Epiphany 5 2023

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

And blessed before ever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God.

All the men from you.

The inspiration of your Holy Spirit.

That we may perfectly love you and worthily magnify your holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

I am also with you.

Let us pray.

Set us free, O God, from the bondage of our sin.

Give us the liberty of that abundant life which you've made known to us in your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Please be seated.

Shout out, do not hold back.

Lift up your voice like a trumpet.

Announce to my people their rebellion, to the house of Jacob their sins.

Yet day after day they seek me and delight to know my ways, as if they were a nation that practice righteousness and did not forsake the ordinance of their God.

They ask of me righteous judgments, they delight to draw near to God.

Why do we fast, but you do not see?

Why humble ourselves, but you do not notice?

Look, you serve your own interest on your fast day, and oppress all your workers.

Look, you fast only to quarrel and to fight and to strike with a wicked fist.

Such fasting as you do today will not make your voice heard on high.

Is such the fast that I choose a day to humble oneself?

Is it to bow down the head like a bull rush and to lie in sackcloth and ashes?

Will you call this a fast, a day acceptable to the Lord?

Is not this the fast that I choose?

To lose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke.

It is not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house, when you see the naked to cover them, and not to hide yourself from your own kin.

Then your light shall break forth like the dawn, and your healing shall spring up quickly, your vindicator shall go before you.

The glory of the Lord shall be your rear guard.

Then you shall call, and the Lord will answer, you shall cry for help, and he will say, Here I am.

If you remove the yoke from among you, the pointing of the finger, the speaking of evil, if you offer your food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then your light shall rise in the darkness, and your gloom be like the noonday.

The Lord will guide you continually, and satisfy your needs in parched places, and make your bones strong, and you shall be like a watered garden, like a spring of water, whose waters never fail.

Your ancient ruins shall be rebuilt, you shall raise up the foundations of many generations, you shall be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of streets to live in.

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

Hallelujah! Happy are they who fear the Lord.

And have great delight in the Lord's commandments.

Their descendants will be mighty in the land.

The generations of the upright will be blessed.

Wealth and riches will be in their house.

And their righteousness will last forever.

Light shines in the darkness for the upright.

The righteous are merciful and full of compassion.

It is good for them to be generous in lending.

And to manage their affairs with justice.

For they will never be shaken.

The righteous will be kept in everlasting remembrance.

They will not be afraid of any evil rumors.

Their heart is right.

They put their trust in the Lord.

Their heart is established and will not shrink.

Until they see their desire upon their enemies.

And I came to you in weakness and in fear and in much of a trembling.

My speech and my proclamation were not with plausible words of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and of the power, so that your faith might rest not on human wisdom, but on the power of God.

Yet among the mature, we do speak wisdom, though it is not a wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age who are doomed to perish.

But we speak of God's wisdom, the sacred and hidden, which God decreed before the ages of our glory.

None of the rulers of this age understood this, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

But as it is written, what no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the human heart can see what God has prepared for those who love him.

These things God revealed to us through the Spirit.

For what human being knows what is truly human except the human spirit that is within.

Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit that is from God, so that we may understand the gifts we have on us by God.

And we speak of these things and words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit, interpreting spiritual things to those who are spiritual.

Those who are unspiritual do not receive the gifts of God spirit, or they are religious unto them and they are unable to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

Those who are spiritually discerned all things, and they themselves are subject to no one else's scrutiny.

For who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?

But we have the mind of Christ hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

Jesus continued teaching and said, You are the salt of the earth.

But if salt has lost its taste, how can its saltiness be restored?

It is no longer good for anything, but is thrown out and trampled under foot.

You are the light of the world.

A city built on a hill cannot be hid.

No one, after lighting a lamp, puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house.

In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father in heaven.

Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets.

I've come not to abolish, but to fulfill, for truly I tell you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one letter, not one stroke of a letter, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.

Therefore, whoever breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same, will be called least in the kingdom of heaven.

But whoever does that and teaches them will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

For I tell you, unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

The gospel of the Lord.

And you hear him today saying, none of that's going to change.

This is God's guidance, but with conventional wisdom about what it means to live into that Torah.

So Jesus is essentially saying, look, the Torah is really good.

And it's also a guide rail.

Don't confuse the guide rail for the road.

Anybody done that?

It's like not good for your car.

Keeps you from falling off of a cliff, right?

But it is not the way.

So Jesus invites us to consider how we can travel the way instead of the rail.

And he starts off today by talking about salt.

Now, I've probably said this to you before, but a long time ago there was this super scout master, Gary McClanahan.

This was like his thing.

He uh came to me and gave me salts of the earth.

Because you know, most of us we look at salt and it's made in a factory, right?

And it's got that girl with the umbrella, you know, Morton's salt.

Uh, and it's all white and granular and it's really nice and it's super cheap.

And what we don't realize is that in the ancient world there was no Morton's and there was no factory, and salt was either mined out of the ground or uh mined out of the sea, right?

You can make a salt pan when the wave comes up, it traps water, the sun dehydrates it, you scrape the salt, right?

Uh salt actually was so valuable that it's the root of the word salary because some people were in fact paid in salt.

I know that sounds like crazy.

But medically, we understand you have to have salt to live.

Too much of it will kill you.

Not interesting.

In the ancient world, there weren't cans like we've got.

So look, you don't need to use the salt shaker to get the salt you need.

Your food is saturated with it.

In the ancient world, that was not the case.

Beyond that, in the ancient world, there was no refrigeration.

So if you wanted to preserve food, your choice was salt it or smoke it, or sometimes both.

So this was about preserving life.

And Jesus says, you are the salt of the world.

That's really different from you could be if you were good enough.

You might be the salt of the world if you practice the 613 precepts of the religion I had just created for you.

That's not what he says.

You are the salt of the world, and beyond that, if salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?

Well, I'm not a chemical engineer and I'm not a chemist either, but it turns out uh salt really can't lose its saltiness unless you break the molecule apart.

If you take the sodium and the chloride and you break the bonds, then I guess it's no longer salt.

But you realize that when you water salt down, it doesn't lose its saltiness, it's just suspended in a solution, right?

So what's Jesus saying?

Well, according to Gary McClagan, and I love this, have a look at the salts of the earth.

Why are they different colors?

Well, it's because salt builds in a crystalline structure, and sometimes within those crystals, you get some trace minerals in there, and that's where the color comes from.

So here's black salt from the Cyprian Sea.

Supposedly that's really good on chocolate.

It turns out that each one has its own little bit of uh flavor profile.

Most of you probably by now have seen the pink Himalayan salt, right?

Mind, right, from the Himalayas.

And notice some salts are a little flaky, some salts are pretty big flakes.

I know people like this too, right?

And so, like, this is part of who we are, right?

And maybe to be honest, in this context, the way we lose our saltiness two ways.

One way is when we say unity means uniformity, and we should all be the more.

White salt without any color or flavor.

We lose our saltiness when we think God made us all different so we could all be the same.

I would like to suggest to you that God loves your personality.

And God gave it to you as a gift.

Your personality is not wrong.

It can preserve life in the world and can add some beautiful flavor and texture.

That said, sometimes we think our personality is all there is, and that's when we become, in contemporary parlance, salty.

I don't know if you know this word.

It really means somebody who's a grump.

We don't need any Christians to be salty.

We need Christians to be the salt of the world to preserve life through exactly who God made them to be.

Now, look, I don't want to overdo this thing about kids, but if you've had kids, you realize sometimes, like, oh my gosh, they're acting just like I did, and I sure hoped that they wouldn't.

I hate realizing that's that's where that's from.

Of course, we understand that personality has some genetic basis, right?

So look, if you're really ultra-competitive and you don't want your kids to be competitive, good luck.

Because you probably gave them that gift.

And it is a gift unless it becomes salty.

You hear how that goes.

So we're invited to live into our gifts so that we can produce salt.

Jesus says this other thing too.

He doesn't say you could be the light of the world if you pray enough.

You might be the light of the world if you're Episcopagan.

He says you are the light of the world.

You are.

I'm grateful that physics says that not all light is visible, because I do know folks whose light is not visible to me.

And nonetheless, God says it is there.

And as you know, right, there's light invisible to our eye, like microwaves, that can cook food.

And I know people whose light will cook me.

And nonetheless, their light is there.

And then Jesus goes on to say, you don't need different light.

You just are invited to make the light God has put in you visible to light up the world.

And I want you to hear that there are lots of problems in the world, and no one can manage all of them at the same time.

And the truth is, when we hear things like Isaiah that says, when you practice justice, you will light up even the darkest things.

The good news is there's lots of justice that needs to be practiced.

And Jim caring about Spanish-speaking people is not more important than me caring about the relationship we have with the planet.

They're both problems.

And when we get together, guess what?

We get to solve both of them together.

It's not an affront to me that we have different concerns.

That's part of our saltiness.

There are different colors in us, different things that matter to us.

We can do more together when we put our salts and colors together to preserve life in the world.

I want to tell you about a couple of these things because this passage from Isaiah ends with this quote: you'll become repairers of the breach.

It is not right for me to try to do justice to this, but I'm going to, because four years ago we went to diocesan council in Waco, five of us did, and we got to hear the bishop preach on exactly this passage.

And one of the things that the bishop made very clear in his address, and I would suggest, if you have time, to look it up, because it's really meaningful, one of the colors that got into the bishop's salt was this story.

Once upon a time, if you've ever looked at the seal of the Diocese of Texas, it's shaped like an eyeball turned on its side, right?

That's so you didn't confuse church insignia with knights who just had a shield, right?

If you look at the shield of the Diocese of Texas, there's a longhorn at the bottom of it.

That's not because we were a ministry of the University of Texas at Austin.

Rather, it's because when Christ Church Cathedral was being built, somebody came by with a whole group of longhorns and gave longhorns to help support the construction of the cathedral.

The first bishop, you can see him, his portrait at Camp Allen, he's wearing like a barrister wig and he looks pretty, frankly, imposing and cranky.

He uh helped make this cathedral, and um, he also helped create some endowments that we continue to enjoy to support ministry to this day.

And as the bishop told the story, um here's what you got to know about the first bishop of Texas.

He owned slaves.

And he used his slaves to build Christchurch Cathedral.

And he used money from his plantation to help create endowments we still enjoy today.

So the bishop of Texas had this color of salt in him.

He said, because we have enjoyed the fruits of this exploitative labor, we are going to see what we can't do to repair some of that breach.

And so the bishop, in conversation with uh the diocesan endowment committee, created an endowment.

I don't know the calculus, he didn't tell us the calculus, of$10 million to support racial reconciliation.

And that looks like assisting historically black congregations with their clergy with their building.

That looks like assisting uh with black seminarians and intentionally recruiting black seminarians.

That also looks like creating historical markers in the diocese of which we applied to be one.

Actually, one of our best crew members heard this and said maybe we can make a marker, and maybe we could make a marker that recognizes black achievement in the space program as a way of helping repair the breach.

Will that recognition repair the breach?

No.

Will it help?

God, I hope so.

How is that a breach?

I don't know if you know this story, but I asked Charlie Bolden, who was a member here, and a senior warden, and a soloist, and then later the director of NASA in Washington, D.C.

How many black people came to St.

Thomas when you were a parishioner?

He said it depended whether or not I brought my kids.

Turns out Charlie Bolden found this church because of our school.

He wanted a different experience for his daughter than he could get at the public school.

He came to the church through the school.

Many of you know, because I've told you, Charlie Bolden took our patent and flew it out of the atmosphere on a shuttle mission.

So it is truly out of this world.

He's known to us here, but I suspect if I asked you to close your eyes and tell me who you see when I say the word astronaut, most of you would not say Charlie Bolden.

You would probably say Neil Armstrong.

You might say Buzz Aldrin, you might even say Jim Lovell, who was also a parishioner here.

So, what have we asked to do?

We've asked to make a monument so that we can increase awareness that it took many of us to get where we've gone.

And that we sit here every week and enjoy sustenance off the Lord's table because Charlie took it out of this world.

That awareness is part of the bishop's salt.

Don't you hear?

And it's about part of the need that we have to repair a breach.

Now look, I don't know how to fully repair the breach, and this may not be your biggest call.

It may not be.

But I hope we can recognize there's a breach.

I hope we can.

And that one of the ways we make our light visible is when we recognize a breach and work to repair it.

Sometimes we don't even recognize some of the breaches in our own language and culture.

So I didn't do this at 8 o'clock, but I'm going to inflict it on you now.

This is Black History Month, and we have about five spirituals in the hymnal.

And what we've done with spirituals, frankly, in our tradition, is we've made them well about spiritual things only, and that is not what they were about.

These were songs that African American slaves made themselves to confront discrimination from their slave masters.

You know that song, Go Down Moses?

Yeah.

When Moses was in Egypt's land, let my people go.

That one tells a story about slavery a long time ago and how God called them out, right?

Last verse of the song says, to make all pharaohs understand, all of them, let my people go.

Of course they were talking about themselves.

That's not a spiritual song only, that's a political song.

Not just about a story that happened long ago, a story slaves were singing while they worked in protest.

You know that song, Let Us Break Bread Together on Our Knees?

Let us break bread together on our knees.

Let us break bread together on our knees.

When I fall on my knees with my face to the rising sun, oh Lord, have mercy on me.

You know that song?

Well, first of all, sang it way too fast.

You sing that song so slowly that you can swing a pick while you're singing it.

And what maybe not everybody realizes is that song was a code song for when to run away.

You hear that line?

With my face to the rising sun?

That means go early in the morning.

The lyric could be changed.

When I fall on my knees with my face to the setting sun, that means go at night.

Go where?

To the Underground Railroad.

When Moses went to Egypt's land, you all know Harriet Tubman was also called Moses, right?

These are not spiritual songs only.

These are songs of pretense and deliverance.

Sometimes we don't even recognize the breach because we've taken something that had very real political consequences and we've turned it into a spiritual thing only.

Sometimes I do it by accident too.

And that's why I want you to hear this story about a tradition we're not all familiar with.

Now look, I've talked a little bit about a kind of breach that exists in our world.

I want to tell you about another breach because I see it strongly.

I actually grew up with it a little bit.

There is a breach between modern life and all in wonder in the outdoors.

I see it.

Which is why I'm grateful we have scout units here to repair that breach.

What do our scouts do?

They try to cultivate in our kids duty to God and duty to country and duty to one another, and they also try to say, how can we properly interact with the natural world with awe and reverence and wonder?

Turns out many of our scouting families have never gone fishing before and never gone hiking.

So what does that program do?

It looks to repair the breach between the world we've settled for and the one God created for us to enjoy.

Yesterday, about 25 volunteers worked to repair a breach in food security, even within our own neighborhood.

They fed about 310 persons in 70 vehicles three weeks' worth of fresh produce in about an hour and a half.

That repairs a breach.

And we had one of our parishioners, I'm not making light of this, recently who died.

Lee Peterson died this week.

And Lee Peterson, this is like not his only thing, but it's a thing.

Lee saw in the fair linen that is on the Lord's table.

Well, sometimes it was wrinkled.

And that was a breach.

It was a breach because it didn't show the best invitation to God's table.

So Lee and Pat made part of their ministry ironing their fair linen.

And they do.

And they did.

And they get all the wrinkles.

Am I wrong, Alter Guild?

That's their ministry, the fair linen.

You may say that's a small thing.

That's in their crystalline structure.

They saw a breach between the welcome invitation of the table and the linen on it, and they decided they'd do something about it.

This is part of the beauty, don't you see?

I'm not saying these are all the same thing.

What I'm saying is God has put something on each one of us, a way in which we can use our salt, our personality, shine our light, make it visible such that we can repair the breaches in our world.

Whether they be food or race or even how we adorn the table, or one more I'm going to tell you, because we're going to Agala to support this in a couple of weeks.

There's this lady called Barbara Goodson, and she was trained as cosmetologist?

Is that right?

She cuts hair.

Cosmetologist?

So Barbara was a cosmetologist and she realized this thing that I got to realize in San Diego totally independently.

She realized that, hey, when you're homeless, it's hard to get a haircut.

And she made this further recognition that I share.

When you're homeless, it's pretty unlikely that somebody touches your head in such a way as to give you care and dignity.

So Barbara said, you know what?

Like I can give these people haircuts.

So she started giving homeless haircuts.

And well, you know, there's more people that need haircuts in Houston than she could do.

So she bought an RV with her own money.

And she got a couple other cosmetologists to come on board and volunteer.

And then eventually that was working so well that she took some of the homeless population and trained them to be cosmetologists so that they could cut homeless people's hair in the RV she bought by herself.

And now, uh here, this this is her ministry.

She's building a whole training center to train even more people and how to get licensed in cosmetology so they can go around the city and the Title I schools like McWerder in an RV and give professional haircuts to people who unlikely get touched on their head in any kind or appreciative way throughout the year.

Is a haircut the most important problem in the world?

It's important.

Why does it have to be the most important?

That's in her salt.

That's her light.

The world needs it.

So the real question I think Jesus asks you is do you all have to do the same thing?

No.

What are you doing to support life?

How are you expressing your saltiness and how are you making your light visible, whether it's over how we adorn the Lord's table or how we affect racial reconciliation or how we treat the environment or how we treat people who sometimes we think their hair is really dirty and we have to wash our hands afterward.

And it's called good hygiene, period.

You wash your hands.

Like this is what we do when we're the salt of the earth.

Of course, the danger, right, is when we say the thing that's most important to me must be important, the most important thing for everybody else.

That's when we get a little salty.

And that's why we say here we can do more together.

Because if Jim brought his salt and I brought mine and Kathy Hill brought hers and CJ Page brought hers, don't you see?

A lot more of the visible light spectrum would show up in the gloom.

Jesus does not need you to be somebody other than who you are.

He asks you to lean into it wholeheartedly so we can light up the world.

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

We believe in one God, the Father and the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is named and deep.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begin of the Father, God from God, light from light, through the future of God, begotten made, of one being with the Father, through him all things were made.

For us and for our salvation, he became not from heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

He became imparted from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under God's wife.

He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again in the corner of the spirit.

He is headed into heaven and is either at the right hand of the Father.

He will come in the Lord to touch the living and dead, and his kingdom will have no end on it.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and giver of life, who move to be from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, he is worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken to the prophets.

We believe in the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We will look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

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

For the peace from above, for the loving kindness of God, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the Holy Church of God, and for the unity of all peoples.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the people and clergy of the church, for bishops and other ministers, the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, Craig, our bishops, Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, in the Diocese of Texas, St.

James of Taylor, St.

Joan of Arc, Flooperville, and St.

John's Austin, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin, and our presiding bishop, Michael.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord have compassion.

For our parish in our vestry, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord have compassion.

For St.

Thomas the Apostle's 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, and that we may be bearers of your grace to all who come through our doors.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion for all who govern and hold authority in every nation, for the members of the armed forces throughout the world, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the signs of your dominion everywhere.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For this city, for every city and community, and for those who live in them.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the good earth which God has given us and for the wisdom and will to conserve it.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the aged and infirm, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and the suffering.

Especially Miriam, Pat, Isabel, Terry, Rich, Billy, Sue, Joe, Jan, Sean, and Luna.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord have compassion.

The congregation is invited to name their own celebrations or petitions, silently or aloud.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who remember and care for them.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For all who have died in the hope of resurrection, and for all the departed, especially Lee, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For deliverance from all danger, violence and oppression, and degradation, let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

That we may end our lives in faith and hope, without suffering and without reproach.

Let us pray to the Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

In the communion, the communion of Saint Thomas and of all the saints.

Let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God.

To thee, O Lord our God.

Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

Gracious God, our sins are too happy to carry, too we will die, and to need to undo.

Forgive what our terrible came, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what has to come for us with the doing fire of judgment.

Set us free from a past that we cannot change.

Open to us a future in which we can be changed, and grant us grace to grow more and more in the lightness and image.

Through Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Amen.

The Almighty and Merciful 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.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you.

Good morning, and thank you for worshiping with us at St.

Thomas today.

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

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those down if you haven't done so before, and just leave it in the little blue basket so we can have a record interview visit.

And thank you for worshiping with us today.

There's a few things I want to highlight that are coming up, but first it's the first Sunday in February.

So if you were born this month, I'd like to invite you forward so that we can name your birthday and offer you a blessing as you begin another year.

And as you're coming up, our tradition is that we say our name, the day of our birth, and either where we were born, when we were born, or both of those.

Michelle Farding, I was born in Tacoma, Washington on February eighth, and I'll be seventy-eight Wednesday.

Okay, let's say a blessing for all of our birthdays.

Lord God, we know every year, every moment of our lives is firmly in your hands.

Look with continued favor, we pray on these, your children, as they begin another 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.

And that was Marja's ministry.

That was the way she repaired the breeches.

She noticed everybody.

Are there anniversaries in February we'd like to uh celebrate and have a blessing?

And you're gonna see one in two weeks when we do a renewal of vows in church.

Uh that's gonna happen in two weeks.

So what we ask is that you share your names and where you were married and when.

Adele James and Joseph James.

We were married in Houston in 1989.

Okay, well, let's pray for them.

God, thank you for the gift of the sacrament of marriage, whereby you show us your undying love for the world.

We pray that you would strengthen Joe and Adele in their vows and surprise them with new joy that they didn't even think was possible in their married life this year.

Amen.

Okay, a few announcements to call to your attention.

You already heard me mention that yesterday we had our food distribution.

We'll do that again the first Saturday in March.

That's March the 4th, from 7.45 in the morning till 9.30.

It's about an hour and 45 minutes, and typically it is more than 300 people, as many as 462 that we feed in about an hour and 45 minutes.

So that'll come up in March.

Um, this week, I've got to tell you as your priest how what a gift it is to see people who have taken advantage of these opportunities to go first to the synagogue and then to the Coptic Orthodox Church.

There were more than 60 of us at the Coptic Orthodox Church this week.

And I'd like to highlight you that the last sort of field trip we're making is this week.

On Thursday from 5 to 7, we're going to the Clear Lake Islamic Center.

That's right off El Camino Real, and it's right behind the Unitarian Church.

And as I told you, uh our Islamic brothers and sisters have invited us to eat with them.

Don't think dinner, but they're going to offer some cultural food.

They'll give us a tour of the Islamic Center, they'll answer questions you may have about Islam, and at the very end, with uh participant agreement, we're welcome to stay and observe their evening prayer that they'll make.

And of course, the Imam will walk us through prayer postures and why they do what they do.

So I can't take a camera over there, that just seems wrong.

So this is really just an opportunity to do in person, but I have to tell you, um really appreciate the Imam Ibrahim.

He's one of the three Imams over there.

He lives in the neighborhood, and yesterday he showed up at my house with a plate of scones, which is just really lovely.

And he insisted that they serve us food.

Now, a couple people asked, how should we dress?

Um, if you're a gentleman, I'd suggest pants.

If you're a lady, you don't have to, but it is respectful to bring a scarf that you can put over your head when you come into the mosque.

They don't insist on that.

They know you're not Muslim, but it's always respectful to come.

It's okay if it's a colored scarf.

You don't need to go get anything different.

And if you don't have one, that's okay too.

But it's always nice to show respect.

If you want to walk in what they call the sanctuary, like the equivalent of our sanctuary, we do take our shoes off.

So just know that.

If you don't want to take your shoes off, don't walk on it.

I mean, it's just important, right?

Like we're a guest in somebody else's home.

And those are the two basic things I would let you know.

We did record a video this morning in the Sunday school hour you can find on YouTube later today that is a basic introduction to Islam, very basic, but gives you some starting point to answer for questions and answers if you choose.

That's this Thursday from 5 to 7.

Next Sunday, we're gonna highlight um the scouting ministries that we have at St.

Thomas, and particularly at 10:30, you'll see a number of our scouts carrying flags in, doing our readings and our intercession.

Uh, because as I mentioned in the homily, uh, this is really an important way in which we're able, frankly, to bring light to the world.

And the scouting program does that.

And we have all kinds of scouts here: Cubs, Girl Scouts, like the Brownies, uh, the boys who can earn Eagle, and the girls who can also earn Eagle.

So this is really lovely.

We've got four scouting units here, and next week we'll have that celebration, and you'll see it in the liturgy as well.

Uh, we've tailored some of the prayers and even the psalm uh to be a little more scout-centered in hopefully some really good ways.

Um, I also want to raise up to you, we're doing a couple of different things.

Uh the scouts are doing a couple of things.

So, one thing, scouts are doing the boys troop.

These are the boys who can earn eagle.

Next week they'll be having a meat sale, like what else?

Brisket, what else are they making, Zach?

Uh pork shoulder that you can pull and pork ribs, and you'll find like pricing and how you order that in your Wednesday announcements.

This, of course, supports them getting necessary gear that can be expensive, or frankly, making the programs affordable for people who don't have the money to pay the scouting fees, right?

So, this is a lovely way you can support scouts and enjoy a good meal.

You'll also see uh in two weeks our girls' troops, so these are the girls who can earn Eagle, are cooking gourmet pancakes on Fat Tuesday.

So they'll, these are not bisquick pancakes, like these are real flavored gourmet pancakes, and we'll have them Tuesday night, and we'll also burn palms, the ashes of which we use on Ash Wednesday the next day.

So you'll see those two opportunities to support our scouting units, and they'll be highlighted for you again uh next week.

Last thing I really want to give uh airtime to uh before I talk about the rose is um we mentioned it at the annual meeting uh last week, but um, in Lent on Sundays, we're gonna offer two parallel tracks.

One for adults, we're gonna talk about holy living and holy dying, right?

Because that's part of the theme of Lent, is how do we live in a holy way?

And for our students who are third grade through eighth grade, we're gonna talk about holy living in sort of an episcopal version of cotilia.

So, what that will mean is etiquette, like how do you talk on the phone, how do you talk to adults, how do you use uh silverware, how do you eat as a group, how do you learn the foxtrot, and how do you learn the waltz?

How do we acolyte?

How do we behave in church?

How do we take communion?

And then at the end of that, we're gonna have what we call the Episcopal, in which our kids can invite one of their parents or family friends as their date and get dressed up and put on their boutonier that they made that morning in floral design and enjoy this transition, right?

This is in some ways a rite of passage.

So, as with all things we do, it's open to the community, to your grandkids and your friends, and to your neighbor.

And um, so just look for that.

You'll see it in your e-news.

It was here this week and it'll be in the new one.

We're pretty excited about forming our kids this way.

So I hope you'll join us in that.

And uh the last thing I want to highlight is a reminder: we have a rose on the Lord's table anytime there is a new birth in the congregation.

And Kathy and Lewis Delgado are welcoming now their second granddaughter, Evelyn Irene Stanewski, and she'll go by Evie, we think.

So if you see uh Kathy and Lewis, uh please, please be excited for them because I know they're over the moon, and this rose here is in Evie's honor.

Continue to walk in love.

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

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.

The Lord be he with you, and also with you.

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

And when we'd fallen into sin and become subject to evil and death, you in your mercy sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

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

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

And when he had given thanks to you, he broke it 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, do it in remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he'd given thanks, he gave it to them and said, Drink this, all of you.

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

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

Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

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

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

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

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the body and blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and unending life in him.

Sanctify us also, that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament and serve you in unity, in constancy, and peace.

And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ, by Him and with Him and in Him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

Amen.

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

Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done 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, and 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.

Therefore, let us keep the feast.

Hallelujah.

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

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

And as a reminder, the rail to your left, my right, is for people who would like to dip into the wine.

That's called an pinction.

The rail to my left, your right, is for those who would like to drink directly out of the chalice.

And you can skip either or the bread itself by crossing your arms and receiving a blessing.

Let's pray together.

Loving God, we give you every glory of your image and your food.

Now let us feel the renewed.

That we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.

Amen.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break.

And all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go.

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.

The broken world waits for the light and salt that is you.

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

Amen.