Pentecost 4 2023

Blessed be God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Blessed be Godly now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God.

To you all hearts of the open.

All sides.

And from you no secrets are given.

Cleanse our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.

That we may perfectly love you.

And will you be magnified by your holy name through Christ our Lord?

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

For you never fail to help and govern those whom you've set upon the sure foundation of your loving kindness.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

A prayer for Juneteenth.

Monday we commemorated the end of slavery in America, and that day partially reminds us of the progress made.

That day also partially reminds us of the progress we have not made.

We celebrate the freedom of black lives in our nation in particular.

And we grieve that we have not correctly reconciled racism in our nation.

On Juneteenth this year, God, we ask you to guide our nation.

May the good news of the gospel motivate us to love one another as you have first loved us.

May the ideals of our words match the practices of our lives.

May a fresh empowerment of your spirit unite us together.

Open our eyes to see and our ears to hear your will and leading.

Amen.

As you're being seated, our children are invited to Children's Chapel and the back with Mr.

Allen.

But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac.

So she said to Abraham, Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac.

The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son.

But God said to Abraham, Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman.

Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you.

As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring.

So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder along with the child, and sent her away.

And she departed and wandered about in the wilderness of Beersheba.

When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes.

Then she went down opposite him a good way off, but the distance of a bowshot, for she said, Do not let me look on the death of the child.

And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept.

And God heard the voice from the boy, and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven and said to her, What troubles you, Hagar?

Do not be afraid, for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is.

Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him.

Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water.

She went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.

God was with the boy and he grew up.

He lived in the wilderness and became an expert with the bow.

He lived in the wilderness of Haran, and his mother got a wife for him from the land of Egypt.

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

Thanks be to God.

Please join me as we read Psalm 86 responsibly by the half-verse.

Bow down your ear, O Lord, and answer me.

For I am poor and in misery.

Keep watch over my life, for I am faithful.

Be merciful to me, O Lord, for you are my God.

I call upon you all the day long.

Glad in the soul of your servant.

For Jesus, O Lord, I lift up my soul.

For you, O Lord, are good and forgiving.

And great is your love for all that call upon you.

Give ear, O Lord, to my prayer.

And salvation.

In the time of my trouble, I will call upon you.

For your life.

Among the gods there is none like you, O Lord.

Or anything like your word.

All nations you have made will come and worship you, O Lord.

And glorify your name.

For you are great.

You do wondrous things.

Turn to me and have mercy upon me.

Give your strength to your service.

Show me a sign of your favor, so that those who hate me may see it and be ashamed.

Shall we continue in sin in order that grace may abound?

By no means.

How can we who died to sin go on living in it?

Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?

Therefore, we have been buried with him by baptism into death, so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in the newness of life.

For we have been united with him in a death like his.

We will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his.

We know that our old self was crucified with him, so that the body of sin might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin.

For whoever has died is freed from sin.

But if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him.

We know that Christ being raised from the dead will never die again.

Death no longer has dominion over him.

The death he died, he died to sin once and for all.

But the life he lives, he lives to God.

So you must also consider yourselves dead to sin and alive to God in Jesus Christ.

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

Thank you, God.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus said to the twelve apostles, a disciple is not above the teacher, nor a slave above the master.

It is enough for the disciple to be like the teacher, and a slave like the master.

If they've called the master of the house beelzebub, how much will they malign those of his household?

So have no fear of them, for nothing is covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.

But I say to you in the dark, tell in the light.

And what you hear whispered proclaim from the housetops.

Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.

Rather fear the one who can destroy both the soul and body in hell.

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny?

Yet not one of them will fall out of the ground apart from your father.

And even the hairs of your head are all counted.

So do not be afraid.

You are of more value than many sparrows.

Everyone, therefore, who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my father in heaven.

But whoever denies me before others, I also will deny before my father in heaven.

Do not think that I've come to bring peace to the earth.

I have not come to bring peace but a sword.

For I have come to set a man against his father and a daughter against his mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law, and one's foes will be members of one's own household.

Whoever loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.

And whoever does not take up the cross and follow me is not worthy of me.

Those who find their life will lose it.

And those who lose their life for my sake will find it.

The gospel of the Lord.

That's just a hard one, but I would like to start by suggesting to you a few things.

First, uh, there are at least two different ways we can read scripture.

One, of course, is God prescribing how we ought to live.

Love your neighbor as yourself, a new commandment I give you.

It's a pretty clear prescription.

More often than not, though, I would like to say, I think the Bible describes how we already are.

It tells us a cautionary tale.

Of course, it's oxymoronic to think that we are to honor our father and mother, and then to take these words literally that, hey, it's a mark of faith if we don't get along with our family.

It's that he's describing we already do.

We already do.

And I'm afraid that one of the thickest marks of faith, at least in my own spiritual journey, is to think that faithfulness to God is improved in empathy with my brother or my parents or my neighbor, because theirs isn't as good as mine.

That's what I want you to hear.

If you find yourself in that situation, God has empathy with you, and God would like you to move on.

Hence we hear Jesus say these words at the end that I think we often don't really internalize.

Take up your cross and follow me.

And sometimes what we don't realize is uh what crucifixion was all about.

Uh it turns out crucifixion was not the penalty for petty thievery, uh, nor was it for a crime of embezzlement.

If you stole bread, you lost your thumb, you didn't lose your life.

Crucifixion was reserved in the Roman world for people who committed treason against the empire.

And maybe you've heard before that when Jesus was crucified, there are two thieves to his left and right.

It's actually not a very good translation of Greek, which is relatively precise.

Those people are insurrectionists.

They have tried to overthrow the Roman Empire.

In the ancient world, there were no billboards like we have on I-45.

So what they did instead, uh, reminder that most people live outside the city, but that all business is conducted inside.

So everybody in the country has to come in to sell their goods or buy them, and then they go back out where they live.

Hence, people are crucified right outside the city gates as a sign to them this is what happens when you resist.

While I'm on the topic, at least it's good to hear once a year that we often see crosses that are like twenty feet tall.

That's an artistic depiction, it's not a real one.

People were crucified in idol.

The way it worked is that a condemned prisoner did not bring a T-shaped cross, they brought just the cross B.

The Romans had already cemented, literally cemented, telephone holes outside the city gates with a notch cut out.

The condemned carried a two by four, ten pounds.

There were no ladders involved.

All you needed was some nails and rope to secure the condemned's arms, and two soldiers to pick it up and drop it in a notch.

What about people that are really tall?

Well, you just bend their legs.

This isn't elaborate.

It's not inconvenient for the soldiers.

In fact, it's an extremely convenient way to kill somebody over four or five days.

There are two ways you die on the cross.

One is shock.

Your body just shuts down and you die.

The other, as many of you know, is asphyxiation.

That is to say, when you hang your weight on your lungs, there's not enough room for them to expand.

So the crucified have to stretch themselves up so there's enough room to breathe.

And as I mentioned, crucifixion could take days before somebody ran out of the strength to literally breathe.

It was designed to be the cruelist torture.

So please do not think that people at Arthur Anderson were crucified.

This was for Benedict Arnold alone.

And when Jesus says we're invited to take up our cross and follow him, of course, he does not mean hey, you're supposed to.

Suffer for God.

What he means, I put before you, is that we are meant to commit treason against the forces of this world that denigrate God's children.

We probably can be very secure that there will unlikely be any literal crosses in our future for being a Christian in America.

That is the fate of some people in the world, but that is not our fate.

Thank God for that.

Sometimes I think we get so literal with this that we forget the invitation.

Jesus was willing to give his life to resist a culture of dominance and oppression.

I don't know if I'm willing to do that.

I mean, I really don't know.

How do you know until it's your turn?

But I know that the reason this shows up, or I presume the reason it shows up in ordinary time, is because we're asked to consider are we willing to order our lives in such a way that we are willing to go through even personal pain on behalf of others.

The question we get today, I think, in Romans, I don't know if, remember, the lectionary presumes you've read the whole Bible.

It presumes you've read it.

In chapter 6, in some ways, is a climax of Paul.

He's writing to a group of people he's never met before.

He's trying to make a cold letter of introduction because he wants to come to Rome.

And in the preceding chapter, chapter 5, he lays out this really interesting concept about grace.

He says, hey, whenever we sin, God supplies grace.

So apparently the Romans thought, the church in Rome thought, well, if that's the case, then the more we sin, the more grace there is.

So instead of stopping, let's double down, and then there'll be more grace.

And here Paul says, and look, this is not the best translation, but it's the sanitized one for church.

I mean, uh, he says, shall we go on sinning?

The grace may increase, and the translation here says, by no means.

But in Greek it says number sign, exclamation point, asterisk, you know, like in the comics.

To be clear, Paul uses R-rated language in the scripture.

R-rated.

That's how strong his feeling is that we are not meant to do this.

Sometimes we think about sin so narrowly.

We think about sin as sort of God, the Santa Claus, he's making a list and checking it twice and writing down everything you ever did that was wrong, like that time you lied to your third-grade teacher.

That's in the book.

You're supposed to die to that.

And what we forget is that sin means three things in the Bible.

In Hebrew, it has two meanings.

One is it comes from the world of archery.

It's when you shoot for the bullseye and you don't hit it.

That's the word for sin.

If you can't hit it, it's not wrong, right?

I mean, consider that.

It just means we didn't hit God's mark.

It doesn't mean we should stop trying.

It doesn't mean we should say, I'm a terrible archer, I'll never shoot again.

No, what it means is we practice.

You may not be good at archery yet.

That's the key word.

Maybe we're not there yet.

The other word in Hebrew is uh, this there's so much theology that comes off this we don't miss because again, we narrowly define this as breaking a moral code.

The other word in Hebrew for sin, it means a burden, a heavy weight.

If I'm totally honest with you, some of my headiest burdens are not because I did anything wrong, they're burdens called remorse, regret, anxiety.

Like, what if I'd put my kid in the private school the year before I did?

Maybe that would have been better for him.

You may not be like me, but those are the kinds of burdens that keep me up at night sometimes.

What if I'd done this for my kid?

What I did wasn't wrong, you see.

It wasn't morally wrong.

I just wonder, what if I'd done something else?

It's a burden that we carry.

In Greek, the word hamarsha, you probably remember this if you read Oedipus the King or Oedipus Rex in high school, right?

This is a tragic flaw.

Now, Oedipus Rex's flaw was hubris, being more than he was created to be, but it's really important that some of us have the tragic flaw of being less than God made us to be.

That is equally tragic.

A tragic flaw in Greek, in the Greek language, doesn't mean you're a serial liar.

It means that there are parts of your personality that can cast long shadows, but can equally cast bright lights.

So God's not asking us to kill our personality.

God's not asking us to get rid of the things God made us to be that God loves.

God's saying, let's spread the light, let's not spread the shape.

And here Paul is saying this really cosmic vision of what happens at baptism and happens at the incarnation.

And Paul takes so seriously what transformation's like that he equates it to death.

And Paul goes on to say, maybe you know this in Romans, it's powerful.

He says, the things I want to do, I don't do.

And the things I don't want to do, I keep doing.

What a wretched person am I.

And thanks be to God, God has delivered us from that.

Paul says that he finds himself in bondage by the shadow side of his personality.

He finds himself carrying weights that he doesn't even know how to put down.

He finds himself missing God's mark, and he somehow is not sure how to practice differently so he can hit it.

I find myself in those words.

I'm suspicious you might also.

And here Paul says that that sense is so strong that being transformed by God might actually feel like death sometimes.

Dying to the dark sides of our personality so that we can grow into the light with the resurrected Jesus.

Paul says this is what happens at baptism, because baptism in Greek doesn't mean sprinkling, it means drowning.

Paul says we drown those parts of ourselves that are weighted with burdens we can't even carry.

We're invited to do that so we can live a new life.

Paul says we're invited not to drown who we are, but to drown the dark sides of who we are so we can live into the light.

Paul says we drown those parts of ourselves that when we miss, we say, stupid, quit trying.

I told you you were no good.

And we say, I'm just not there yet.

So I'm gonna practice, and I'm gonna take lessons, and I'm gonna get mentors who are gonna help me and encourage me.

And as easy as that sounds, it's darn difficult, and you all know it.

And it's painful.

The pain takes us somewhere.

This is why we hear the cross.

It's not just that it takes us to a place of levity for ourselves, it's that it helps resist the forces in our world that denigrate and break the dignity that God intends for each and every one of God's children.

Now, I don't know if the writers of the lectionary were thinking about Hagar alongside Juneteenth.

But here she is.

Again, the lectionary presumes you know this story, but I want to catch you up.

Reminder that Abraham has acquired this woman, she is his slave, and we don't know whether he purchased her, or more likely it is that Abraham won a battle and took her captive, such was the custom in the ancient world.

His wife Sarah, we heard last week, had been infertile up to the age of 80.

We all know that is well past childbearing possibility.

We know that.

So Sarah comes up with an idea.

Hey, here's my servant.

Why don't you have a kid with her?

Did you notice what didn't happen in the story?

They didn't ask her.

Hagar is not just a slave, she's a sexually trafficked human being with no agency.

We can tell ourselves that's just how they did things back then.

It's fine if you say that as long as we agree it's wrong.

Abraham rapes the woman.

I didn't learn that in Sunday school.

But when you have sex with somebody without their permission, that's the definition of rape.

Am I wrong?

We don't know if Hagar had more melanin in her skin.

We don't know if she was dark-skinned.

We just know she wasn't from Mesopotamia.

She's from Egypt.

So consider, she's been brought into Abraham's household and she may not speak his language.

That's human trafficking.

She does exactly what Sarah wants.

She has a child.

And if you read the story, as soon as the child's born, Sarah puts it on her own knees as if it's her child.

That's called surrogacy.

And keep in mind, it's forced in the story.

Last week we heard that Sarah is going to have Isaac.

She does, and this week, here we show up.

Sarah looks at her plan B.

Hagar, who is not just a plan, a human being, created in the image and likeness of God.

And she says, Abraham, I don't want him getting any of your stuff.

So throw him out.

Anybody been to San Diego before?

Or that area of California?

The reason I ask this is that Israel's on a similar latitude.

So when you look out the window right there, just keep in mind that Israel and San Diego don't look like that.

San Diego, undeveloped in its natural state, is a desert.

That is, there's no water.

Nor is there green things to eat.

There are prickly bushes in the desert.

So when Abraham puts this woman out, please do not be under any other illusion that the highest likelihood is that she will die of dehydration and starvation.

And notice he gives her a loaf of bread and a skin of water.

I guess that's more generous than nothing.

How many days is a loaf of bread and a skin of water going to last you in a desert?

I'm not overreaching to say Abraham is consigning these people to death.

Hagar is significant because she's actually the first person in Scripture that gives God a name.

This isn't the first time she's been thrown out.

Sarah threw her out before.

Parallel story.

She's in the desert, of course, she's thirsty.

God shows up and said, Hey, there's a spring over there you didn't see.

I provided it so you can stay alive.

She calls God El Roy, which means the God who has seen me.

Because Abraham didn't see her.

Not as a human being.

Abraham saw her as a piece of property.

Sarah, her hand, her, to whom she was a handmaiden, didn't see her as a person.

Sarah saw her as a commodity to be used and tossed out when she was done.

God saw her.

In this story, she carries her 13-year-old son.

Do you catch that?

She carries her 13-year-old around in a desert.

And when the water's gone, she lays him under a bush because she can't stand to watch him die.

And I want to tell you, as I go to the story, and I'm not alone, I'm not making this up.

Our Jewish brothers and sisters also have this comment.

Sometimes we read this story and we say, well, look, isn't it much better that Hagar is no longer in the house when there's enmity with Sarah?

Isn't that a much better way to live?

And I'm going to tell you no.

The better way to live would be to treat a human being like a human being.

The better way to live would be for Abraham and Sarah to work it out and say what I did was wrong, and I'm sorry, and I'm going to provide for you even when it's inconvenient.

Because what I did to you is more inconvenient than anything you can ever do back to me.

And I'm afraid sometimes, this is certainly a vision I internalized earlier on in my own life, is that it's better to be separate but equal.

It's better to be separate.

And look at the equality God provides.

But look, we figured this out in 1965.

Separate, separate, but equal isn't equal.

And I'd like to put before you not that Abraham is more villainous than any of the rest of us, but frankly, that Abraham describes a tendency in us to do just this.

To do just this.

Going out by yourself because it's just too hard.

So I'll tolerate you.

We'll practice toleration.

Even worse.

Going out to the wilderness with a loaf of bread and a liter of water.

And my thoughts and prayers.

This is an indictment.

I don't know if you've seen this phrase on social media about thoughts and prayers.

And how little our thoughts and prayers matter to children who are afraid to go to school.

And how little our thoughts and prayers matter, frankly, to people who don't have access to the dignity that we take for granted.

I was reminded this morning of this quote by Gandhi who said, to somebody who is starving, they can only see God in food.

They can only see God in food.

And to somebody who's used to being trafficked and treated as chattels, they can only see God in compassion and liberation.

I'm pretty sure we have all in this room figured out that slavery is wrong.

I'm pretty sure we figured that out.

And yet, I think we still struggle to live into being inconvenienced.

Maybe I'll just talk about myself for the sake of other folk.

Folk who don't get to take for granted.

That people would presume they know how to read based on how they present and how they dress.

Right?

We just know she's from a different place.

But in talking about this this week, somebody mentioned to me, you know, I don't know why we keep talking about this, because you know, black Africans sold their black brothers into slavery.

Why don't we ever talk about Native Americans because they didn't do that?

Look, every people on the earth have sold people who look like them into slavery.

If you don't know about this, then let me introduce you to the command who did that.

When we use phrases like black on black violence, which I've never heard somebody say white on white violence, it reveals in us, frankly, prejudice and racism that we need to deal with.

I don't want to deal with it because it's painful.

And it means I've been wrong in the past.

And God doesn't ask whether I'm willing.

God asks me to say, are you willing, if not to take up the cross, would you at least take a step toward it on behalf of somebody else?

Maybe it isn't about skin color.

Maybe it's about somebody who belongs to a different denomination or who votes differently from you.

And I think the question we put before us is, are we going to go around because somebody votes different and say, well, let's just be separate but equal?

Or are we going to say God intends us to live together in community and to be reconciled, especially when we're different?

Yeah, it's really darn inconvenient.

Does anybody find reconciliation convenient in the room?

I think Paul's right.

Being reconciled with somebody who has wronged me, that's even harder than somebody I've wronged.

Feels like dying.

Feels like dying.

And it's actually the invitation that God extends.

Die to that way of life so you can live the resurrected life.

Not just after you die, but right now, so you can be a conduit of new life.

Separate but equal isn't working for us.

It's not even working in myself.

There's parts of myself that I'd like to send out in the desert to starve to death.

And then what would be left of me?

I don't know if you caught this in the gospel.

But it was a song in the American South.

God's eyes are on the sparrow.

So how much more for me?

The thing is that people who have been treated like shadows have taken the gospel more seriously than we do.

Because when no one else values them, they say God values me.

That's their claim to hope.

It's ordinary time.

Not regular.

It's how we're meant to order our time.

And I pray that I will at least take a step toward the cross so that when they say God's eye is on the sparrow, but also on me, I can say you're right.

You're right.

And no matter how inconvenient, I'd like to do something about it for you.

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

We believe in one God, the Father the Almighty, every earth.

Alright, we need to cut.

If you have to be dead, we believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the girl of life, the belief of the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son being worshiped and glorified.

He has all the God.

We believe in one path of Holy Church.

We are not on the behalf of the forgiveness of the death.

We look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of our God.

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, Mike, Jim, and Craig, for our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, and the diocesan cycle of prayer, St.

John.

St.

Michael's Lamar.

St.

Thomas the Apostle and Salty.

And Trinity Galveston.

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, that the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

Pray that our community may discern clearly and minister effectively.

I ask your prayers for St.

Thomas the Apostle School, that those who teach and those who learn may rejoice in the knowledge of your truth.

That we may teach our students to love whatever is just and true and good.

Pray that we may be bearers of God's grace to all who come through our doors.

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

Pray for those in any need or trouble.

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

We 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 perishing prayer list.

You are invited to name your own celebration or petitions silently or aloud.

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

And the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help.

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

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

Amen.

Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

There are many ways to be unfaithful to what we've become through baptism, to our commitment and our obedience to God.

So we offer God now our prayers of repentance.

We confess to you, living God, our failure to live as brothers and sisters and as your children.

We confess to you, loving God, that we have not loved you as you have loved us.

We confess to you, gracious God, that we that we have doubted your word and failed to obey its teaching.

We confess to you, merciful God, our desire to own you and contain you within our doctrines and theologies.

We confess to you, Almighty God, that we do not acknowledge you as Lord of all the earth.

Forgive us and redeem us, for we have not allowed your presence to shine fully among us.

There are many ways in which we have failed in our commitment and obedience to our fellow men and women.

We will turn towards our neighbors and our friends and offer them our prayers of repentance.

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

Amen.

If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in the room right behind the one we're sitting in, we call that little room the Narthex, there's these little cards that say welcome.

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one out so we have a record of your visit.

You get to decide whether you get a call or an email, and we will honor your intentions.

But we would be most grateful if we have a record of your visit, and thank you for worshiping with us today.

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

As always, it's kind of nice to look backward for a second before we look forward.

So yesterday there was a large group of us and a group from St.

Christopher's and frankly from all of the diocese who went up to celebrate the ordination of Eric Ellis.

Many of you know he serves here as kind of a mentee.

You all mentored him in ministry, and uh he was deaconed yesterday.

Uh sometimes we don't always know, but in the Episcopal Church there are three ordinations possible.

The first is as a deacon, uh, and if you want to be a priest, that lasts at least six months.

So Eric will probably be priested in December.

Uh his marching orders is that he will serve at uh St.

Augustine of Hippo down in Galveston, and that is likely where he'll be priested, as I mentioned in uh earliest would be December.

And of course, if you end up uh being elected and consecrated a bishop, that would be your third ordination.

So we're one of the very few traditions that has three different ordinations for the different orders of ministry.

And Eric's was yesterday, and I know he doesn't want me to do this, but I think it's really important.

Sometimes we know that scouting enhances lives for families and kids, and sometimes we don't always remember that scouting literally saves lives.

Because yesterday one of our members who was presenting Eric Ellis when he arrived at the cathedral found a comatose man with an AED attached to him, the battery wasn't working, and the person who detached it was shell-shocked and didn't know what to do.

And so fortunately, our scout master had just completed lifeguard training.

I mean this week, and been certified in CPR.

And when Howe Snap started CPR, he preserved this man's life long enough to get into the hospital where he is alive today.

And so, yeah.

Of course we know, right?

Of course we know that this is a beautiful thing, and I don't think Howe wants your cards or or like a hero pedestal.

I think what uh is appropriate to say is scouting saves lives.

I mean, it saves lives, and that's part of our ministry here and of St.

Thomas.

It could just as well have been Zach or we or me or you, if you know CPR, who stepped in in a moment to literally give somebody life.

Um so this is indeed a thing to celebrate Eric's new life and the preservation of life.

Uh also what came uh to pass this this week uh is our scouts went to camp at Camp Strake, and about six of our kids, along with Alex and I, went to Camp Allen, a diocesan summer camp.

And yes, we did endure record heat.

And we all survived and had a lovely time.

And you know, I've been away from camp for a long time, but of course, if you've been to summer camp before, uh you probably do have memories I have of being a safe container to grow, not only in faith, but to have a moment of retreat, to make new friends and adventures, all of which we deeply, deeply believe in.

And I didn't say this earlier because there's nothing against Camp Allen or any other camp I've been to, but there was one black person on staff once.

And the number of black campers I could have counted on my two hands.

And that's not because Camp Allen discriminates, it's because we've got work to do.

Right?

We've got work to do to make that ministry viable and attractive for people who have never understood it.

So this is this is part of our work.

Camp Allen is a beautiful experience.

Camp Strake was a beautiful experience, and um we need to hold that up and make it accessible.

I mean, that's that's sort of the bottom line.

Uh looking forward this week, on this coming Saturday is our next fresh food distribution.

We start a little before 7.45 and we'll be done by 9.30, uh, having fed probably about 400 people.

Now you all know it will be hot.

So we've got cold bottled water here, we're supplying the volunteers.

We've got tents we put up, uh, wear a hat, put on sunscreen, take breaks, and we are asking for extra volunteers because there's a number of regular volunteers who are going to be on pilgrimage Saturday.

So maybe you've taken a break from this, or maybe you're intrigued and you thought, oh, that thing runs itself.

It does kind of run itself, but we could use some extra hands this coming Saturday because 20 of us will be out of the country.

So maybe that's the next thing to report to you is that tomorrow, and poor Lewis and Kathy, we're supposed to get out of here last night.

So hopefully we all get there.

Um 20 of us are going to South Africa on pilgrimage, which will be led, uh co-led by Garmin Ashby.

So, yes, of course, this is luxury tourism.

We just need to call it what it is, but it is also an opportunity for us to grow closer together in community and in faith as we pray the daily office each day, and we learn about a history that is not too far off.

When you look at when apartheid ended, and it isn't over, not by a long shot.

That's 20 years ago.

We got work to do.

And that's part of our pilgrimage is to see how that's going and how what we can bring back to do this restorative work.

So please do remember us in prayer, even though this is a luxury trip for us, uh, that we will indeed find these moments of renewal and community building and come back uh sort of ready to engage in mission in new and powerful ways.

Uh I also want to lift up to you that next week, uh, I won't be here for the next two Sundays.

You're going to have with you Andrew Terry, who is an area missioner and priest in the diocese, and he has offered generously not only to preach and celebrate, but between services, uh 9 15 to about 1010, he's going to present to you what an area missioner is.

He does this in Northwest Houston, and the diocese is looking right now actively to hire an area missioner in our congregation, our convocation, which runs from Pearland down to Galveston and then from the port out to uh to Albert, right?

So an area missioner is somebody who tries to help congregations better understand and meet the needs in their community and to keep clergy out of your way.

That's right, keep us out of your way.

So um this is obviously going to benefit St.

Thomas and our community.

And so I hope you will make time to hear more about the vision for area ministry.

It is a lovely thing that the diocese invests in doing this to make sure, right, that we really are embodying the gospel in our area.

That'll be from 9 15 uh till about 1010 next week.

Um the other thing I would remind you is that today is the deadline to sign up for the icon workshop that Kara Gillette is going to offer for us uh July 31st to August 1st, uh August 4th.

So it's a Monday through Friday offering in writing and praying over an icon.

Of course, that's not an idol, it's an instrument of prayer.

It helps us envision ways in which God was revealed, particularly in Thomas, this one that we're doing, and at the moment of resurrection, where Thomas goes to touch the wounds of Jesus.

Um if you'd like more information, uh, or if you're interested and say, Oh, I meant to sign up and I didn't, please just talk to me so I make sure I get you on the list on your way out today.

Oh, there's this lovely thing, I gotta tell you.

I mean, uh uh I don't know who has a key to my office other than me.

But when I came home this morning, there was a sign that said, There's nowhere I'd rather be than Camp Allen.

So I don't care who gave the sign.

Thank you for being sweet to your priest.

Thank you.

It's a lovely thing to come back exhausted and find that because it was a lovely place to be with children.

I was with high schoolers, but also with counselors and adults, to have a retreat space where people are encouraged to think about where God is to be found in the ways we play and worship and eat and live together.

And to come back to that greeting is just characteristically thank you.

Continue to walk in life.

And Christopher loved us and gave himself for us and offering a sacrifice to God.

What I love about you all is that you understand this isn't performance, it's worship.

And so thank you for putting yourselves into the worship, gentlemen and lady, and really, really grateful for your ministry.

All things come of you, O Lord, and of your own have we given 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 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, but he invites you to meet him here.

Our service continues on page 369 of your red prayer book.

Page 369.

The Lord be he with you.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

God of all power, ruler of the universe, you are worthy of glory and praise.

Glory to you forever and ever.

At your command all things came to be.

The vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets, and their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

By your will they were created and have them be.

From the primal elements you brought forth the human race and blessed us with memory, reason, and skill.

You made us the stewards of creation, but we turned against you and betrayed your trust, and we turned against one another.

Have mercy, Lord, for we are sinners in your sight.

Again and again you called us to return.

Through prophets and sages you revealed your righteous law, and in the fullness of time you sent your only son, born of a woman, to fulfill your law, to open for us the ways of freedom and peace.

By his love he reconciled us.

By his wounds we are healed.

And therefore we praise you, joining with the heavenly chorus, with prophets, apostles, and martyrs, and with all those in every generation who have looked to you in hope to proclaim with him your glory and their unending hymn.

Song to song who sung to So, Father, we who were redeemed by Jesus, who made a new people by water and the Spirit, now bring before you these gifts.

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be the body and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

On the night he was betrayed, Jesus took bread.

Said the blessing, broke the bread, and gave it to his disciples and said, Take eat.

This is my body, all that I am, which is given to build you up.

Whenever you eat bread, remember me.

Thanks to God and drink with all of it.

This is my blood, my life worth given to me around.

Whenever you drink wine, remember me.

Remembering now his work of redemption and offering you the sacrifice for thanksgiving.

We celebrate with death and everyone.

Lord God of our parents.

God of Abraham, Nora, Pharaoh, and Keturah, of Isaac and Rebecca, Jacob, Lana and Rachel.

God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Open our eyes to your hand that work in the world of God.

Deliver us from the presumption and coming of the evil for following only and not for free.

For pardon only and not for renewal.

The grace of this Holy Communion make us one body, one spirit in Christ.

That we may worthily serve the world in his name.

Accept these prayers and praises, Father, through Jesus Christ, our great high priest.

And with you in the Holy Spirit, your church gives honor, glory, and worship from generation to generation.

Amen.

And now, as our Savior Christ has called us, we are bold to pray from the New Zealand prayer book, eternal Spirit, earthmaker, pain-bearer, life giver, source of all that is, and that shall be.

From trials too great to endure, spare us.

And the grip of all that is evil free us.

For you reign in the glory of the power that is love now and forever.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let us be the gifts of God, and we are the people of God.

Dying and living, he declared your love, gave us grace, and opened the gate of glory.

May we who share Christ's body live his risen life.

We who drink his cup bring life to others.

And we whom the Spirit bikes give life to the world.

Keep us firm in the hope you have set before us, so that we and all your children shall be free, and the whole earth live the praise we need through Christ our Lord.

All things break.