Epiphany 3 2024

Let's become money.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Give us grace, O Lord, to answer readily the call of our Savior Jesus Christ.

Proclaim to all people the good news of God's salvation.

That we in the whole world may perceive the glory of His marvelous works who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

As you're being seated, our children are invited to children's chapel and from the backwards Mr.

Goddess.

The reading from 2 Kings Naaman, commander of the army of the ruler of Arab, was a great man in the sight of his master and highly esteemed, because through him the Holy One had given victory to Arab.

The man, a great warrior, was deceived in his skin.

Now Aramean troops went out and took captive from the land of Israel a young girl, and she was placed before Naaman's wife.

She said to her mistress, If only my lord were with the prophet who is in Samaria, he would take his skin disease away.

So Naaman went in and told his master, the girl from the land of Israel, and said, This and this.

Then Naaman came with his horses and chariot and stood at the entrance of Elisha's house.

Elisha sent a messenger to him, who said, Go, wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh will be restored, and you shall be unblemished.

But Naaman became angry and left, saying, Look here, I thought that for me he would surely come out and stand and call the name of the Most High, his God, who would wave his hand over the spot and take away the skin disease.

Are not Nabana and Farpar the rivers of Damascus better than all the waters of Israel?

Could I not wash in them and be restored?

Then he turned and went away in a rage.

But his slaves approached him and said to him, My father, were it a great thing the prophet told you to do, would you not have done it?

How much more when what he said to you was, wash and be restored?

So he went down and immersed himself seven times in the Jordan, according to the word of the man of God.

His flesh was renewed, like the flesh of a little boy, and he was restored.

The psalm for today is one hundred three.

We will read responsibly by the half verse.

Bless the fount of wisdom, O my soul.

Bless her all.

Bless the fount of wisdom, O my soul.

And forget not all her benefits.

She forgives all your sins.

And all your emergence.

She redeems your life from the grave.

And loving minds.

She satisfies you with good things.

And your evil is like evil.

She who is wisdom executes righteousness.

And judgment for all who are oppressed.

She made her ways known to Miriam and Moses.

And her works to the children of Israel.

Wisdom's womb is filled with love and faithfulness.

Love is her love of faithful love.

She will not always accuse you.

Nor will she.

As a mother's love for her children flows from her womb, so too does winter's love for those who previous flow from her womb.

For she herself knows whereof we are made.

Our days are like the grass.

We flourish like a flower of the field.

When the wind goes over it, it is gone.

And its life shall be done.

But the faithful love of she who is wisdom endures forever on those who revere her.

Now there are diversities of gifts of the same spirit.

And there are diversities of ministries but the same sovereign.

And there are diversities of works, but it is the same God who works all of them in every one.

To each person is given the manifestation of the Spirit for mutual good.

To one woman or man, through the Spirit is given a word of wisdom, and to another a word of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gift of healing by the one Spirit, to yet another working miracles, to another prophecy, to yet another discernment of spirits, to another families of tongues, to another the translation of tongues.

All these are activated by one and the same spirit who allows to each one individually, just as the spirit chooses, the word of the Lord.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Now Jesus returned to the synagogue, and a person was there who had a withered hand.

The women and men in the synagogue were watching Jesus carefully to see whether he would cure the person on the Sabbath so that they might accuse him.

Then Jesus said to the person who had the withered hand, Come up to the middle.

Then Jesus said to the women and men in the synagogue, Is it permissible to do good or to do evil on the Sabbath, to save life or to kill?

But they were silent.

And looking around at them with anger, Jesus was grieved at their hardness of heart, and he said to the person, Stretch out your hand.

And the person stretched it out, and their hand was restored.

And then the Pharisees went down with the Herodians and immediately began to conspire against Jesus, how they might destroy him.

Then Jesus with his disciples departed to the sea, and a great multitude from Galilee followed, and from Judea, Jerusalem, and Jumea beyond the Jordan, and the region around Tyre and Sidon.

Hearing all that he was doing, they came to him.

And he told his disciples to have a boat at hand for him because of the crowd of women, children, and men, lest they crush him.

For he had cured many.

But as many as had diseases pressed upon him to touch him, the unclean spirits, when they saw him, they fell down before him and shrieked, You are the Son of God.

But Jesus rebuked them strongly not to make him known.

The gospel of the Lord.

So on Tuesday night, Rabbi Etan Kru from Congregation Shar Hashalan came and shared a little bit about his experience with Judaism.

And again, cold weather kept some of us away.

The other thing that was a little difficult is that English is his third language.

He's an Israeli citizen who also, his second language is Arabic.

Actually, English is his fourth language, his third is Afrikaans.

So he had he was literally translating his head from Hebrew into Arabic and then into English.

It wasn't super correct.

So it's a little bit translated in real time.

I hope you know what I'm talking about.

And came out the gate and shared something that was extremely vulnerable and lovely that you need to hear, even if you aren't here.

Rabbi Atan shared with us how it is he became a rabbi.

He was an Israeli citizen, well still is, and his career was dedicated to being a dance instructor.

So he taught dance for a long time, and then there was something missing in his life.

By the way, he's an openly gay man.

And so the thing that was missing, he thought, was to have a child and care for and raise a child.

And so he became an he enlisted a surrogate in the United States.

The child was born here, and the child's name is Davir, which is the Hebrew word for the geography inside the temple where the Ark resides.

The Holy of Holies.

The child was the holy of holies.

And because of that holy presence in his life, this child, that was his call to the rabbit because he needed to raise his child within the structure and all of Judaism that he felt and desperately wanted.

So he quit dancing for hire.

And went to seminary, which takes four years if you're Jewish.

We do it in three.

And at the end of that, he became a rabbi, and the question is then when and how did he serve?

He spoke so frequently about doing this for his son.

I don't know if you know about Judaism.

There's several sects of Judaism like there are in Christianity, but fewer probably than we have.

And so in Israel he laid out the landscape that there's the Orthodox community, which is the largest community in Israel.

He couldn't be Orthodox as a rabbi because he'd have to teach his son that his father was a sinner for being gay.

His other option in Israel was to be, per his own story was to be reformed.

And his problem with reformed Judaism in Israel is that it's not tied to the Torah.

Reformed Jews in general consider the Torah a human product.

And so if there's a social element they don't like, then they just deviate from it.

So what he needed was a conservative Jewish background that is not large in Israel.

It exists in the United States.

Because he wanted to tie, lifestyle is such an unfortunate word.

He wanted to tie his identity to God's revealed word of the Torah and not have to resist it.

He wanted to pin it down to the words of the Torah so he came here so that he could stretch out his hand in the presence of the congregation and be renewed.

This is a good hearing of the story because there's nothing wrong with Rabbi Huda.

His hand is not withered, but he was told it was.

Okay, on to the situation that just starts to unwind in my mind, and I'm gonna apologize in advance because I don't have an exact answer for you, but I've got a problem today.

Uh it's it's been a big problem with how it is we interpret these texts and how we were managed to read them.

It showed up for me this week.

You know, sometimes you scroll through things.

I was sort of scrolling on a social media post, and I don't usually pay attention to this, but if there was somebody who had posed a group in Episcopalians on Facebook, the question said if someone has Down syndrome on earth, what will happen to them in heaven?

And if we start to imagine a world in which we don't get to be who God made us to be, then what we essentially are saying is that people with Down syndrome are not whole people.

I want you to pause and think about that.

Is there something wrong with not being normal?

Yesterday I had a conversation with a friend who has a disability and has pursued disability studies and disability theology.

We read a book together called Prophetic Disability.

We were hoping it would do something, it did not.

So we talked about this, and I was very fortunate to learn that the opposite of being disabled is not being abled.

The opposite of being disabled is being enabled.

That's interesting to think about, isn't it?

Disability is a word I'm a little bit scared to use.

It sounds pejorative, although the disabled community takes that word for themselves.

Right?

Not having the sense of hearing is a disability.

Having a withered hand is a disability, but I think here's the question when we hear stories like we heard today, is there anything wrong with having a withered hand?

The reason I think we have to phrase the question that way is because having hands that look like mine is not only the social norm, it's become the theological norm.

And our hymnal is saturated with hymns that talk about palsied limbs being made whole.

As if a person with palsy is not whole.

If you're not whole, you can't be holy.

This is dangerous theology.

Dangerous.

The story today could be quite dangerous, especially if we take it at face value.

Because here's the truth: if you've got a withered hand, I'm not praying for God to fix it.

I can't do it, it won't work.

And if you grew up with a disability in church, it's very possible that you were told that if you prayed enough or if you believed enough, God would fix you because there's something wrong with being disabled.

We can fool ourselves into saying we don't think that way, and we're lying if we say that.

We have made normalcy and perfection.

God speak to our detriment.

So what happens to a child who grows up in church and hears miracle stories that God will do that through them, and it doesn't happen?

Well, in the case of my friend yesterday, it's just really hard to go to church.

It's really hard because every time you go in, you're saying, I didn't believe enough.

Or there's something flawed in me that God will ultimately fix when I go to heaven.

I won't have a club foot anymore.

This story is really hard because Jesus doesn't ask that person whether they want their hands stretched out.

Did you notice that?

Jesus brings this person up and just sort of does it.

And as I think about this story, the question is, what's the real change here?

Undoubtedly, the people in the community thought that there was something, well, not quite right with this person who had it with their hand.

Maybe they sinned, or maybe their parents did, or just God bless them.

It must be hard not to be normally a.

So God have pity on them.

In the end, Jesus fixes the perceived problem.

Physically fixes the perceived problem.

Maybe this is so the rest of the community won't continue to discriminate against that person.

And isn't it interesting to think that it might be easier for God to physically do something to a hand than to change our hearts?

It might be easier for God to work a physical miracle than God to overturn our prejudice.

That's a scary and guiding thought, isn't it?

It's probably true.

And there's this story about Naaman.

Less this is lost on you.

The Arameans are not like the Israelites.

They're a different country.

They're often at war with each other.

This is a story about Erwin Rommel.

This is the desert fox, Naaman.

Yes, the analogy holds, right?

He was a Nazi.

He was fighting Jewish people.

That's Naaman.

He's got a problem.

He's got a skin disease.

Often this gets translated with leprosy.

We don't know if that means Hansen disease or this means some insidious, incurable thing like Mirsa.

We don't know where it is.

He goes to Elisha for healing, and we cut out part of the story.

Elisha is not that God tells him not to talk to Naaman.

He just refuses to.

And he says here are the instructions go take a bath on the Jordan River.

Anybody else been to the Jordan?

It looks like clear lake.

Not very clear.

Muddy.

And he tells them to wash, which seems really nice.

It's like prefiguring baptism.

It seems really sweet, except in order to do it, you've got to take your clothes off.

This is not about vulnerability.

This is about exposure.

He tells Naaman, expose yourself in enemy territory.

Expose yourself so we can see you're sick and malformed and dying.

It makes me want to cry too.

I mean, it's really difficult crying that way.

Like it just doesn't seem compassionate or right.

I understand it's effective, but at what cost?

At the cost of his dignity.

It's concerning to me.

It's concerning.

And I don't do to rewrite the gospel, but I just sort of wish that Jesus healed everybody else in the synagogue before asking the person if that's what they wanted.

Healed everybody else in the synagogue.

That probably includes you and me, if we're honest, of our prejudice against people who don't present as God.

This is true.

If men live long enough, they will probably have prostrate cancer.

This is the evidence.

If women live long enough, they will probably have breast cancer.

There's this confused understanding out there that your highest risk as a woman for breast cancer is in your 30s and 40s.

It is patently false.

Your risk goes up every year.

Your highest risk is next year.

To be clear, some of us contract disabilities because we overuse our athleticism because we get injuries.

Some of us contract diabetes.

This happens to us.

It is likely in your future some disability.

And I think the question's going to be when that's you.

It's already been me in some ways.

Sure, some are easier to live with than others.

We all know that.

Some are easier to live with than others.

But it is our future.

Is that God's judgment to resent the way bodies are made?

Do we give people with disabilities dignity when we treat them right?

No, we don't.

Dignity is not ours to give.

God has already given it.

You give no one dignity.

You either recognize it or you don't.

I give no one dignity.

The harmless person lying in a gutter is fully dignified by God's embodiment and the Holy Spirit.

And if I don't recognize it, that's on me, that's not on God.

So what do I wish happened?

I wish Jesus said, do you want your frizzy hair to be straightened?

And I wish I said not anymore.

Because that's who you made me to be, God.

Do you want that birthmark that you have concealed carefully to be taken away?

Nope.

Because then I wouldn't be myself anymore.

I know this sounds really weird because, hey, if you're schizophrenic, wouldn't you like to not be schizophrenic?

I don't know, but I know that if Vincent Van Gogh weren't schizophrenic, we probably wouldn't be looking at his art.

Some of our disabilities, frankly, are just really, really inconvenient to live with, and that doesn't mean that they're wrong.

It doesn't mean that they're less.

And this is why I think the lectionary has given us this text that God has given us different gifts.

Sometimes those gifts are so lovely that they're really inconvenient.

Sometimes those gifts out of their inconvenience can give us insight into where God is to be found.

I don't ask for my gifts, I get them.

You didn't ask for your gifts, you get them.

And maybe the greatest gift of all is that God has chosen to be fully pregnant, present, and dignified in every manifestation of humanity, whether it is 47 chromosomes or type 1 diabetes.

I didn't mean that we celebrate when somebody has cancer and say, look, that's God's gift.

I just remind you, we try to help people not to give them dignity, but because they already have it.

And that when we see something that wants us, oh, our reaction is to have pity.

That must be so hard.

Perhaps we could frame the question, tell me about where God is in your life.

Because I'd like to actually know, instead of deciding God isn't in your life.

Lifestyle.

The gay lifestyle.

Gay orientation.

Points at something that is not normal.

And we are scared of abnormalcy in ourselves.

But God isn't.

God isn't.

And language is a clunky thing.

It's what we have, but boy, we can do better.

We can do better, don't you think?

That's why I'm really glad we're using the women's lectionary for the whole year, because it's maybe the first time in church you've heard God referred to in the feminine gender.

I'm super thrilled and delighted that nobody has like sent me hate mail for doing this.

I mean it.

I'm actually really surprised, though.

I thought people would say to me, why are we doing that?

We're doing that because God created male and female in God's own image.

Which means one gender doesn't quite work, does it?

We're doing it because there's people in our community who are genderqueer.

They also are God's image and likeness.

There's not something wrong with them.

They're not abnormal.

They have God's full dignity and likeness in them.

And if we can't see it, it's on us.

It's not on God.

And yes, I sing the hymns and I change the words.

I don't do it with the microphone on, but I do not refer to God in the masculine gender.

I refer to God in the third person.

Pretty much always.

It's a delight to hear God in the feminine.

And there's an opportunity when we sing hymns to say, palsy limbs are already holy.

Palsy people are already whole with a W.

They're already whole.

They're as whole as human iron.

Of deacons, of priests, and bishops.

Editing the language of our faith is a ministry of lay people, of deacons, priests, and sometimes even bishops get to do it.

Editing the way we see God's dignity in what for us is often the most challenging places, whether those be in ourselves or immediate family, or people on the TV is a ministry of laity, of deacons, of priests, and with God's help of bishops too.

This is the work that we are called to do.

We believe in one God, the Father.

Let us lift our hearts to the one who calls us and say, We call to you, O Lord, and we are listening.

We pray for the church that the hearts of the leaders and those who are led be turned toward you.

Call us to support your work in the world through the church.

We pray for Sheldon, our presiding bishop, Andy, Hector, Jeff and Kay, our bishops, and Mike, our priest.

We call to you, Lord, and be listening.

We pray for those who govern the nations of the world.

Could their leadership be wise and compassionate?

Call us to informed and cooperative citizenship.

We pray for Joe, our president, Greg, our governor, the Congress, and courts of the land.

We pray for people in every corner of the world, especially for those who lack adequate food, shelter, and help.

Call us to compassionate action.

We pray for those that have suffered natural devastation, effects of war, or plague.

We call us to you, O Lord, and we are ill.

We pray for those close to our hearts who suffer from illness, anxiety, who face challenges and transitions, who struggle with your will in their lives.

We pray today for those on our parish prayer list.

We call to you, Lord, we pray for those who will be born on this day, and they will be embraced by loving communities.

We pray for those who are dying and those who now rest in your eternal grace.

Other those you wish to name.

Loving God, we call God to you and we are sin.

Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you in your will.

We have nothing to ourselves, and in the world we have our behalf.

And we may abide in your love and observe your will.

Amen.

The Almighty and compassionate Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

We'd be tremendously grateful if we can fill out one of the welcome cards and drop it in the little blue basket until we have a record that we're missing.

If you don't want to phone calls, check that box.

If you do, check that box.

To get one.

So it's really follow up is on your terms, and we'd just be so grateful if you'd give us a record of your business.

Thanks for worshiping with us.

Sermons aren't always that weird.

I'll just let you know.

I mean, they often are weird, but not always that weird.

It occurs to me, I probably should have said, Lila just told me, you know, I so want to say at the peace, we stand before God, justified and made worthy.

And I said, Oh, gosh, that's so ableist.

And Lila said, No, that's enabledist.

And I think that's right.

A diocesan council we're going to soon.

We stand to vote.

We do.

We stand to vote.

And that's enabled.

That's enabled.

It implies that there are delegates who cannot stand to vote.

We just have to think through this, right?

The good news is we we can do that together.

So thanks.

Thanks for listening and thinking together.

Okay, a few announcements coming up.

The first is we are so grateful for our parish annual meeting that we held this morning.

Many of you were there.

We were able to elect our new vestry and our delegates to council, and that's our budget, to dedicate our memorial garden and labyrinth and just sort of go through some other projects.

So thanks for your time.

If you missed that, we did record it.

It's on the YouTube channel.

If you're having trouble sleeping, like it's a thing you can watch.

But the title of the meeting is thanks for being you.

Thanks for being you in ministry and thoughtfulness and care, not only for each other, but for people you don't even know.

Thank you for that.

Some opportunities that are coming up.

There's actually three this week.

The first is that tomorrow night, beginning at 6, we are going to be the guests at the Bay Area Unitarian Universalist Church.

So we're meeting there, not here, from 6 to 7.

And Reverend Katie will give us a tour of their facilities, talk about what it means to be a Unitarian, talk about some of the practices, and frankly, why she's a Unitarian minister.

So we're meeting there so they can show us how they do it.

Tuesday is an opportunity at the Cinemark in Webster.

There's a film that is made off the presiding bishop.

By the way, did you hear that?

We're praying for the presiding bishop Sheldon.

He's not the presiding bishop.

Michael Curry's the presiding bishop.

Sheldon is standing in for him because he's sick.

Sheldon's kind of a placeholder while Michael Curry recovers from another surgery.

He's had a tough year.

Anyway, Michael Curry has taught a series called A Case for Love.

And they've made a documentary out of that.

They'll be showing it at the Center Mark at 4 o'clock and 7 o'clock.

Just those two times.

Tuesday only.

I'm going in four.

There's still, I think, some seats available.

And it's just an opportunity.

I didn't know the Episcopal Church made movies, and they do.

So we'll see what kind of movies they make.

Wednesday.

This is down in Galveston, so it's a bit of a drive.

There's an interfaith gathering in Galveston that has speakers from different faiths talking about their own faith's commitment to justice, particularly in light of the conflicts that are happening in Ukraine, in the West Bank, of Gaza, and elsewhere.

You can register for this online.

There's still room and they'll provide lunch.

I think it goes from about 9 to 3.

You'll get to hear from an Islamic scholar, from a Sikh S-I-K-H.

We usually pronounce that word sikh because it sounds sick.

We don't like that word in English, but it is pronounced sick.

S-I-K-H is pronounced sick, even though we say Sikh.

So there'll be a Sikh there.

There'll be an Islamic scholar who teaches a new of H.

There'll be a Catholic priest, a Galveston rabbi will be there, and I'll be the keynote speaker through Hook and Cro.

So that's this coming Wednesday down in Galveston at the Lutheran Church from 9 to 83.

Just a reminder for you that we are still taking RSVPs for the Pipe Argent Gala on February the 16th.

It'll be at the Bay Oaks Country Club.

We're taking RSVPs through February 1st.

So that's like 10 more days.

We've got to register.

And once you get registered, you'll get the menu choice.

I can tell you in advance, it's Fisher Chicken.

And so we'll get that to you.

But we're taking this through February 1st.

The last bit is that normally we have a Wednesday class.

This time, the Wednesday morning class is on world religions.

Obviously, we won't have that this Wednesday because we'll be down at Galveston, but we, the royal we will be at Galveston.

I teach the class.

So it's it's this Wednesday.

At Galveston, next Wednesday, we're going to start learning about Islam.

Keep in mind that that's like one-sixth of the world.

And many of us did not have the opportunity in high school to even learn what the five pillars are.

So if you don't know what those are, this might be an opportunity for you to learn about, well, like one-sixth of the world.

So we do that Wednesdays from 9 to about 10:15.

We do record those because we know people have commitments, but that'll start next Wednesday, our study of Islam, from nine to fifteen.

Continue to walk in love.

And of your own have we give you.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more, so come.

You who have much faith, and you who have.

You who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.

You who have tried to follow, and you who have failed, come.

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ, but he invites you to be him here.

Our service continues on page 361 of your red prayer book.

Page 361.

Let us give thanks to the Lord I call.

It is wrong to give our thanks and praise.

It is right in a good and joyful faith, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, calls in the mystery of the word made flesh, have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory in the face of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord.

Therefore we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels, and with all the company of heaven, who forever sing this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.

When we fall into sin and become subject to evil and death, you and your mercy send Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

He stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself, in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.

And when he given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

When he given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the renewed covenant which is shed for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.

Whenever you drink it, do this for the remembrance of me.

Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ who will come again.

We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people, the body and blood of your Son, the holy food to drink of new and unending life in him, and sanctify us also, that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament and serve you in unity, and constancy and peace.

At the last day, bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask through your Son, Jesus Christ.

By him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

Amen.

Now, as our 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, honored as it is in heaven.

Give us the stay high, and forgive us our trespasses, and as we forgive those who trespass against us, and for leave us not into temptation, but to deliver us from the people, for thine is the kingdom, and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Hallelujah, Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

God of creation, God of our divine, we give thanks to an encouragement to both our souls and bodies.

We thank you that to wisdom that you have entrusted to her and to our spiritual, and have allowed the soil from whence to came to produce fruits and abundance.

We thank you, dear God, for the sacrament of your presence at the time of need.

Today's blessing is from poet Dan Richardson.

If you could see the journey whole, you might never undertake it.

Might never dare the first step that propels you from the place you have known toward the place you know not.

Call it one of the mercies of the road, but we see it only by stages as it opens before us, as it comes into our keeping step by single step.

There is nothing for it but to go, and by our going take the vows the pilgrim takes, to be faithful to the next step, to rely on more than the map, to heed the signposts of intuition and dream, to follow the star that only you will recognize, to keep an open eye for the wonders that attend the path, to press on beyond distractions, beyond fatigue, beyond what would tempt you from the way.

There are vows that only you will know.

The secret promises for your particular path and the new ones you will need to make when the road is revealed by turns you could not have foreseen.

Keep them, break them, make them again.

Each promise becomes part of the path.

Each choice creates the road that will take you to the place where at last you will be to offer the gift most needed.

The gift that only you can give.

Before turning to go home by another.

Hallelujah, hallelujah.

Go in peace to love and serve the Lord.