Advent 1 2023

Let's be coming.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

And let's speak God.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God.

You all are surprised.

All the time.

And from you must be returning.

Bless the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love you and worthy magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Light of the world, in grace and beauty, mirror of God's eternal face, transparent flame of love's free duty, you bring salvation to our human race.

Sacred mystery.

Breakthrough all the peace of you.

We ask your mercy and to see your image of one another.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, give us grace that we may cast away the works of darkness, put upon us the armor of light, now in the time of this mortal life, in which thy son, Jesus Christ, came to visit us in great humility.

That in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the quick and the dead, we may rise to the life and work.

Now forever.

As we be exceeded, our children are invited to children's chapel with Mr.

Calet.

For though you were angry with me, your anger turned away, and you comforted me.

Behold, God is my salvation.

I will trust and I will not fear.

For Yah, he who is, God is my strength, and my mind has become my salvation.

And you shall with joy draw water from the wells of salvation.

And you shall say, In that day, give thanks to the God of our salvation, call on God's name, proclaim God's deeds among nations, make known that God's name is exalted.

Sing praises to the mighty God who has done gloriously.

Let this be made known in all the earth the word of the Lord.

Psalm 65, we will read responsibly by the half verse.

To you in silence is praise, God in Zion.

And to you shall be before.

You who answer prayer, to you shall all flesh come.

When deeds of iniquity overwhelm us, you forgive our transgressions.

Happy are those whom you choose and bring near to dwell in your courts.

We shall be satisfied with the goodness of your house, your holy temple.

Through wondrous deeds you answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation.

Open all the atmosphere and of the heart of the seas.

You establish the mountains through your light.

You are hearing with strength, the one who silences the roaring of the seas.

The roaring of their waves from all of the people.

They who live in the farthest reaches are awed by your signs.

You attend the earth and water her.

You enrich her greatly.

You provide the people with grain and salvation, irrigating earth's furrows, smoothing her ridges, softening her with showers, and blessing her growth.

You crown the year with your goodness.

The pastures of the wilderness overflow.

To Greeks and to barbarians, to the wise, and to the foolish, and my debtor.

Thus my eagerness to proclaim the gospel to you all who are in Rome.

Indeed, I am not ashamed of the gospel.

It is the power of God for salvation to everyone who has faith.

To the Jew first, and even to the Greek.

For the righteousness of God is revealed in it through faith and for faith, as it is written.

The one who is righteous will live by faithfulness.

The word of the Lord.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, as it was written in the prophets, look, I am sending my messenger ahead of you who will prepare your way.

The voice of one crying out in the wilderness, prepare the way of the Holy One, make straight the paths.

John the baptizer was in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins.

People from all over the Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins.

Now John was wearing camel's hair, a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.

He proclaimed, There is one coming after me who is more powerful than am I, whose sandal phones I am not worthy to stoop down and untie.

I have baptized you in water, but that one will baptize you in the Holy Spirit.

And just as he was rising up out of the water, he saw the heavens starting apart, and a spirit descending like a dove on him, and a voice came from heaven.

And the Spirit suddenly drove Jesus out into the wilderness.

He was in the wilderness forty days, tempted by Satan, and he was with the wild beasts, and the angels waited on him.

The gospel of the Lord.

By the way, Happy Church New Year begins today.

The rest of us have another whatever it is, 28 days until it's our secular new year, but church new year begins today because we have to make time to get ready for Christmas.

Before we talk about that, though, I do want to mention to you, normally we use, for the last eight and a half years, we use something called the revised common lectionary.

It's a three-year cycle with years A, B, and C.

About two years ago, one of the priests in the Episcopal Church, named Will McGaffney, put together a different, it's a parallel lectionary called a women's lectionary for the entire church year.

This is made by Church Publishing.

It is distributed by Church Publishing, and we will be using it this year.

So if you're wondering, these readings, I'm used to add them one, with the Son of Man coming on the clouds to judge the whole world.

I mean, if you've really been around for a while, that's reading number one.

We didn't read that today.

We will read it this year when we read Mark.

We're still in R year B.

But the women's lection area is a little bit different foray through the lectionary, and it's meant to give us some more uh stories about prominent women in the Bible, feminine images of God and the Psalms and the prophets.

And so we're going to try it this year.

So I just want to prepare you.

It will be different from the RCL that you're used to.

And I hope you'll enjoy it for what it is.

What else is different?

Well, the hangings.

And blue is this admin color, but you know, really, it's Marian blue, because we can't just have regular old blue at the church.

That sounds really normal.

And we have to remember that even though on the flannel board you see Mary wearing blue, she didn't own a single blue thing.

Because blue fabric costs more than gold.

And Mary, we understand, was not economically advantaged.

So blue is a theological color, it's not a historical color.

The royalty of Mary and the royalty of preparation.

If you go to other churches, Roman Episcopal, Lutheran, uh, some Presbyterian churches that maintain this ancient tradition of colors, you might see purple instead of blue.

Purple, which is also a color of royalty.

Purple and blue come from the same dye sack of a crustacean off the coast of Phoenicia, which is why it was so expensive in the ancient world that only royalty can have it.

We do purple during Lent because it's a penitential season to prepare for the coming of the king.

But it turns out Lent is also a penitential season light.

We use blue because it's a little softer than purple, but the earliest liturgy of the church, right?

You do Lent to prepare for Easter.

We do Advent to prepare for Christmas.

Penitential light.

Because we're called to get ready.

Advent means coming.

And every year when I ask day school kids, hey, who's coming on Christmas Day?

The answer is Santa Claus.

And that might be true in your home, but hopefully universally true is that it is Jesus, the Christ child, who's coming, and we are called to prepare for his coming.

He will not need a stroller this year, nor will he need a car seat.

That happened.

I mean, I don't know what the donkey equivalent of a car seat is.

Probably Mary just held it.

He doesn't need that stuff.

What we realize is to be prepared for Christ to come in his full glory and his embodiment in a dirty trough.

To be ready for that, we don't need diapers.

We need hope, peace, joy, and love.

Joy being the rose candle.

We don't call it paint because we've got to have fancy words in church.

By the way, we did this last year.

And you already know if there's a next year, we'll do it then too.

Between this year and last, don't you perceive that we could really use peace to hope to the world?

Let alone peace.

How about joy?

Sometimes when I listen to the radio and elected officials, regular people in the street, when I listen to myself, we could probably use a little more love than just respect.

But we're called to culture to cultivate those virtues so that when Christ comes, not only will he have a ready welcome, but we'll be ready for it.

Good news, he's coming even if you don't.

This is kind of what we celebrate.

The magic works whether you participate in it or not.

It's just frankly more fun when you're ready.

We're supposed to talk about hope today.

Let me tell you what I often hope for.

I often hope that when people RSVP, they will show up.

I do.

I often also hope people will RSVP.

I hope that things will not be uncomfortable.

Like, you know, I'm a long-distance runner, and I hope I don't have to stretch or roll out muscle groups, because I don't like doing it.

It just feels like extra time, and I'd rather just run and be done.

So I hope I can just go out and run and feel good about it, and it won't be painful, and my legs won't be tired, and I'll feel like it.

I hope for that.

I hope when I'm going downtown Houston on Wednesday at 10 30 in the morning, there won't be a traffic jam because there shouldn't be.

And I hope what you're hearing is it's funny.

In English, we use these words interchangeably.

There's no hope in any of that.

That's just wishing.

This is what I want.

Some of the stuff I want is probably good, you know?

Like, I want to be able to go to Israel on a pilgrimage, the diocese is paying for.

I planned that.

We were supposed to go in January.

And what do you know?

I don't get my wish this year.

Of course, we all understand there's bigger problems than mine in Israel.

Now, usually we talk so much about hope as if it was what we just want to be true, what we wish for, that we forget that hope is a holier word than that.

But what we forget, I think, more often than not, is that the things God hopes for sometimes aren't very comfortable.

You know, a lot of times we talk about how we feel certain ways, and really when we use that word feeling, we don't feel that at all.

It's just a thought loop that we have in our head that we've nurtured for years.

So I have these thought loops in my head that are not always super productive.

Like sometimes a child will say something that's very innocent, and instead I'll hear it as a challenge to my parental authority.

So I need to do something to put them in their right spot.

Or sometimes people might have a suggestion like, hey, what if we did this particular thing this year, and I might hear it as criticism.

I hope you know what I'm talking about.

And when I'm like my head screwed on correctly, I'm able to say, you know, I don't know what their intention was.

I know what I perceived it to be.

And I perceived it to be critical and negative.

And boy, that is not life-giving for me or them.

To be defensive in a snap moment.

Does anybody begin?

I want to raise your hand.

I hope I'm not the only one with thought loops like this.

Or thought loops like, ugh, I didn't, I didn't exercise today.

I just feel so terrible and I'm ugly, and I can't go by the mirror.

I don't know if anybody has thought loops like that.

And we realize in a moment sometimes those thought loops are not helpful.

And what would it take to change them?

And what I hope is it would take a pill.

It would take one pill, and then my thought loops would be like and life giving.

I wouldn't even take a shot.

I wouldn't even take a shot.

I wouldn't even drink sure prep if that would do it.

That's for people over the age of 40, like I'm dating myself.

Instead of sure prep, no one looks forward to that, right?

We hope there won't be an accident.

Like those are the kinds we hope for, right?

I hope it'll be easy to change.

And the truth is it isn't.

I hope that's okay to say.

Because I wish change would be convenient and God understands it never is or it wouldn't be worth doing anyway.

And this is part of why we so often forget Advent is a semi-penitential season, is because we're busy with like the glitter and the lights, and everything's supposed to be nice, and families are supposed to come together without any conflict and say thank you for everything.

Does that ever happen?

But it's supposed to, and we hope it will.

Which means we wish it would.

And here, right off the bat, this is how Mark begins the gospel of good news with a little bit of what semi-penitential hope looks like.

There's this guy called John, and look, I'm not gonna encourage you to do this.

He wears a camel skin, right?

Anybody petted a camel before?

I'm just curious.

I have petted a camel.

It's not soft like my dog.

It's like coarse, like a brillopat.

And John is wearing the hair against his skin.

He's not wearing the leather on his skin.

He's wearing the hair.

Not because he's some kind of flagellant, but because that's a reminder to him every time it hitches, which is like ten times a second, that maybe he could trade what he wishes for for what God hopes for.

You might do this with a string on your finger.

That's how we used to do it, right?

You might do this with an alarm on your phone.

Am I wishing or hoping right now?

John did it with this physical reminder.

And he said this really interesting thing.

I baptize people with water, and there's one coming after me who is more important and more powerful, who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.

And if you've read Mark and Luke, I'm sorry, Matthew and Luke.

Mark's the earliest gospel, it's the first one, it's the shortest.

Matthew and Luke, they liked Mark's ideas, but they thought he could use a little word.

They add another little phrase.

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with and with fire.

Look at that.

Jim gets a gold star.

Thanks for putting up with that.

Yeah, and with fire.

Mark doesn't put that in.

Now, I almost wish Mark had put it in, and I'll tell you why I think Matthew and Luke do put it in, because Mark's going to do what I'm going to say anyway.

What does it mean to be baptized with fire?

We often get this wrong when we read the Bible because since Dante, Al Gary, and John Milton, we think fire is a terrible punishment eternally in hell for when you make God not happy.

That's just frankly not biblical.

Fire in the Bible shows up as an image of cleansing, of alchemy, of taking a semi-precious metal and making it precious by heating it to the point you can remove the draws.

So this is not a symbol of torture, it's a symbol of purification because God knows if we could burn the draws out of our lives, we'd enjoy them more.

And we would be more enjoyable to be around.

And John says, I'm gonna get you in the water, but the thing you really want is to be baptized with fire.

On most days I don't want that.

Most days, heck, there's no day where I want to be baptized with fire.

I want the pill.

I want the shots.

I'd even take a surgery if it could just be done.

I don't want to meditate for an hour a day to reprogram thought loops that I have calcified from terrible habit for the last 40-some years.

I don't want to do that.

That's baptism with fire.

I don't want to write out journal entries about why I'm still, you know, sort of nursing uh regrets and negativity against certain members of my family who hurt my feelings a long time ago, and I'm sure they haven't changed because they never said I'm sorry.

I don't want to do that because it's painful.

It takes time, which I often feel like I don't have any of that anyway.

God hopes I will do that.

I hope you hear that.

God hopes I of you will do that.

Not so you'll be more lovable, so that you can receive the love that's already there.

Oh, by the way, why do I think Mark believes in baptism with fire and what it is?

Because you notice the first thing Jesus does, he hears this voice from heaven.

This is my son, the beloved.

With you I'm well pleased.

Boy, that sounds like a pill, doesn't it?

That sounds like a really good pill I would love to take.

And then you notice what happens as soon as he hears that?

He goes to the desert for 40 days and gets tempted.

Which is called being baptized with fire.

He's tempted to hear this thing, which God, which is, I want you to hear this too.

God loves you so much, you can't do anything to make God love you anymore.

And you can't do anything to make God love you less.

Jesus hears that, and then he has to sweat that into his bones for 40 days.

Because he's a human being like human being, and pills don't change our brain.

Our brain changes with work and with faith and with love.

And if we're lucky, with time.

That's the baptism of fire.

I don't want it.

I don't wish for it.

And God hopes I'll do it.

Now, I had a parishioner, this is really lovely, you know.

Sometimes you meet people who think differently from you, and it's so splendid.

And I know this is gonna sound maybe a little bit different because it's not traditional, but but I love this thought.

This person told me, you know, I just sort of think before we're born, we're trying to figure out what it is we need so we can be bold more fully ourselves.

And we say, God, I want those parents.

I want those ones.

Uh this problem at work.

I need that problem, God.

I want to be born alive where I have that problem, so that I can be baptized with fire and come out the other side and not have that problem anymore.

That may sound a little bit kooky.

There's something lovely about it, isn't it?

There's something lovely to think that the things that are most vexing for me in my work life, in my home life, are actually opportunities for me to burn the draws off of myself.

So instead of I said, I don't want to do that, I'm a tired person, I hate going.

What if I said, here's an opportunity?

I'm gonna burn off some draws.

Now, I'm not a physicist, but here's what I do understand is that those thought loops that don't go anywhere that I know aren't helping me, but boy, I don't know how to get out of.

I put a lot of energy into those.

Like energy cycles off of my soul to go into those thought loops.

And uh, you know, if we could be baptized with fire, if we could ignite those thought loops, we'd probably produce a whole lot of light.

And this happens during a dark time of the year under the four electric lights, right?

Like it's gonna get dark at five o'clock today, pretty much, right?

So that's like three extra hours where the world's gonna be dark, or if I can burn some unhealthy thought loops off, I could light up the world.

I don't want you, I don't also want to be somebody who says, I'm gonna go looking for a problem so I can grow.

You don't have to look for them, they're gonna come to you.

And let's be honest, if you've never stretched before and you go to like a yoga class for advanced folks, you're gonna get injured.

Like it's really likely you're gonna get injured.

So we just have to be mindful.

You'll get a chance to stretch more deeply next year.

Stretching's painful, it takes time.

You may not initially see the utility at all.

You will feel it over time.

Any athlete will tell you if you stretch appropriately, you will feel the benefit of stretching over time because it will make you more limber and able to pivot amongst the swift and varying changes of the world.

You get seven days to stretch before we get to talk about peace.

This is sequential on purpose because if we don't stretch into what God hopes for a little more, peace will just be quiet.

And it doesn't mean that at all.

So we've got to start the discomfort of stretching a little more deeply away from what we want and into what God hopes for.

Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of an IC creature.

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, the Maker and Earth, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, eternally God of the Father, God for God, life from life, true God, true God, we have me with the Father, through all things of man, salvation, we take half from heaven.

The power of the Holy Spirit became each of the men.

We believe in Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, the proceeds of the Father and the Son, the Father and the Son gets worshiped and glorified, he has spoken through the prophets.

We believe on the behalf of God's solving church.

We acknowledge what fact is nothing of this existence.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world in God.

Amen.

The prayers of the people, creator of the stars in the sky, the Son and the Moon, you are the light by which we wake and work.

Surround our church, our leaders and people, with your arm of light.

We pray especially for our presiding bishop, Mike.

Our bishops, Andy, Edgar, Jeff and Kay, and Mike, our priests, strike them as they reach out to you in prayer and hope open their hearts to your will.

We pray for our leaders, especially Joe, our president, Grant, our governor, and the Congress of this land.

And awake in those ideas, and we may all have a spirit of cooperation.

And those who are broken with grace.

God of all mercies, we confessed our lives.

We have denied our commitments of each other, and ourselves, and our world.

We prevent the evil that the evil we have done and the evil done on our behalf.

Amen.

Almighty God have mercy on you.

Forgive you all your sin to our Lord Jesus Christ, strengthen you in all goodness.

By the power of the Holy Spirit give you an eternal life.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

If you're new to us or haven't done this before, uh, we have these little cards in the room right behind what we're sitting in that say welcome, and we'd be tremendously grateful if you would fill one of those out and put it in the little blue basket.

That's code that we stopped passing place.

So we do offerings and we do visitor cards in that same blue basket right out there.

And if you don't want a phone call, don't check that box, you'll move one.

But we would be very grateful if you fill a card out so we have a record of your visit.

And thanks for worshiping with us here today.

Um there are several announcements I want to call your attention to, but it's the first Sunday in December.

So if you were born this month in December, I would be grateful to invite you forward so that we can celebrate your birthday and ask God's blessing on the next year.

And Jesus was born too, uh, so there's at least one birthday.

As you're making your way up, we share our name, and then any of our birth, and either where we were born, when we were born, or both of us.

Susan Troyer, December 20th, 1960, Palo Alto, California.

Regan Easy, born in Alice, Texas, December 9th, 1945.

Gail Garassick, born in 1995, December 27th, 1947.

December 27th, 1958.

Alright, we're new, we're representing for Jack.

So Jack's birthday is uh December 12th, and he was born in Houston, Texas.

And I represent my boy, Daniel uh Andrews, who was born in Rome, Georgia, uh December 30th.

So uh let's ask God's blessing on your next year.

Lord God, we know every year, every moment by a sparring and your loving hand.

So look with continued favor we pray on these your children as they begin their next year.

Grant that they would continue to grow in wisdom and grace, and above all, strengthen their trust in your goodness and love all the days of their lives.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

How about anniversaries?

Are there anniversaries with events?

As you're making your way up, I would just ask that you share your name, support the date of your anniversary, and where you are.

Uh Juliet, um triple December 19th.

Houston.

Say John Houston.

Uh what what were the what are the things?

Okay.

Uh Elisit Richard.

Um date of the anniversary is December 30th.

Uh to uh Houston.

Larry and Roman Roberts December 16th has a lot of things.

December 28.

1974.

So 49 years.

49 years.

Amazing.

Beaumont.

Alan, Joy, Snap, December 27, 1997.

We were born in Lake Taco.

Okay, well, let's add Scott married.

Married not born.

Born again together in Lake Tahoe.

So let's pray.

Lord God, thank you for the gift and the sacrament of marriage whereby you reveal to the world your undying love for each and every one of us.

And we pray, God, that as each of these couples continues to grow in love and in keeping their vows for one another, that you would surprise them with new joy this year.

That they would continue to model not only love, but also forgiveness to one another and to the world.

Amen.

Thank you.

Congratulations.

Yeah, it's a good thing to remember that, like after two years, every anniversary is a celebration, right?

Yeah, okay.

Several announcements to call to your attention.

First, I want to start off by saying a little bit of what happened yesterday.

So many of you know that we have a fresh food distribution once a month, and yesterday we served 97 families representing 437 people in about an hour and 45 minutes.

And one of the things I didn't highlight enough about this ministry is not only is the need really great, I mean the need's really great.

I hope you hear that numerically.

But this is like one of the only things you can do with your children.

Like service with your children is really hard.

Most people want you to be 16 and fill out waivers, and to see our eight and our nine and our 14-year-olds loading up people's car with care and dignity with their parents, it does not work well.

And even if you're not there, this is your ministry.

So thank you for sponsoring it.

It's lovely and beautiful.

And then we had an Enneagram retreat yesterday for about 45 people.

And then there was Santa Claus in the hallway taking pictures to raise money for the assistants.

So I had a busy day yesterday.

Today, there is an opportunity to help bring sort of advent-mindedness into your home.

At 4 o'clock today, we're going to have our Advent Readmaking workshop.

So you'll make a miniature version of that.

We have the candles.

All you would need to bring is a pair of hand trimmers so we can trim the greenery that gets sort of pinned onto a styrofoam form we've already got.

And we have a litany of greetings that you'll read on Sunday morning to take home.

My family does this before dinner during Advent, or we like the invertebrate candle, we do the readings, and that's been our discipline for a long time, and we really enjoy it.

So whether you do it at dinner or it's just a thing or a gift you want to give to your neighbor, or it's not for you, it's today at 4 o'clock in the crystal.

A couple of things that are coming up.

This coming Saturday is our next Red Guild meeting.

So the Bread Guild are the folks who roll around the bread we take at communion, and they're going to do that at 1 p.m.

And it sounds like that or work, except they always have like a party while they do it.

Like, I mean, really, a legitimate like join the party that has like charcuterie and wine and things like that.

So you don't have to be a veteran, but you're invited to join the Bread Guild on Saturday, this coming Saturday at 1 o'clock.

Next Sunday, uh, we have a particularly different service called Lessons of Carols at 10.30.

So at 10:30, we'll have additional readings and additional carols that are designed to kind of help us try to get more advent-minded.

Uh that will not happen at 8 o'clock, it'll happen at 10.

Two weeks from today, or no, no, no, the 11th, that's a week from tomorrow.

A week from Monday, our last group, that stands for Bacchanalian Ladies in St.

Thomas, by the way.

Uh, these are ladies who get together for a dinner, uh, for a dinner social, and this time there's a little bit of a service will come in attached in gift meeting.

That'll be on Monday, December the 11th at the Sundance Grill, and it begins at 5:30.

Uh I mean, that's actually all you need to know.

But if you want to talk to somebody about it, um Ellen Cook, Jamie, Jane Flynn, talk to one of the ladies at St.

Thomas, they'll tell you what to do.

Uh, or just talk to me, and I won't go, but I'll tell you how to get through.

Um, two weeks from today.

Bishop Hector Monterroso, our regional bishop, will be here at 10:30.

Uh, so we'll only be here at 8.

This is the annual visit we give to a bishop, and we'll be doing 11 confirmations or receptions.

If you're interested in being baptized that day, talk to me as well.

We're doing baptism that day.

But Bishop Hector will be here, and uh, he's just a lovely man.

He really is a lovely man.

So I hope you'll have an opportunity to get to see him because he gets dudes warmth and friendliness.

Later that evening on the 17th is uh is a more kind of contemplative service that we put on called the longest night.

It's a service that honestly tries to acknowledge that sometimes the interior doesn't match the exterior of a holiday celebration.

So it's a really service that makes room um deeply for grief and loss and anxiety and mourning and doubt.

So uh it's usually very small.

It's usually not built in.

So you can have some honesty.

Uh that service will be at 4:30 p.m.

again.

We call it the longest time.

Uh the last thing I want to tell you about is the Christmas Eve schedule.

This happens every few years.

The Christmas Eve falls on a Sunday.

So on Christmas Eve, there's four opportunities to worship.

We'll have an advent for service at 9 o'clock.

So not 8 or 10.

One morning service.

And there will be no Eucharist.

It will be morning prayer, a chapter readings, and a sermon.

We won't have the Eucharist at night.

Nor will the choir be there.

But then at 3:30, there'll be a family-friendly Christmas Eve service with a spontaneous Christmas pageant.

So if you come by 3:20, you can get a costume and be part of the living activity.

And that service is usually very fun and sometimes interesting.

But it's lovely.

It's lovely.

At 5 o'clock, we'll be a more traditional uh Christmas service.

The choir will be here along with a harp.

Uh then at 9 p.m., we'll have a carol sing.

The choir will sing some carols, we'll be invited to join some, the harp will play, and the midnight mass starts at 9.30 because it's midnight somewhere.

So if you come at 9.30 to midnight mass, following that there'll be champagne and chocolate as a reception in the hallway.

And on Christmas Day, there are no services.

So that's our service schedule.

You'll see it in the emails, uh, you'll see it on the website, but it's good to be here to kind of think through your preparations for Christmas.

The last thing, which is really great, and this has been done for a little bit, but I just keep forgetting to acknowledge it.

You know, every year uh to make sure that we are good stewards with the gifts that are given to us, we perform an audit of the books and an audit of the controls of the books.

And uh, if we were to do this with an external agency, it would cost us$20,000.

Uh so typically we recruit parish volunteers to do this if we can.

And we did.

And so the two auditors who fully audited for us were Barbara Gaines and Christopher Curran, they both intend to worship at 8 o'clock.

But this was sort of a lovely gift that they gave us because if you've ever worked with audits, sometimes they're not that great.

I'm just gonna be honest with you.

Sometimes they'll say we found very few irregularities.

What's great about an internal audit is that people know that we do, and they want to protect what we do, and so they give us more than that.

So Barbara and Christopher worked very faithfully over the summer and early fall to put this together, both income and expenses.

And I'm glad to tell you there were no irregularities, but they did have recommendations about how we attract things better in the future, which is always what we love to get.

Uh so if you see Barbara or Christopher, if you don't know what they look like, that's why we have a parish director.

Or you can say, Who are those people?

I want to thank them.

I would love to point them out to you, but this is a gift that they give to all of us is protecting our stewardship, and it's really worth recognizing because they spend like a hundred hours doing continue to walk in love.

As Christ first love does make himself for us and offering a sacrifice to God.

And about this is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

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

You who have less 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 it is Christ, and he invites you to meet him here.

Our service continues on page 333 of your red prayer book.

Page 333.

We should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, holy Father Almighty, everlasting God.

Because thou didst send thy beloved Son to redeem us from sin and death, to make us heirs in him of everlasting life.

And when he shall come again in power and great triumph to judge the world, we may without shame or fear rejoice to behold his appearing.

Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and singing.

Who made there by his one oblation of himself once offered, a full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world, and that institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.

For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.

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

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he had given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of this, for this is my blood of the renewed testament, which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.

Do this as oft as she shall drink it in remembrance of me.

Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, according to the institution of thy dearly beloved Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, we, thy humble servants, who celebrate and make here before thy divine majesty with these, thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the moral memorial thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, rendering unto thee most hearty thanks for the innumerable benefits procured unto us by the same.

We most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness mercifully to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, most humbly beseeching thee to grant that by the merits and death of thy Son Jesus Christ, and through faith in his blood, we and all thy whole church may obtain remission of our sins and all other benefits of his passion.

Here we offer and present it to thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a reasonable, holy, and living sacrifice unto thee, humbly beseeching thee that we and all others who shall be partakers of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him.

And although we are unworthy through our manifold sins to offer unto thee any sacrifice, yet we beseech thee to accept this our bounded duty and service, not weighing our merits, but pardoning our offenses through Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom and with whom and in whom.

In the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.

Amen.

Now as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray.

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, for thy kingdom come, thy will be honored as it is in heaven.

Give us the spare bread, and forgive us to send us, as we forgive those who have passed against us, and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us to the people who are kingdom and the power and glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

Let's read that.

Almighty and ever living God, both part of humanity, and how to speak us in the total ministry, with the spiritual food of the Lord, precious body and blood and Jesus Christ, and usually thereby and thy neighbor and destroyers, and that we are remembered to our written physical Father and Son, the blessed property of all painful people, and are also their own of thy everlasting kingdom.

And I will teach thee, O Heavenly Father, who assist us with thy grace, that we may continue and have fellowship and do all such works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in.

Amen.

Take your encouragement from Christ, that your joy may be complete.

We will share with service.

We will find consolation.

Practice a ministry of humility and compassion.

God is at work in you, empowering you.

We will welcome Christ into our hearts.

We will live lives worthy of gospel.

We will go forth in hope and in peace.