SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: Blessed be God's family now and forever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Together, Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.
SPEAKER_01: Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and wordily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Almighty God, you have built your church upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone.
SPEAKER_01: Grant us so to be joined together in unity of spirit by their teaching, that we may be made a holy temple acceptable to you.
SPEAKER_01: Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Please be seated for the lessons.
SPEAKER_01: I now invite all of our kiddos, fifth grade and under, to join Miss Emery in the back.
SPEAKER_01: And she will take you to godly play for those that want to go.
SPEAKER_01: She's like music for this, shouldn't we?
SPEAKER_01: Like, no, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: No, I don't know.
SPEAKER_01: Like the Pied Piper or something.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, we got it.
SPEAKER_00: A reading from 1 Samuel.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah and El Cana rose early in the morning and bowed down and worshiped before the Holy One of old.
SPEAKER_00: Then they turned back and went to their house at Ramah.
SPEAKER_00: El Cana knew his wife Hannah, and the Holy One remembered her.
SPEAKER_00: And it was with the turning of the days that Hannah conceived and gave birth to a son.
SPEAKER_00: She called his name Samuel, God hears, for she said, From the God who hears have I asked him.
SPEAKER_00: Now the man Elkanah went up along with his whole household to offer to the Holy One the yearly sacrifice, and on account of a vow.
SPEAKER_00: Yet Hannah did not go up, for she said to her husband, Not until the child is weaned, then will I bring him, that he may be seen in the presence of the Most High and remain there perpetually.
SPEAKER_00: I will present him as a Nazarite in perpetuity for all the days of his life.
SPEAKER_00: Her husband, Elkanah, said to her, Do what is best in your eyes.
SPEAKER_00: Stay until you have weaned him.
SPEAKER_00: May the faithful God establish the words of your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: So the woman remained and nursed her son until she waned him.
SPEAKER_00: And she took him up with her after she had weaned him, along with a three-year-old bull, an Epha of flour, and a jug of wine.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah brought him to the house of the ever-living God at Shiloh, and the boy was just a little boy.
SPEAKER_00: Then they slaughtered the bull, and they brought the boy to Eli.
SPEAKER_00: And Hannah said, My Lord, as you live, my Lord, I am the woman, the one who is standing beside you in this place to pray to the God who hears.
SPEAKER_00: For this boy I prayed, and the faithful God gave me my asking, what I asked from God.
SPEAKER_00: Therefore have I bequeathed him to the gracious God.
SPEAKER_00: All his days will he be a bequest to the God whose name is holy.
SPEAKER_00: So she left him there, and she bowed down and worshiped the faithful God.
SPEAKER_00: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: Hannah prayed, and she said, My heart exalts in the holy one of old.
SPEAKER_00: My horn is lifted up in my God.
SPEAKER_00: There is none holy like the Most High, none besides you.
SPEAKER_00: Speak proudly no more, multiplying pride, nor let arrogance come from your mouth.
SPEAKER_00: The bows of the mighty are broken, yet the feeble gird on those who were full have hired themselves out for bread.
SPEAKER_00: Yet those who were hungry are fat.
SPEAKER_00: The gracious one makes poor and makes rich.
SPEAKER_00: God raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from heaps of human waste to seat them with nobles and inherit a seat of honor.
SPEAKER_00: God will guard the feet of the faithful who belong to God, while the wicked perish in shadow.
SPEAKER_00: The Holy One of Sinai, those who strive against God shall be shattered.
SPEAKER_00: The fount of justice will judge the ends of the earth.
SPEAKER_02: Now, sisters and brothers, I could not speak to you all as spiritual, but rather as carnal, as infants in Christ.
SPEAKER_02: I fed you all with milk, but not solid food, for you were not yet ready for solid food.
SPEAKER_02: Even now you are still not ready, for you all are still carnal.
SPEAKER_02: Given there is still jealousy and discard among you, are you not carnal and going around as merely human?
SPEAKER_02: For when one says, I am Paul's, and another, I am Apollos, are you not merely human?
SPEAKER_02: What then is Apollo?
SPEAKER_02: What is Paul?
SPEAKER_02: The minister, through whom you came to believe as the Messiah granted to each person.
SPEAKER_02: I planted, Apollo's watered, but God produces growth.
SPEAKER_02: Therefore, neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything.
SPEAKER_02: Rather, it is God who produces growth.
SPEAKER_02: The one who plants and the one who waters are alike, and each will receive wages according to their labor.
SPEAKER_02: For we are God's co-workers, working together.
SPEAKER_02: You are God's cultivation, God's construction.
SPEAKER_02: The word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Great crowds came to him, bringing with them disabled, blind, and mute people, and people missing body parts, along with many others.
SPEAKER_01: Then they put them at his feet and he healed them.
SPEAKER_01: So that the crowd was amazed when they saw mute people speaking, people missing body parts made whole, disabled people walking, and blind people seeing, and they praised the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Then Jesus called his disciples to him and said, I have compassion for the crowd, because they have stayed with me for three days now and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry, for they might collapse on the road.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples said to him, Why where are we to get so much bread in the desert as to feed so great a crowd?
SPEAKER_01: And Jesus asked them, How many loaves do you have?
SPEAKER_01: They said, Seven, and a few small fish.
SPEAKER_01: Then ordering the crowd to sit down on the ground, he took the seven loaves and the fish, and giving thanks he broke them, gave them to the disciples, and the disciples gave them to the crowds.
SPEAKER_01: And all of them ate and were filled, and they took up the abundance of fragments, seven baskets full.
SPEAKER_01: Those who ate were women and children, besides four thousand men.
SPEAKER_01: Then sending away the crowds, he got into the boat and went to the region of Magadon.
SPEAKER_01: This is the gospel of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Have a seat.
SPEAKER_01: Yay! Happy Sunday, everybody.
SPEAKER_01: Who was here last week?
SPEAKER_01: Okay, I'm not asking because like I'm checking in on you.
SPEAKER_01: I'm asking because I told this like really incredible story about me breaking my kids' toys right in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: And I have this I'm happy to report good news and bad news.
SPEAKER_01: So the good news is it seems like the sermon was a success.
SPEAKER_01: I got emails really, truly, I'm really feeling good about this.
SPEAKER_01: I got emails from a couple of men in particular, and they said, Sean, I want to thank you.
SPEAKER_01: This week I made this huge gap as a parent, and I looked at my spouse, I said, Well, at least I didn't break the kid's toys.
SPEAKER_01: So you're welcome.
SPEAKER_01: The gift that keeps on giving.
SPEAKER_01: So now I will forever be that for you.
SPEAKER_01: But here's the bad news.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not doing that again.
SPEAKER_01: So I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_01: So so there you go.
SPEAKER_01: So but what's fun is is that we get to build on that.
SPEAKER_01: So getting to preach kind of back-to-back Sundays, which Mike and I don't normally do, we we sort of get to build on that.
SPEAKER_01: And so the the reading today from Matthew is a continuation of what we talked about last week.
SPEAKER_01: So, as a refresher, last week I made the case and the argument that Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew, prior to the interaction with the Canaanite woman, only focused on Jewish people.
SPEAKER_01: So scripturally, he only said that my mission is for the children of Israel, nobody else.
SPEAKER_01: And then he goes to this Gentile territory and he has an interaction with a Canaanite woman.
SPEAKER_01: Now he says Canaanite to show that she is literally, he calls her a puppy, a child of the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: Like he literally does this.
SPEAKER_01: He she comes and says, I have a sick kid, and he says, I came only for the people of the house of Israel, I didn't come for the children of the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: And some interaction happens where she or he they look upon each other, and she says, But even the dogs get the scraps, and Jesus has this moment where he's confronted with his limit and he sees that God's vision is even bigger than what he imagined, and he says, Your faith is amazing, it's great, your daughter's gonna be healed, and then he literally changes his ministry.
SPEAKER_01: Like from that point on, his ministry is not just to the children of Israel, it's to Gentiles, it's to all the nations.
SPEAKER_01: He says at the end of Matthew, go forth and baptize to all the nations in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So I made this case that this interaction with the Canaanite woman was this shift in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And so this next thing that happens is we get another feeding.
SPEAKER_01: Now, some scholars will say, well, this is just a retelling of the same feeding.
SPEAKER_01: No, it's not.
SPEAKER_01: It's a very different feeding of 4,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: So the first one, remember, Jesus is in Jewish territory, only looking to feed Jewish people, and it says 5,000 men plus more, so you're looking at 20,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: They take five loaves, two fish, he blesses it, he breaks it, he feeds, and what's left over are 12 baskets.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the word basket, it's interesting.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like a little pouch that Jewish men would wear on themselves, and they would put food in there, and they could have a little pouch.
SPEAKER_01: So it filled 12 of these little pouches, right?
SPEAKER_01: So now we have another feeding, right?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is now in Gentile territory.
SPEAKER_01: We we know this because it's a mirror story in Mark.
SPEAKER_01: It says he kind of in Mark he goes to the decabitalist, but we also know because he's healing people and it says they're praising the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if he was talking to Jewish people and they were praising God, that would be self-evident.
SPEAKER_01: But we now know that it is other non-Jewish people because it's saying he's praising that they're praising the God of Israel.
SPEAKER_01: So he is feeding and healing people that are not Jewish.
SPEAKER_01: So he's opening up his ministry, the healing reality of God to all of the nations.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to like I'm gonna examine the story, but like the thing I'm trying to get my head around is like, what's the thing that Jesus is experiencing that isn't new, that the disciples experienced, that every Christian since then is experiencing, and dare I say we are experiencing.
SPEAKER_01: Like, what's the wisdom here?
SPEAKER_01: Now, you've heard me say this before, and I'm probably gonna say it five or six times a year because priests only have five sermons, right?
SPEAKER_01: So, like, I really only have like five sermons, and I repackage them in different ways.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, there's maybe more than five, but like not many.
SPEAKER_01: Okay.
SPEAKER_01: But the the movement that I think is really holy, it goes back to you know, the Israelites in the desert telling God, can we just go back to when we were enslaved?
SPEAKER_01: Because this is bananas.
SPEAKER_01: It was way better, at least we ate there, to God saying, I will feed you every day, there is enough.
SPEAKER_01: Like that's the first one that we get.
SPEAKER_01: But we get it over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: And essentially, we get this movement from scarcity there's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: To abundance.
SPEAKER_01: Dare I say abundant life?
SPEAKER_01: So let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: When I say scarcity, here's what I'm not saying.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying pragmatism.
SPEAKER_01: Okay, because somebody right now, as I keep preaching, is going to say, well, Shon, bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
SPEAKER_01: That's right.
SPEAKER_01: But that is not what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: See, when I say a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush, I'm saying I'm taking a look at a situation with resources and I'm trying to be a good steward, and I'm doing the best I can doing some risk assessments on how to bring life to people and the situation.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I'm saying.
SPEAKER_01: I'm saying that mindset that says there's never enough.
SPEAKER_01: There's not enough time, there's not enough love, there's not enough forgiveness, there's not enough room at the table, there is not enough money.
SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm talking about.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone got up and said, I just did not get enough sleep.
SPEAKER_01: I do not have enough time in this day.
SPEAKER_01: I did not do enough today to earn my keep and to show everybody how much I love them or, you know, show the world that I'm grateful for all the blessings that I have.
SPEAKER_01: There's just not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We can't let anybody else in.
SPEAKER_01: I can't take anything else on my plate.
SPEAKER_01: There's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: We need to circle the wagons.
SPEAKER_01: We need to protect what we have because I'm scared I'm gonna lose it, and I don't want to have any more suffering or pain and the people that I love.
SPEAKER_01: There's just not enough.
SPEAKER_01: It's this movement of curving in.
SPEAKER_01: And it's not new and it's not few.
SPEAKER_01: This, I think, is part parcel what it means to be human is we get stuck in the not enoughness of life.
SPEAKER_01: There's no way I can give any more forgiveness or energy to anybody else, especially this person.
SPEAKER_01: There's just not enough.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me be clear about what I'm talking about when I say abundance.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm not saying is some glib, modern, last 25 years nonsense of the prosperity gospel.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying some weird lab it and grab it, name it and claim it.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus wants you to be rich and powerful and have everything that you want.
SPEAKER_01: I am not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: And I want to be crystal clear that an abundant mindset doesn't mean you're not gonna have pain or suffering in your life.
SPEAKER_01: It's not the Jesus lottery.
SPEAKER_01: You're not gonna get everything that you want.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what I mean by thinking and living into abundant life now.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the reality, the disposition of life that creates generosity.
SPEAKER_01: Now let me be clear.
SPEAKER_01: Generosity I don't just mean with money.
SPEAKER_01: Of course, I mean with money.
SPEAKER_01: We should, we, y'all, we should be generous with our resources.
SPEAKER_01: We we've got it pretty good, most of us in here, like relative to the world, but I'm not just talking about that.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the the word where we get genesis, the word where we get generative, the word where we get genetics, the word where we get genes, like the ones in your DNA, not the ones you're wearing.
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about the the root word that means the creative possibility of the new thing.
SPEAKER_01: Anyone do improv?
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
SPEAKER_01: Some improv people.
SPEAKER_01: So in improv, they got this rule: you want to move from a no to a yes, a yes and.
SPEAKER_01: It's like the no of life.
SPEAKER_01: No, there's not enough.
SPEAKER_01: No, no, no, to a disposition of yes and.
SPEAKER_01: And like there's wisdom in the tradition where when we do that, somehow we and the world become more alive.
SPEAKER_01: We experience more what God intends for us as what it means to be a human being.
SPEAKER_01: The abundant life, when Jesus is saying, I've come to bring life and life abundant in the promise of abundant life, folks.
SPEAKER_01: I am not, I mean, I'm not only talking about what happens after we die.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, of course, I do believe, right, that relationally we we continue on in relationship with each other and God and in a relationship of beauty after we die.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: Even at the grave, we sing allelujah, hallelujah, alleluia.
SPEAKER_01: I believe that.
SPEAKER_01: And I don't just believe that.
SPEAKER_01: I actually don't spend a lot of time thinking about it.
SPEAKER_01: It just seems like not where I want to put my energy.
SPEAKER_01: I think Jesus is saying we can experience a life living in a perspective of abundance and yes and possibility now, that we don't have to be imprisoned and trapped in this scarcity, in this no.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: Like, saints, my friends, like I can't tell you how many stories of miracles of saints that the Christians have held over the years have been about taking something meager and turning into something more.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, this is a core part of what it means for us to follow this risen Lord, to participate in the work of the Holy Spirit.
SPEAKER_01: So, how do we do that?
SPEAKER_01: So I've been thinking, I was looking at the story.
SPEAKER_01: I thought, well, if Jesus was experiencing this, like what can we, what can we learn by looking at his life?
SPEAKER_01: And and the first thing that came to me was like, you first you gotta believe that it's worth pursuing.
SPEAKER_01: It's worth pursuing a perspective of abundant life.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, we can get so tied to this scarcity that we mask as pragmatism that we tell ourselves, oh, we don't want that.
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to be those people.
SPEAKER_01: It's not worth it.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing is we have to identify that yes, there's scarcity and a perspective of scarcity in my life, and I want to move to a perspective of abundance.
SPEAKER_01: I want to experience what it's like to be in the generative state of abundance in some aspect of my life.
SPEAKER_01: That's what Jesus did.
SPEAKER_01: When he had an interaction with the Canaanite woman, I think he was ready and open, and the second thing that I think is interesting is like if we have that, what fuels it?
SPEAKER_01: What fuels that movement?
SPEAKER_01: So there's this interesting uh there's a Greek word that is used in this feeding story, right?
SPEAKER_01: Where so this feeding story is a little bit different than the first one.
SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a lot different, but it's different because like they stay with Jesus for three days, not one day.
SPEAKER_01: Like another story, they're with Jesus for one day.
SPEAKER_01: They stick around and they stay with Jesus for three days.
SPEAKER_01: And when they it becomes clear that like there's not a lot of food and nourishment, it says that Jesus looks upon them with compassion.
SPEAKER_01: Splunk nizomai.
SPEAKER_01: Say it with me.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of like onomonopoeia because it is.
SPEAKER_01: Poor babies.
SPEAKER_01: I think this is what happened when he looked at the Canaanite woman as well.
SPEAKER_01: I think he looked at her face.
SPEAKER_01: See, this is this is where, like, I think we miss it.
SPEAKER_01: We if you want to build compassion, look at the faces of the suffering people around you.
SPEAKER_01: Do you have any idea how many interactions I have with people where I don't look at their face?
SPEAKER_01: I just look past them.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus looks at the Canaanite woman's face.
SPEAKER_01: He looks literally at the faces of the people in the crowd, and he has this blank, he has this like moment of saying, their suffering is worth engaging and meeting.
SPEAKER_01: What can I do?
SPEAKER_01: I think we need compassion to move us out of scarcity.
SPEAKER_01: If you find yourself circling your wagons and you're not looking on the face of other people, particularly the suffering, and saying, we don't have enough, we don't have enough room, we don't have enough money, we don't have enough resources.
SPEAKER_01: I invite you to go spend some time with the hurting among us and see what happens.
SPEAKER_01: Look at their faces.
SPEAKER_01: So desire to change, building compassion.
SPEAKER_01: The next bit that I saw that I think is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: So sometimes I read that when I'm reading scripture, I'm like, gosh, like the disciples are so dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I can't be the only one, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, I mean, I know I'm dumb.
SPEAKER_01: I'm I mean I'm pretty dumb.
SPEAKER_01: Like, I do, I mean, I break my kids' toys in front of them.
SPEAKER_01: Like, come on, yeah.
SPEAKER_01: It's like I'm not, like, I'm not the guy that you're, you know, but I'm pretty dumb, right?
SPEAKER_01: But I look at him, I'm like, are you that dumb?
SPEAKER_01: Like, look at the story.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 15, feeding that we have today.
SPEAKER_01: Just a couple chapters earlier, probably on the timeline, maybe a couple weeks earlier, Jesus literally feeds about 20,000 people.
SPEAKER_01: Do you think every single one of the disciples, just a couple of weeks later, went up to him and were like, How are we gonna do this?
SPEAKER_01: Do you think every single one of them forgot that?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, he just got done.
SPEAKER_01: It says literally, he just got done putting body parts back on people.
SPEAKER_01: They're like, Well, what are we gonna do?
SPEAKER_01: How are we gonna figure this out?
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I don't think that's it.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think that's it.
SPEAKER_01: I actually think that they went to Jesus and they were probably a little bit more like this.
SPEAKER_01: How are we gonna do it?
SPEAKER_01: How do you want to do this one?
SPEAKER_01: Because with you, all things are possible.
SPEAKER_01: Now I will tell you, this is the hardest one for me.
SPEAKER_01: I I clearly I want to be a better person.
SPEAKER_01: Clearly.
SPEAKER_01: Not hard.
SPEAKER_01: I'm not too terribly bad at looking at the faces of others.
SPEAKER_01: But I have been so beat down and fatigued in possibility in my own life, and I can't be the only one.
SPEAKER_01: Where I forget that we are called to be people who dream.
SPEAKER_01: Who dream possibility.
SPEAKER_01: The thing that we get from the Corinthians reading is like Paul talking to them, and he's like, You're misunderstanding, it's God doing the work.
SPEAKER_01: God is doing the work.
SPEAKER_01: But I tell you what, I look at some of my relationships, and I'm so fatigued about holding on to hope, and I'm so fatigued about believing a more beautiful thing is possible, I don't want to be disappointed again, so I'm just gonna stop dreaming.
SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna stop believing that all things are possible with God.
SPEAKER_01: Has anybody seen Ted Lasso?
SPEAKER_01: Alright, there's this soccer show, it's called Ted Lasso.
SPEAKER_01: It's really good.
SPEAKER_01: And he takes this really bad team, and they they, you know, get really good, but they lose at the end of a really important game.
SPEAKER_01: Sorry.
SPEAKER_01: Spoiler alert.
SPEAKER_01: Sue me.
SPEAKER_01: So but what's interesting, this like really like wisdom teacher who's the bartender, that's her character.
SPEAKER_01: She comes up and she says, you know, it's the hope that kills you.
SPEAKER_01: It's the hope that kills you.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, have you stopped dreaming or believing that it's possible to heal the addiction that's in your life in any way, shape, or form, the relationship that is broken?
SPEAKER_01: The loneliness and isolation that you're feeling.
SPEAKER_01: You take a look at the pain and the hurt and the suffering of the world.
SPEAKER_01: So I I was recommended to go like look at this photo to help create compassion, and it's a little girl wearing a princess dress in the Gaza Strip right now.
SPEAKER_01: And she's just wearing a princess dress, one that maybe my kids wore, similar.
SPEAKER_01: And she just looks terrible.
SPEAKER_01: She's in rubble, she's emaciated, and she's getting ready to get some bread, and she just looks at it like it's a like a feast that she's never had.
SPEAKER_01: How is it even possible, God, to dream healing and beauty, and wholeness?
SPEAKER_01: How can I live in abundance and wonder when I look at that, when I look at the world, when I look at the own brokenness of my life?
SPEAKER_01: I think this is the hardest one.
SPEAKER_01: Is to be people who genuinely believe that the generative movement of the Holy Spirit can create new things that are beautiful.
SPEAKER_01: And then what do we do?
SPEAKER_01: So the last bit that I saw is like what's interesting in the feeding of the 5,000, uh, they had, you know, seven, five loaves and two fishes.
SPEAKER_01: They're like said big fish.
SPEAKER_01: Fish.
SPEAKER_01: But with this one, what's interesting is they only have two meager fish, is what it says.
SPEAKER_01: They have they have the seven loaves and two meager fish.
SPEAKER_01: And that's what that's what Jesus uses to feed these 16,000 people or so.
SPEAKER_01: So I was thinking about that.
SPEAKER_01: Like maybe the the last bit in this process of moving or thinking about how we move from scarcity to abundance is we set our sights, we we have compassion, we begin to dream that it is possible because God is the one doing the work, and we believe in a God of miraculous things and big healing and possibility, and the way that we participate in that work is we join God in dreaming the world into place.
SPEAKER_01: And then we offer what we have.
SPEAKER_01: As meager as it may be.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, some people right here may be like, I'm in a place of overflowing abundance.
SPEAKER_01: The word abundancia in Latin basically means overflowing cup.
SPEAKER_01: Overflowing cup.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in a place right now where you feel like every aspect of your cup is overflowing, and this is good, this is easy.
SPEAKER_01: I'm overflowing.
SPEAKER_01: Thanks be to God.
SPEAKER_01: Let it flow.
SPEAKER_01: Dream big, engage the suffering of the world.
SPEAKER_01: But maybe you're not.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe you're in a place where all you have is two meager, stupid fish.
SPEAKER_01: And you're like, God, I pretty much hate you.
SPEAKER_01: I just looked at this photo of this girl in Gaza, and you stink at your job.
SPEAKER_01: But here's what I got.
SPEAKER_01: Here's what I got.
SPEAKER_01: So can you use that?
SPEAKER_01: Can you use that?
SPEAKER_01: And the wisdom of the ancestors and the testimony of the faithful is that God can.
SPEAKER_01: That God can.
SPEAKER_01: So I don't I don't know where you are in in your life right now, and it's not as simple as I'm either abundant or I'm scarce.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, uh it's not that simple, right?
SPEAKER_01: But I could I can't preach all day.
SPEAKER_01: What I'm saying is, is like how are we in our own lives trapped in a scarce mindset that's not enough, that's limited?
SPEAKER_01: And what does it mean for us to take the next step in moving and becoming vulnerable to a perspective of abundance?
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what that means for you.
SPEAKER_01: But I I I do know that the wisdom of the tradition is that that's that's what it means to be human.
SPEAKER_01: That's where life can be found.
SPEAKER_01: And so maybe we just take that journey together.
SPEAKER_01: Amen?