Pentecost 12 2023

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and blessed be God's family, now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, under whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.

Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthyly magnify thy holy name.

Through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, you've given your only Son to be for us a sacrifice for sin, and also an example of a godly life.

Give us grace to receive thankfully the fruits of his redeeming work and to follow daily in the blessed steps of his most holy life.

Through Jesus Christ, your Son, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen.

Please be seated, and while you're being seated, our children are invited to Children's Chapel with Mr.

Alex and the back.

Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, Send everyone away from me.

So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers.

And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.

Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still alive?

But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they in his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, Come closer to me.

And they came closer, and he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.

And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.

For God sent me before you to preserve life.

For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest.

God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.

So it is not you who sent me here, but God.

He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt.

Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt.

Come down to me, do not delay.

You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, and your children and your children's children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have.

I will provide for you there, since there are five more years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have will not come to poverty.

And now your eyes, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you.

You must tell my father how greatly I am honored in Egypt and all that you have seen.

Hurry and bring my father down here.

Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, upon Benjamin wept upon his neck, and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.

And after that his brothers talked with him.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Psalm one thirty three, we will read responsively by the half verse.

Oh God, how good and pleasant it is.

Upon the beard of Aaron.

It is like the dew of Harriman.

For there the Lord has ordained a blessing.

I ask then, has God rejected his people?

By no means.

I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin.

God has not rejected his people, whom we foreknew, for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.

Just as you were once disobedient to God, but have now received mercy because of their disobedience.

So they have now been disobedient in order that, by the mercy shown to you, they too may now receive mercy.

For God has imprisoned all in disobedience, so that he may be merciful to all.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, Listen and understand.

It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles.

Then the disciples approached and said to him, Do you know the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said?

Jesus answered, Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

So let them alone.

They are blind guides of the blind.

And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit.

But Peter said to Jesus, Explain this parable to us.

Then Jesus said, Are you also still without understanding?

Don't you see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer?

But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles.

From out of the heart come evil intentions murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander.

These are what defile a person, but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile.

Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyrae in Sidon.

Just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, Have mercy on me, Lord, son of David, my daughter is tormented by an unclean spirit.

But Jesus did not answer her at all.

And his disciples came and urged him, saying, Send her away, she keeps shouting after us.

Jesus answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

But she came and knelt before him, saying, Lord, help me.

Jesus answered, It's not fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs.

She said, Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

And Jesus answered her, Woman, Great is your faith.

Let it be done for you just as you wish.

And her daughter was healed instantly.

The gospel of the Lord.

And I want to say, I don't take this the wrong way.

I hope it bothers you.

I actually hope it bothers you, because here's a woman in need who's asking Jesus to do something, and his first response is to ignore her.

And then his second response is to say, it's not right to take children's food and throw it to dogs like you.

Now, as a young person, what I grew up hearing, the way we solve this, is we said, since Jesus is perfect in the sense that he never could make a mistake, this is our idea of perfection, totally transcendent, never wrong, always completely right.

That was perfection as a kid.

He was testing her faith.

He was going to see if she could earn grace.

The way you earn grace is you keep begging for it.

And if you've begged long enough, God will reward you with grace.

This is how we were taught to pray, actually.

So if you were praying for your lost brother or your mother who had like a cold, the thing to do was never stop, because if you did it enough, you would earn God's attention.

The only problem, right, is that the definition of grace is unmerited favor.

I mean, that's just the definition of it.

Like check out Webster, right?

So how is it that we merit grace if grace is unmerited favor?

It seems really hard that for God to give us grace, we should have to earn it.

That just seems like a non-sequitur.

So I'm not going to solve this problem for you, but I'm going to give you a solution, and you may not like it.

And if you don't like it, the windows are really pretty.

So feel free to have a look.

I want to give you a different idea of perfection on.

Perfection may not be that we do it right, it might be that we get it right.

There's a really big difference between being right and getting it right.

So there's number one.

Number two, helps from John Wesley, who maybe you know was an Anglican priest until he died.

He was never a Methodist.

That came later.

John Wesley wrote that ignorance is not a sin, but that willful ignorance is a sin.

Ignorance not a sin.

Willful ignorance is a sin.

We say Jesus is like us in every way, but without.

Okay, so here's the jump I want you to take, and you can think it's nuts.

That's okay.

What if Jesus was ignorant?

What if Jesus had to learn stuff?

Now, the flannel board Jesus I grew up with as a kid didn't.

He knew everything.

He walked in a room and he read your mind and he knew exactly what you wanted and he knew what to say.

The only problem with that is it's heresy.

Because we said a long time ago that Jesus was like us in every way, and I can't do that.

Can you?

Usually when I read your mind, I got it completely wrong.

I love reading your mind, by the way.

And I get it wrong a lot.

So what if, just like us, Jesus had to learn?

I hope so.

Because then maybe he could understand me with some compassion.

And what if Jesus didn't just have to learn how to read and write, and in what year the Battle of Hastings was fought?

1066.

What if he didn't just have to learn that?

What if Jesus had to learn how to be a social human being?

This can be challenging.

But if you stay with my definition of perfection, not that we are right, but that we get it right, I find it really, really helpful.

Because the truth is, if you grew up like I did, you grew up with some prejudice.

I mean a really tough one, I'm still working to overcome.

I grew up in a household in which the Duke Blue Devils were the real devils.

And um, because we're University of Kentucky fans, um, Duke is like a community college in my family.

Um, did you go with a prejudice like that?

I know you're gonna say, Mike, that's nonsensical.

It's strong.

It's a strong prejudice in the UK household that we struggle with the Duke Blue Devils.

Now, um, since I've learned, I would rather go to Duke than the University of Kentucky.

I really probably would rather do that.

But as a kid, no way.

And even in college, I thought, nope, I would rather go to NC State than Duke.

I mean, this was the sort of stuff.

I know this sounds silly.

It is silly, but it starts to get less silly when you read the story carefully.

The first frame Jesus says is it's what comes out of us that defiles us, right?

The second thing that happens is that a woman comes up asking for help who's a Canaanite.

And in case you're not tracking, that means there's two strikes against her.

She's a woman and she's a Canaanite.

And Jesus does this thing that happens to professional women all the time.

I know this because my wife's a professional woman.

She asks for a thing, and their first response is he ignores her.

Are there any professional women in the room?

I just have to ask this.

You ever been ignored?

I don't think a lot has changed.

This lady is a Canaanite, which means she worships some kind of other gods.

She probably cooks differently, she's probably dressed differently.

And Jesus, after ignoring her, she calls the question.

Now, she probably could have, and I don't think I would have looked down on her if she said, How dare you ignore me?

She doesn't do that.

She's persistent.

This is what her faith looks like.

She persists.

Jesus says this thing, and look, let's be clear.

We have a word in English that means female dog.

We have that word.

And I don't think any man really should ever say that word.

I don't think so, because of the history of abuse.

But let's be really clear.

That's the word in the text.

Calling somebody who is female a female dog is never a compliment.

I hope this bothers you.

It bothers me.

What's her response?

Even dogs get crumbs, which one of my friends, David Peters, translated as you can help me, you just don't want to.

You can help me, you just don't want to.

This is a tough journey to take because we're always taught, like I said, or I've always been taught, perfection is, we're always right.

Perfection means that we get it right.

Imagine, here is Jesus encountering an object of cultural prejudice who says, I'm a human being too.

And Jesus says the perfect thing.

You're right.

And I'm going to get it right.

What I want to make is learning sacramental.

Because learning is sacramental.

Learning is sacramental.

This woman persists until Jesus regards her as a human being by at least saying no.

I don't know if you've read this quote by Ellie B.

Zell, who survived Auschwitz-Triblenka.

He says the opposite of love is not hatred, it's indifference.

It's ignoring a human being who's in front of you.

Telling no to another human being is treating them like a human being.

Ignoring somebody, well, it's a different matter.

I find this hopeful because I gotta learn stuff all the time.

I'm pretty sure you gotta learn stuff all the time, too.

I have great parents.

I grew up in a nice community.

I grew up with plenty of cultural prejudice.

You did too.

There's times, there's these moments where I've heard something a thousand times and then the thousands and the first time somehow it clicks or it crystallizes.

I think that's human experience.

I'm not afraid to say Jesus was a human being and he had human experience, and the difference is he chose to get it right.

So I think the question we get asked in this story, the question I hear being asked is, who are you able to help that you're not willing to?

I want to sit on that question for one second.

Because look, there's people in the room who need to say no more than they say no.

I'm really clear on this as a priest.

I know some of you are doing too much.

And there's people in the room who could do more.

I'm just gonna be honest, right?

I don't think this story means help every time without fail, because there'll be nothing left of you.

I think the question the story is asking us, though, who are we able to help that were not categorically willing to?

I was super lucky this week to spend two hours with Charlie Bolden and Bobby Satchers.

So Bobby Satchers got an MD at Harvard Medical School and decided he would go to this little known school, MIT, and get a PhD in chemical engineering.

And then he went into outer space to do surgical oncology research.

Charlie Bolden, you may know.

Was the senior warden of this parish.

I want to tell you a little bit about their story because it reminds me about the Canaanite woman.

Charlie Bolding grew up in South Carolina, and he decided he wanted to go to the Naval Academy when he was a high school senior, and at the time the senator was Strom Thurmond.

And I don't know if you know the legacy of Strom Thurman, but he said very clearly, no black person will go to any service academy while I'm the senator of South Carolina.

Now, I'm not maligning the man, this is history.

Charlie's mom said, You gonna give up that easy?

Talk about the Syrio-Phoenician woman, right?

So what did Charlie do?

He wrote a letter to Lyndon Johnson, who he'd never met and didn't know.

Kennedy had just been assassinated, describing how he wanted to go to the Naval Academy, and he was being categorically blocked because of his race.

I think the letter said something like, You can help.

I hope you will want to.

Charlie Bolden didn't hear anything for three months, and then all of a sudden the senator from Montana gave him an appointment to the Naval Academy.

Because Lyndon Johnson heard he could help and he chose to.

Charlie's perseverance under something that's extremely unfair was what made him the head of NASA, right?

He was the lady in this story, head of NASA under Barack Obama, right?

Served for eight years as a chief administrator.

Bobby Schercher grew up in South Carolina as well.

It's interesting, these guys, they both became astronauts because of Ron McNair.

Neither one of them thought they could or wanted to, and Ron McNair was the evangelist of black astronauts in South Carolina.

Super interesting.

Bobby Schercher's parents and grandparents had been Baptists their whole life.

During the 60s, his parents became Episcopalians because the only people in their community who were standing up for civil rights were Episcopalians.

We didn't get that right everywhere.

We did not.

The history is very muddled.

But in that area we did.

Because the Episcopal Church was asked, can you do something for us?

And they said, yes, we will.

Yes, we will.

By the way, that's why we're building this thing.

Because we can't.

Because we can.

And we choose to do this.

Those incredible stories are about men who didn't go quietly.

Men who didn't go quietly.

This is a story about a woman who didn't go quietly, and she didn't go off on the guy when she could have.

Would she have been justified?

We might think so.

And at the end of the day, what Jesus saw in front of him, which is what I hope I will see in the people I categorically don't want to help because I don't want to.

Is a human being.

Now, you might be better people than I am.

There's a good chance you are.

But there are people I categorically don't want to help because I think I already know it's not going anywhere.

There's people I don't want to spend time listening to because I've already decided I know what they think.

There's people I don't want to spend time with because I just don't want to.

I don't want to.

Do I have to help everybody?

No and I can't.

Who have I decided I will never help?

This is what the story asks us to consider, I think.

Remember, the lectionary presumes you've read the Bible.

So when we read the story about Joseph, it presumes you know the whole story.

Last week we got to hear what a good family they were.

His brothers decided since he was their brother, they wouldn't kill him, they'd sell him into slavery instead, because that's what a good brother would do.

So Joseph goes into slavery, and we know there's twists and turns, there's Potipar's wife, and then all of a sudden we hear he's become the father to Pharaoh, which would mean he's essentially the most important person on the planet at the time, right?

The way I grew up in Sunday school, nothing wrong with my teachers, they meant well, but that Joseph engineered a plot to catch his brothers.

If you don't know this, it's an interesting epic.

He does.

He hides their money in their grain, and he imprisons one of his brothers in a dungeon for seven years.

What I was told is Joseph was testing their faith.

He may have been doing that, but man, I've got a brother.

We never would have tested faith.

We just got even.

I mean, just to be honest, right?

I've not tested my brother's faith.

If I put him in the dungeon, that's because I wanted revenge.

And I'll tell you, I've read this story recently, and I think Joseph was gonna, I think he was gonna get revenge.

I really do.

I think he set this whole plan up not to test his faith, but to ruin his brothers.

And then today we hear this moment.

You notice the brothers are terrified of him?

You ever had a brother that wanted to get revenge against you?

I've had one of those.

It's kind of terrified, right?

Uh more scary than somebody I don't know that wants revenge is my brother.

In this moment, Joseph is maybe getting ready to execute them all.

Read the story.

He can help.

And he chooses to help.

I don't know why.

Maybe he realizes that being an orphan won't solve his problems with his family.

Maybe he decides, hey, these are human beings, and the way they treated me actually wasn't about me.

It was all about what dad set up.

Read the story.

Dad set it up real bad.

I don't know why.

But I think what Joseph does, see, he doesn't get it right.

He makes it right.

He makes it right in the story.

And if you continue to read, his brothers aren't sure they can trust him even after this.

They're afraid of him till they die because they know they've wronged him.

But what Joseph has decided is not to wrong them proportionately.

He doesn't sell them into slavery, he doesn't execute them, he makes a turn.

These are people, he has every reason not to help.

And I don't just mean because his parents told him they were lesser humans.

They're his brothers.

I mean because they've wronged him.

So the gospel is asking me this week.

There are people that I am culturally prejudiced against.

There are also people that have wronged me.

And sometimes those are people I could help.

Will I choose to want to or not?

I don't know who those folks are in your life.

You may not have any, but I'm suspicious there are folks like that in your life.

And I think at least I'd like to encourage you to spend the week thinking in discernment.

Not that you have to, but God, are you calling me to do something that I decided I just wasn't going to do?

Maybe at the end the answer is no.

I don't know.

But I think the story asks us at least to take that to God in prayer.

There are people I have exiled.

There are people I categorically dismiss.

I think the world would probably be a more joyful place if at least some of those categories got changed.

Please join me as we pray our faith in the words of the Nicene Creed.

We believe in one God, the Father, and all the seed and sin.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally God of the Father, Father of God, life of life, true God and true God, the God of the man, of one being with the Father, through and all things remain.

Our else is our salvation, he became heaven with heaven, and by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became imparted with the Virgin Mary, and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified and fired.

He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he represented, in accordance with the scriptures.

He ascended to heaven, and received at the right hand of the Father.

He will come in the glory of the judge of the dead, and received them all afternoon.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life.

You are received from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, he is worshiped to glorify.

He has looked through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and that's the solar church.

We acknowledge the baptism for the forgiveness of sin.

We live in the resurrection of the death and the life of the world.

With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord.

I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for all people and ministers, for the priests in our community, for Mike, Jim, and Craig, for our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, and the diocesan cycle of prayer, El Bueno Postor Waco, Holy Spirit Waco, and Christ Church Temple, for Justin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for our presiding bishop Michael, pray for the Church.

I ask your prayers for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for the members of the armed forces, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.

Pray for justice and peace.

I ask your prayers for our parish and our veteran, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

I pray that our community may discern clearly and minister effectively.

I ask your prayers for the poor, the sick, the hungry, the oppressed, and those in prison.

I pray for those in any need or trouble.

I ask your prayers for all who seek God or a deeper knowledge of God.

I pray that they may find and be found by God.

I ask your prayers for the departed.

Pray for those who have died.

Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially those on our parish or prayer list.

The congregation is invited to name their own celebration or petition silently or aloud.

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people in the multitude of your mercies.

Look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you forever.

For you are gracious, O Lover of souls, and to you we give glory.

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, so let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

The hatred that divides nation from nation, race from race, class from class, Father and forgive.

The covetous desires of people and nations to possess what is not their own.

Father, forgive.

The greed which exploits the work of human hands and lays waste the earth.

Father, forgive.

Our envy of the welfare and happiness of others.

Father, forgive.

Our indifference to the plight of the imprisoned, the homeless, the refugee.

Father, forgive.

The lust which dishonors the bodies of women, children, and men.

Father, forgive.

The pride which leads us to trust in ourselves and not in God.

Father, forgive.

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.

So be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving one another as God in Christ forgave you.

And now the peace of the Lord be always with you.

If you're new to us or haven't done this before, right outside the room we're in right now, we call that little room the Narthex.

There's these cards that say welcome.

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you fill one out and put it in a little blue basket so we have a record of your visit.

You get to decide if you get a call or email or nothing, but we would just be really grateful if you fill one out.

And thanks for worshiping with us today.

There are a few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Many of these are in the Wednesday e-news.

If you're not getting that, please let me know.

We'd be happy to add you to it.

But a couple of things to highlight.

So today, after church, after this service, we're gonna have an acolyte training.

Acolytes are people like Nelly up here who help support what we do coming in during the procession, bringing out the gospel, and serving communion and taking us out as well.

And it doesn't matter how old you are as long as you're in the third grade row.

So you I had a 99-year-old acolyte at my last church.

It was pretty sweet and amazing, and he loved doing it.

So this can be for adults as well.

Um, and that'll be in Christ Hall.

We'll have training immediately after uh service today.

On Tuesday, you know, school's kind of starting around here, and so uh we're starting our uh church programmatic year as well.

So Tuesday night from 6.30 to 7.30.

We're beginning a fall and spring Bible study that'll meet in Christ Hall.

That's uh the old church, that's the fellowship call right off here to your right, uh, 6.30 to 7.30.

And uh this is available for people high school and up.

And if you've got middle schoolers or elementary who you like involved in Christian formation at the same time, um, let Alex or I know because we're offering a full family opportunity on Tuesday nights, uh, age appropriate for our kids, and then for our high schoolers and adults, we'll have we'll have an in-depth Bible study, and we'll set the tone and the scope of that on Tuesday.

We have a couple of different options that we'll put before the group uh that gathers, and that's how we'll spend our time.

Uh the other program that we're gonna offer uh long term starts a week from this Wednesday.

This Wednesday, not this one, but a week from, from 9 to 10:30 on Wednesday mornings, we're going to have a class that's affirmative inquiry into uh different world religions.

So that'll last at least through the fall, maybe a little bit into spring.

It'll meet, as I mentioned, beginning August 30th from 9 a.m.

till about 10:15 or 10:30.

Next Sunday, we're having two things uh that could be for everybody.

One is our blood drive.

Um, so the the um Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center will be here from 7:30 until 1.

And I just want to encourage you, if you're able to give blood, please do it, whether it's here or somewhere else.

Uh if you choose to give it here, they'll, as I mentioned, they'll be here and they do like sign-ups, they'll take walk-ins, but they like sign-ups so that they know kind of what the traffic load is going to be like and their staff are prepped, they'll be in our art room down at the end, and we'll have a sort of a sign pointing you that way.

Uh the other thing that's happening next week is that at 3 30 we're having a parish-wide picnic and pool party.

It'll be indoors, don't worry.

Uh, so there'll be air conditioning all around.

And we do ask you to sign up so we have a head count because our holy smokers are preparing the food for that.

Uh, there's a link in our e-news, or again, just let me know if you're interested.

But it'll be from 3.30 to 5.30 over at the Emler Swim School right next to the HEB off the Gulf Freeway over there on El Dorado.

A really exciting thing that has happened in the diocese, particularly in at St.

Thomas, that I'd like to draw your attention to, which is I've mentioned to you the diocese was hiring somebody called an area missioner.

This is somebody who's going to work with parishes between Pearland and Galveston to get our lay people connected in ministry and to make sure we're meeting the needs of the community, not just what we think those needs are.

And um, I'm happy to tell you that's Kathy Reinfeld.

So uh Kathy is starting the job very soon.

And uh we'll have a commissioning service with her in October, and of course, you'll be hearing from Kathy because the goal is for all of us not to do more, but to spiral deeper into what we're doing and make sure we're meeting the needs of the community.

And that is Kathy is super gifted at making connections.

Um, two more call-in's one is a huge thanks to Kathy Hollowell because she told me what how dumb my interview questions were.

That I asked these guys on Monday, I ended up with much better ones.

No, but I asked her to do this.

I was like, please tell me.

So uh I was gonna ask frankly some awful questions, and Kathy helped me out.

And Todd Parker is doing this as a donation.

He's compiling essentially a feature-linked documentary about this NASA memorial that we're building, and he was here an hour ahead of time setting up all the equipment and an hour after so that we could tell Charlie's story and Bobby Thatcher's, Bobby Thatcher's uh story in this documentary.

You'll see some of this leaked out in advance as as Todd edits it, but it is absolutely amazing.

I'm just curious, how many of you knew Charlie Bolden when he was here?

One, two, three, four.

Yeah, and more at eight o'clock.

I mean, Charlie was a really, really lovely human being.

And it's very rare that the head of NASA breaks down during an interview, which he did, when he talked about the spirit of the church that he's worshiping at in DC.

He said it's a palpable spirit because during the AIDS crisis, they were one of the few safe, open places.

And he said it's a spirit he can feel when he walks in.

I wish he were here today, because I'd like to know what he thinks of the spirit of St.

Thomas today.

He told me about what it was when he was here, and I'd like to know what he thinks about it today.

Because, friends, it's palpable and beautiful.

Thank you for being who you are.

And it was just amazing to have time with a thoughtful human being who knows he's a human being and not a superman.

And that's really clear.

That's that's the gift of Charlie.

Um, so really fun to be part of this project.

And again, we'll be seeing uh groundbreaking hopefully in the next month and a half of this thing to start to come in.

Um, last thing I wanted to put before you is um I've mentioned to you maybe a couple uh the last couple of weeks that we are uh getting ready to have a labyrinth installed right out there uh in sort of that now brown field.

Uh it used to be green, um, and that part of that labyrinth will be a memorial garden where we can remember loved ones, but also there'll be a place where we can remember pets.

And so there's a statuary of St.

Francis coming and an opportunity to have pets' names uh inscribed in that.

And um the deadline for the first inscription is next week.

So if you're like, I've never heard of this, I'm gonna talk more, or I forgot, or whatever, we've got another week before I send that off because as they carve the statue, they'll also carve the first batch of names.

And then we can update it semi-annually if there's some pets you'd like to memorialize.

The goal is that we have a place to come and think about, frankly, members of our family.

Um, so really excited that we've got so much going here that is going to be a help to the community.

Continue to walk in love.

As Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

All things come of thee, O Lord, and of thine have we given.

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 little.

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, and he invites you to meet him here.

Our service continues on page 340 of your red prayer book.

Page 340.

Let us give things to the Lord our God.

It is very meet, right, and our bound in duty.

We should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, creator of the light and source of life, who has made us in thine image and called us to new life in Jesus Christ our Lord.

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

For that thou didst create heaven and earth, and didst make us in thine own image.

He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue, in 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 to thee, he broke it and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.

This is my body which is written 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 this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.

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

Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with thee thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make.

Having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.

We most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.

Grant, we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction, and also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with him, that he may dwell in us and we in him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom and with whom and in him.

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

Amen.

And now as our Savior Christ hath taught us, we are bold to pray, our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil, for thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

These are the gifts of God for you, the people of God.

Feed on them in your hearts by faith and with thanksgiving.

Almighty and ever-living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy histories with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us, and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdom.

And we humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost be all honor and glory, world without end.

Amen.

May God give you the grace never to sell yourself short.

Grace to risk something big for something good, and grace to remember that the world is now too dangerous for anything but the truth, and too small for anything but love.

The blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be with you this day and remain with you always.

Amen.