKER_02: We are not alone.
SPEAKER_02: We live in God's world.
SPEAKER_02: We believe in God, who has created and is creating, who is come in Jesus, the Word made flesh, to reconcile and make anew, who works in us and others by the Spirit.
SPEAKER_02: We trust in God.
SPEAKER_02: We are called to be the church, to celebrate God's presence, to live with respect and creation, to love and serve others, to seek justice and resist evil, to proclaim Jesus, crucified and risen, our judge and our hope.
SPEAKER_02: In life in death, and life beyond death, God is with us.
SPEAKER_02: We are not alone.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_05: The prayers of the people.
SPEAKER_05: In peace we pray to you, Lord God.
SPEAKER_05: For all people in their daily life and work, for our families, friends, and neighbors, and for those who are alone, for this community, the nation and the world, for all who work, for justice, freedom, and peace.
SPEAKER_05: For St.
SPEAKER_05: Thomas the Apostle School, for those who teach and those who learn, that they may rejoice in the knowledge of your truth, for the just and proper use of your creation, for the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression, for all those who are in sorrow, danger, or any kind of trouble, for those who minister to the sick, the friendless, and the needy, for the peace and unity of the Church of God, for all who proclaim the gospel, and all who seek the truth, for all bishops, priests, and deacons, for the priests in our community, Mike, Craig, Bill and Lillian, for Jeff and Kay, our bishops, and for Michael, our presiding bishop, for all who serve God in his church, for the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially Chris, Britta, Jerry, Kirsten and Maya, Susie, Ted, Godfrey, and those the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud, hear us, Lord, for your mercy is great.
SPEAKER_05: We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life.
SPEAKER_05: We will exalt you, O God our King, and praise your name forever and ever.
SPEAKER_05: We pray for all those who have died, that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom, especially our nell.
SPEAKER_05: Lord, let your loving kindness be upon them who put their trust in you.
SPEAKER_05: We pray to you also for the forgiveness of sins.
SPEAKER_05: Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father.
SPEAKER_05: In your compassion, forgive us our sins known and unknown, things done and left undone, and so uphold us by your Spirit that we may live and serve you in unice of life, to the honor and glory of your name, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_05: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: The peace of the Lord be always with you, and also with you.
SPEAKER_02: And now, as our Lord and Savior Christ has taught us, we are bold to pray, 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_02: Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: May God the Father, who has redeemed us and made us the children of God through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, bestow upon you new joy, the riches of God's favor.
SPEAKER_02: May the Holy Spirit, who through the waters of baptism has raised us from sin, and into newness of life lead you into the mission and holiness of being God's own forever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: May Jesus, who has brought us out of bondage to sin and into true and lasting freedom as our Redeemer, guide you to live into your eternal inheritance.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, be upon you this day and remain with you forever.
SPEAKER_02: Amen.
SPEAKER_02: Alleluia, Alleluia, go in peace to love and serve the Lord.
SPEAKER_02: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_02: Alleluia, Alleluia.