Epiphany 2023

So, I think it's a good one.

Good.

Everybody okay?

Good, thank you.

Okay, well done.

Thank you very much indeed.

So we're processing.

We're not gonna do private check.

No.

What do we need to do?

One three, right?

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

Blessed be used forever.

Let's pray together.

Almighty.

Unto all the hearts.

All sides.

And from whom we may perfectly.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

For God, by the leading of a star, you manifested your only Son to the peoples of the earth.

Lead us who know you now by faith to your presence, for we may see your glory face to face through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

As you're being seated, our children are invited to children's church with Mr.

Alex in the Christopher.

Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord has risen upon you.

For darkness shall cover the earth, and thick darkness the peoples.

But the Lord will arise upon you, and his glory will appear over you.

Nations shall come to your light, and kings to the brightness of your dawn.

Lift up your eyes and look around.

They all gather together.

They come to you.

Your sons shall come from far away, and your daughters shall be carried on their nurse's arms.

Then you shall see and be radiant.

Your heart shall thrill and rejoice, because the abundance of the sea shall be brought to you, the wealth of the nations shall come to you.

A multitude of camels shall cover you, and young camels of Midian and Epha, all those from Sheba shall come.

They shall bring gold and frankincense, and shall proclaim the praise of the Lord.

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

Thanks be to God.

Please read with me responsively by the half verse.

Give the king your justice, O God, and your righteousness to the king.

That he may rule your people righteously.

And the Lord with justice.

That the mountains may bring prosperity to the people.

And the little hills bring righteousness.

He shall defend the needy among the people.

He shall rescue the poor and crush the oppressor.

He shall live as long as the sun and moon endure.

From one generation to another.

He shall come down like rain upon the moan field.

Like showers that are earlier.

In his time shall the righteous flourish.

There shall be abundance of peace till the moon shall be no more.

The kings of Tarshish and of the Isles shall pay tribute.

And the kings of Arabia and Saaba offer him.

All kings shall bow down before him.

And all the nations will be emergence.

For he shall deliver the poor who cries out in distress.

And the oppressed who has no helper.

For surely you have already heard of the commission of God's grace that was given me for you, and how the mystery was made known to me by revelation, as I wrote above in a few words, a reading of which will enable you to perceive my understanding of the mystery of Christ.

In former generations, this mystery was not made known to humankind, as it has now been revealed to his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.

That is, that the Gentiles had become fellow heirs, members of the same body, and sharers in the promise in Christ Jesus through the gospel.

Of this gospel I have become a servant according to the gift of God's grace that was given me by the working of his power.

Although I am the very least of all the saints, this grace was given to me to bring to the Gentiles the news of the boundless riches of Christ and to make everyone see what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God who created all things, so that through the church the wisdom of God and its rich variety might now be made known to the rulers and authorities in heavenly places.

This was in accordance with the eternal purpose that He has carried out in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have access to God in boldness and confidence through faith in him.

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

Came to Jerusalem asking, Where is the child who has been born king of the Judeans?

For we observed his star at its rising and have come to pay him homage.

When King Herod heard this, he was frightened, and all of Jerusalem of him.

And calling together all the chief priests and scribes of the people, he inquired of them where the Messiah was to be born.

They told him, In Bethlehem of Judea, for so it has been written by the prophet, and you, Bethlehem, and the land of Judah are by no means least among the rulers of Judah, for from you shall come a ruler who is to shepherd my people Israel.

Then Herod secretly called for the Magi and learned from them the exact time when the star had appeared.

Then he sent them to Bethlehem, saying, Go and search diligently for the child, and when you found him, bring me word so that I may also go and pay him homage.

When they had heard the king, they set out.

And there ahead of them went the star that they'd seen at its rising until it stopped over the place where the child was.

And when they saw that the star had stopped, they were overwhelmed with joy.

On entering the house they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.

Then opening their treasure chests they offered him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and having been warned in a dream not to return to Herod, they left for their own country by another road.

The gospel of the Lord.

Many of you know that the epiphany happened on Friday.

So it happens after the twelfth day of Christmas and it begins a new season.

We've moved the story up to Sunday.

It frames the next two months, right?

So this is why we've transferred it so that we can hear about this.

Because the season of Epiphany is based on the epiphany of a story.

Now, just to start off, right, epiphany is a word that has been secularized, and according to the study I've done, it seems to be James Joyce who did that.

If you've read a portrait of the artist as a young man, he's the one who frees Epiphany from a religious connotation and makes it like an aha moment.

Maybe you've heard Epiphany is an aha moment, right?

Or in a cartoon, it's like a light bulb goes off.

Prior to James Joyce, this was only a sacred word.

So an epiphany was an encounter with the divine, not necessarily even with the Christian God.

If you were Greek, you had an epiphany when you had an encounter with Isis, right?

So it was always that the divine showed up, you had an encounter, and your schema, the way of looking at the world, was changed.

So to give an example, uh Moses is a shepherd, there's a burning bush, he talks to the bush, turns out it's God, and then Moses can't go backwards.

Like his whole way of looking at the world has changed.

This happens to us when we learn how, I'm gonna do secular, right?

When you learn how to read, your schema changes.

It's really hard to unlearn the idea that notation equals meaning.

Right?

So this is like changes the way we look at the world.

But it's important to hear this is not like, hey, I had an epiphany, the Cool Ranch Doritos are great.

That would really be a secularization of the world.

Like you discovered that and you like it, great.

Really, epiphany is about the way we look at the world has changed in reaction to God's revelation.

And I'm gonna ask you, we'll get there by the end.

Who has the epiphany in the story?

Is it the Magi?

Is it the baby Jesus?

Probably not.

Is it Mary and Joseph?

I mean, I guess it could be, or is the epiphany for Matthew and his readers?

Now, this is a new year for us in the sense that we were reading Luke.

Now we're gonna read Matthew throughout 2023.

And it's really important to hear that Matthew is writing arguably to the most Jewish of congregations.

So Luke arguably is writing to Gentiles.

Matthew writing to people who were formed to the Jewish tradition.

The proof most scholars will put before you is that in Luke, Jesus talks about the kingdom of God.

In Matthew, Jesus talks about the kingdom of, do you know, heaven.

That's because the word God can be offensive to our Jewish brothers and sisters, particularly when it's the divine personal name of God.

So Matthew, I don't want to say he changes the words, but he presents the gospel as kingdom of heaven that fits his Jewish context.

Which makes this story really quite radical.

He's writing to a people who think their way is the only way.

And I want to unpack this.

There is a tradition, it's about a thousand years old, that there were three male kings who came from the east.

And if you follow that tradition and you go to Cologne in the city of Germany, in the Kolner Dome, you can find the tombs of Kaspar, Balthazar, and Elkior, who this tradition identifies to be three literal kings.

Their bodies are there.

But I do want you to hear that when we read the scripture, first of all, all we know is that there's plural.

So there's two or more.

There's no gender.

Could be women.

The word is not king or wise man, it's magi.

Like think about the word magician.

These could be David Blaine types that like pull off illusions of levitating or making the Statue of Liberty apparently disappear.

But what most scholars will likely tell you is that magi really means people of a different religious disposition.

In fact, most scholars will tell you these are likely Zoroastrian priests.

You don't know much about Zoroastrianism, probably, although it was the most dominant religion in the world at the time.

This was the religion of ancient Persia.

Probably the only Zoroastrian you're familiar with is Freddie Mercury from Queen, who's no longer with us, unfortunately, but grew up Zoroastrian.

Zoroastrianism mostly disappeared from the world after Alexander the Great kind of swept through and wiped it out.

But at one time, uh biggest religion in the world that we know of.

They probably had curly-toed shoes.

They probably wore like weird brocade cloth, and honestly, they probably ate different food.

It's really important to hear.

Because these are people who would have come, say most scholars, from what we consider modern-day Iran or Iraq.

That's like 1,500 miles away from where our story is taking place.

So they went a long way.

And they looked weird.

There's no doubt in my mind, Matthew is using these people to say, like, let's consider what the epiphany is.

Because if I'm honest, don't we still need peacemaking with people from that part of the world?

Well, I think so.

Let's talk about the star for a second.

Because we heard it in the colic.

A lot of us think, aha, like here's the star, and you see it in antivity set.

This is like a quasar kind of star you can see in the window.

But maybe it will be interesting for you to know that tradition says the star looked like that.

I don't know if you've been to a Roman church before.

If you have, you've likely seen this.

This is called the Chi Rho.

Greek letter chi, Greek letter row, and it begins the word Christ in Greek.

It's not a stick figure.

It's meant to be the symbol of the star.

This is the tradition.

So this is what the Magi theoretically followed.

And I want you to put this together in your head.

These are stargazers, and they're not astronomers, they're astrologers.

Like they checked their horoscope.

They didn't convert to Christianity because there wasn't that.

Jesus is like two.

They probably didn't convert to Judaism.

There's no record of there being synagogues in Iran at this time.

So I want you to hear Matthew includes these people who don't have a conversion, who follow astrology and pay homage to a kid in a different race, political situation, and religious traditions from their own without converting.

That might be an epiphany right there.

Matthew cuts in people who have curly-toed shoes from the Middle East.

Like I say, this is still a situation before us today.

Who's in and who's out?

The story also contrasts two different ways of paying homage.

And I did change what's printed because there's a good reason to say that people were afraid, not with Herod, but of him.

If you know anything about Herod the Great, he murdered his wife and he murdered his first three sons because he thought they were trying to steal his throne from him.

I mean, never mind, that's like what sons do, right?

In Herod.

Anytime Herod got his anxiety up, people worried because he was ruthless.

And maybe you've heard Augustus Caesar said, I would rather be Herod's pig than one of his sons, because Herod apparently kept kosher, but had no problem in slaying his offspring.

In fact, upon his deathbed, Herod gave orders that in each significant town in the province of Judea, that's a geography, that the best loved rabbi should be executed when he died, so that people would cry when Herod died.

Nobody carried that order around.

But talk about a megalomaniac.

People were not scared with him, they were scared of him.

And I would suggest that part of what the story invites us to consider is do we pay homage to power with anxiety?

Herod kills a bunch of two-year-olds to protect power, or do we pay homage with respect, like the Magi?

Even when folks are different.

It's really helpful to hear what Paul has in store for us today.

Paul says there is this mystery that God has woven into the fabric of the universe.

And I hope you'll notice that the mystery is the Gentiles are included.

I hope you saw that.

That's the mystery.

It's mysterious to Paul because that's not of human doing.

The Gentiles are the people who, well, they might be interested in Judaism, but they don't keep the customs.

These are people who are not circumcised.

These are people who eat pork.

These are people who wear college hood shoes.

And somehow God mysteriously has decided to include them in grace.

When I look at how many Christian denominators there are and how we can't seem to agree on anything, there's an epiphany there for us.

Wouldn't you say?

An opportunity to include folk we'd rather not.

I don't know if you noticed in Paul's writing today, we also got to hear the variety of God's wisdom.

Paul says that's mysterious and good.

I grew up in a tradition that said there's one way to get this right.

What I love about the Episcopal Church is we say, we are united in worship, but we're not uniform in how we do it.

What I love about the Episcopal Church is we say there is a closet of spiritual practices.

Pull something out.

If it doesn't fit, put it back.

The closet is big enough that you will find something that fits you.

Perhaps you've had a spiritual practice that benefited you for two years, four years, and then it felt dry.

Good news.

Put it back in the closet, there's something else.

And maybe you'll slim down and you can wear it again.

Right?

I mean, like this is what we talk about with spirituality.

There's not one way to do this.

We're in this to be one community, unified, but we don't have to be uniform.

Matthew's community needed to hear that.

I think we need to keep hearing that.

Notice that in the Psalm, there is a prayer for the king and his son, right?

And I hope you hear that the prayer is not that the king will have absolute power, it's that the king will use his power to uplift people who are powerless.

Do you hear that?

May God bless you to pursue righteousness and justice and to lift up the weak.

And as you continue to unravel the psalm, what you hear is if you do that, people will come from Tarshish, that's like the edge of the world.

They'll come from the Arabian Peninsula, that's the other edge of the known world.

Like people will make a journey of magi-length proportions because, frankly, righteous justice is so relatively absent in our world.

So God bless the king not to wield power, but to raise up equity.

And if the king will do that, people will come from the edges of the earth to say, this is so worth having.

I've made a journey.

Same thing in Isaiah.

When we practice equity and respect, I prefer the the uh the revised standard version.

Over us, the Lord will rise.

The Lord will rise over us, and we will shine the light of God out with the way that we live and the way we include the folk.

Now, one other thing that's important before I talk about their gifts, which I feel obligated to do, because I have samples of traditionally a Magi show up when Jesus is like two, not when he's 13 days old.

I would be really hard-pressed to imagine that the two-year-old Jesus sat still and was completely silent during their visit.

Wouldn't you?

They paid homage to a child.

They didn't worship him.

They said, God is manifest in you as a toddler.

And I love that in this parish we understand that God is manifest in our toddlers.

It's in the story.

Now I want to talk about the gifts.

They show up in some of the readings, and look, we understand gold is gold.

And usually we say frankincense is incense, and that's what priests burn in worship.

Gold goes to kings.

This says Jesus is like a priest frankincense, and then there's myrrh, which most of you hear.

If you know, do you know that song We Three Kings?

Most of us know the first verse, but the other verses unpack what the stuff's for, right?

And so myrrh is a burial spice, it's used to embalm people.

And one of the traditions is they gave him this stuff to prepare him for his death.

And look, that could all be true, but uh, having been to Iran in 2016, I want to talk to the alternate use of these gifts.

This is before paper money.

So gold is just money.

How much gold did they give?

Well, look, if they gave him a million dollars, he'd have been a member of the gentry.

So let's disabuse ourselves about.

Maybe they reached in their wallet and said, I got 20 bucks.

We still have baby showers today, do we not?

Sometimes you give gift cards or gifts or money, not so different from that.

When you're traveling, do you bring extra money?

Yeah, that's good traveler practice before credit cards, right?

They gave what they had.

Frankincense.

It is used as incense, but I know I've said this before.

I actually say it every year on epiphany because it's really helpful for me.

Having been to Iran and Dubai, consider that the ancient world smelled terrible.

I mean, people pooped in the street.

Maybe you know that during Elizabeth in England, when people wore perfume, they didn't spray it on, they wiped it on their lip.

Because the rest of them smelled so bad it wouldn't even help.

Perfume was so you didn't have to smell yourself.

So in an era before the odor, and you can still see this if you travel, particularly in the Arabian Peninsula, people take frankincets, which is a resin, right?

It's a type of sap from a tree.

If you're really interested, it's the white blood cells of the sap.

That's what helps the tree fight infection, right?

And they put that resin on top of a coal and it releases an odor of perfume.

And you'll still see this if you walk around in Dubai.

People do this and they put their clothes over it and they flop them like that, because that's how you applied cologne.

It still happens.

Snelly smoke.

So they wouldn't have to smell themselves.

The Magi gave Jesus some axe body spray, and if you've been around a baby, you know why.

Especially when they go solid with food, right?

And the kids like too.

Yeah, so this is helpful.

Last one's myrrh.

And sure, myrrh is used to embalm, but um also a resin, not the white cells, but a different part of the sap from a different tree.

By the way, here's here's myrrh.

It's really, really hard.

And frankincense, if you heat it up, you can chew frankincense like a gum.

It tastes really sweet, it won't hurt you or anything.

But once you warm it up, it becomes chewy.

It's like this yellow color.

I'll show you after the surface if you want to see it closer.

Then is now people make tea out of this.

It turns out that a little bit of myrrh and some hot water makes a tea that boosts your immune system, kind of like elderberries do now.

I don't know if you've heard of this as like a, I think that's right, isn't it, elderberries?

Elderberry and honey is meant to boost your immune system, right?

Same thing now.

Now look, do not put myrrh essential oil in water, it will make you terribly sick because it's way too concentrated.

But you can put these little rocks in there and drink it, and it's really like the same thing as drinking emergency.

All that niacin and vitamin C you take during flu season to boost your immune system.

People use it that way today.

So, look, when I travel, I take my vitamins with me.

So did they.

We could hear the story as these kings gave of their wealth, but frankly, we don't see Mary and Joseph having a higher standard of life after this.

Another way to hear it is they got caught up in following the star, and they went a long way, and when they got there, they said, Ah, maybe we should give a present.

What's in our suitcase?

And they pulled out 20 bucks, and they pulled out a stick of deodorant, and they pulled down some vitamins, and said, This'll probably help.

By the way, that seems something like a man would do.

I just women would have premeditated this and they'd have brought like diapers and strollers, right?

I mean, these are lovely memes about this.

And all gifts aside, what I do want you to hear is we could hear this a story about extravagance, but quite often what I notice is we talk ourselves out of giving gifts because we think what we have isn't good enough.

And here's a story saying, not so.

What gifts are required for ministry?

The ones you have.

What would happen if we had a church full of bishops?

It'd be terrible.

Jim will tell you this too.

It'd be dreadful.

That's why we only have a couple.

What would happen if we had a church where everybody said yes to everything all the time?

Well, you'd have priests that shouldn't be priests.

In fact, one of the biggest gifts on a discernment committee is somebody who can say, yeah, no, this is not, this is not your life.

Am I wrong, Jim?

Most of us in church have a hard time saying no to stuff.

Sometimes what I have is an ability to say no when I ought to.

Sometimes I have a gift of being able to say hello to somebody, even if they don't turn return my greeting and mean it.

That's not money, but it's what I've got.

It's what they had.

And it's a way of making the world look more like God imagines.

I don't have to have$100,000.

I give what I have.

That's how we work, right?

And the magi are here at the beginning of Epiphany I put to you, inviting us to consider not what we don't have, but what we do have in ministry.

The magi remind us, actually, that the world could use more respect for the mystery of God's grace that knows no boundaries, not less.

We know what less looks like.

We're living in less respect politically.

If you disagree, come see me.

I can't imagine you disagree with that.

We need more respect, not less.

The mystery of the magi is that people who I stereotypically don't like.

Pay homage and respect to the Christ child.

Not get scared out of their mind and look for that.

They don't look to say you're wrong.

They look to say, I see God in you.

I imagine the churches did that.

People be interested in going to it.

But let's be honest.

It's hard.

And the churches I grew up didn't do that.

In fact, what we said is the harder we make it, the more faith you have to have, so that's a good thing.

And look, let's be honest, people under the age of 50 aren't interested enough.

We're not interested in being told that we're not good enough.

And this story is a reminder of why God's already said you want.

God included people that were cut out.

That's what we read in Galatians.

The Magi show a more respectful faith than Herod who's Jewish.

That's not to shame Herod.

That's to invite us to consider in a moment when we're making a decision about who's in and who's out.

I'd rather do the inclusive thing and be wrong.

I'd rather be inclusive and be wrong.

Than be exclusive and be right.

And I think God would too.

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

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

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, the eternally God of the Father.

Our salvation, he became from heaven, by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became for the Virgin Mary, and was made.

For our sake he was crucified in the conscious pilot.

He suffered death and was buried.

On the third day he rose again, in accordance with the scriptures.

He descended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.

He will come with glory for the test of the living and the dead, and anointing.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Ever of Life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son.

With the Father and the Son, He has worshiped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

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

Amen.

For all people in their daily life and work.

For this community, the nation, and the world.

For all who work for justice, freedom, and peace.

For St.

Thomas the Apostle School.

For those who teach and those who learn, that they may rejoice in the knowledge of your truth.

For the just and proper use of your creation.

For the victims of hunger, fear, injustice, and oppression.

For all who are in danger, sorrow, or any kind of trouble.

For those who enter the sake of friends and need.

For all bishops, priests, and deacons, for the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, and Craig, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, Kay, and Scott, our bishops in the diocesan cycle of prayer, for Church of the Cross Lake Travis, Epiphany Vernon, and Good Shepherd Austin, and for Michael, our presiding bishop.

For all church.

We pray for the special needs and concerns of this congregation, especially Miriam, Kay, Pat, Isabel, Terry, Rich, Billy, Sue, Joe, and those of the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud.

Hear us, Lord.

We thank you, Lord, for all the blessings of this life.

We will exalt you, O God, our King.

We pray for all who have died that they may have a place in your eternal kingdom.

Lord, let your loving kindness be upon them.

We pray to you also for the forgiveness of our sins.

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father, in your compassion for our sins.

Known and unknown.

And so uphold us by the Holy Spirit, and that we may live and serve you in the life to the honor and glory of your name.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord.

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.

I don't know if this is an epiphany.

That worked.

So if you felt like you were not worthy to approach God's table with confidence, you are.

That worked.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also with you, too.

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 it the Narthex, there are these little cards that say welcome.

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you fill one of those out and put them in that little basin so we have a record of your visit.

And thanks for worshiping with us today.

I want to make a couple, uh, draw your attention to a couple announcements.

Of course, there's a handout out there, and you'll see some in our e-news.

Uh, but first, it's really good to know what happened on the campus yesterday.

Uh we had, and it's really important that you hear because forms are one thing, we had more than 280 persons served within an hour and a half of, I would tell you, like close to like 70 pounds worth of fresh produce.

I didn't think I'm making that up.

There were a couple people who brought food for more than one family, and I could see the car getting closer to the tires.

And what a lovely way to do it, right?

So more than 280 people, and sometimes we don't realize, apparently, groceries have gone up about 30% in the last year, and to see how many people live in this neighborhood who need that relief.

This is a palpable ministry.

So thanks for sponsoring it, and we'll be doing it again in a month.

That'll be on February the 4th, 7.45 a.m.

till 9.30 a.m.

Um this morning, right before this service, we had a meeting to update where we are on both our capital funds drive.

This is our last year, why we're doing it, and uh the status of the pipe organ.

So, reminder that in three weeks we have our annual meeting, and this is one item that's going to be on the docket.

Do we want to proceed with the pipe organ?

So I do hope that you'll take time to view the presentation if you weren't there.

Huge thanks to the organ committee uh for drawing it together.

It was a lovely presentation, very well attended, and I hope you'll make time to watch it if you weren't there, uh, because it's extremely informative and helpful.

So thank you.

That will be on our YouTube page today, and I'll have a link to it in the e-news on Wednesday.

And reminder that we're having another organ meeting in two weeks to talk about how we feel about it, what it will do for our mission and ministry, and to answer any residual questions.

If you can't be at that meeting, we're recording it, and we're also zooming in so you can join it by Zoom.

And again, that'll be in two weeks on the 22nd.

You're looking at the pipe organ here, right?

This is it here, hoping to install it and install it quickly so we can enjoy it.

So again, you'll get to hear about this.

While we're talking about the annual meeting, you'll notice, please, where you picked up your bulletins.

We have the biographies of our five folks running for vestry.

Remember, our vestry is kind of like our board of the directors, and so you get to see the gifts of ministry, the history of the church of these five people who, if elected, will represent you in running the brass tacks of the parish.

Right?

So uh we'll do that voting uh at the annual meeting in three weeks from today.

Please make attendance at the annual meeting a priority.

That's where we vote for our vestry, our annual budget, the people who represent us at the diocesan vestry meeting, which is called council, and we'll be voting on the pipe organ that day as well.

Please be informed voters.

This is why we run biographies, this is why we have these organ meetings so that you can know what you're voting on.

And please don't vote if you're not informed.

I hope that's okay to say.

This is like what we believe in democracy is being informed voters.

So uh get informed and vote.

And that's on the 29th.

This Wednesday is an opportunity to kind of do what we talked about in the story today.

Uh, Rabbi Federo over at uh Congregation Har Shalom is giving us a synagogue tour.

So we're gonna meet at Har Shalom at 6 o'clock.

It's right off of the confluence of uh Camino, El Camino Real and El Dorado.

It's a little bit further up, uh further north than um El Dorado, on your left-hand side as you're going north.

Um you can carpool there, but we're starting at 6th.

And what Rabbi Federal is going to do is show us around the synagogue and tell us how each thing's used in worship.

And if you have questions about how theism is practiced or liturgy, this is your chance.

Uh Rabbi Federal is rather clever.

He he's a graduate of Brown, he's retiring this year, and he is being incredibly generous to bring Christian folk into the synagogue and show us around.

So if this is of any interest to you, I hope you'll take advantage of it.

I will warn you any question you have about Judaism is great, but he tends to not like questions about what do you do with Jesus.

So let me answer those.

Because not always the most polite response.

So let me answer those and I'll do that with you.

But this is really an opportunity to learn what do y'all do?

Instead of how do you make meaning out of we do, use this opportunity to learn what do y'all do.

Uh and reminder, we've got two more of these scheduled in February.

One at the Coptic Church.

That's what the gold domes there on, is it Clear Lake City Bulletin?

Off of Clear Lake City.

And then the other one will be at the Islamic Center, right over here at the where the Unity Unitarian Church is, and that's also on El Camino.

So these are really close.

Each time we'll meet at those locations for about an hour.

We want to respect their time.

And again, a great way just to learn, right?

Um, we also have coming up, and this is really good to hear, uh, you're gonna uh get some invitations in the mail in the next week or so, our annual school gala.

So this year it will be at the Hobby Terminal Museum, which is right up by Hobby Airport, the 1940.

This was the airport, and uh this is a gala we put together, honestly, to raise money for financial aid to support the school.

And um, beyond this being uh a necessary fundraiser to make what we do uh accessible to everybody, uh it's fun.

It truly is.

And uh there are ways you can support it, first by attending, right?

Uh you can be an underwriter, and they are also looking for experiences to be part of the auction.

So if you have Astros tickets, particularly if you're not going to use them one weekend, these things go really well there, right?

Uh another weird thing, and you may say, like, I want to support it, but I don't know how.

Uh you wouldn't believe if I told you that we have a cake auction of these things, and that usually generates five to ten thousand dollars.

So you may say, I don't know if I got any money, but I'll bake a cake.

That'd be great.

We need 14.

So uh this is sort of how it goes, and I hope you'll you'll pay attention to this because look, I'm gonna be honest with you, many of you know private schools are struggling all across the country, and ours is no exception, right?

Between COVID and honestly politicization of education, it's just tough times.

And look, this school is amazing in the way that it forms families and children in our tradition with curiosity and wonder.

And we've had it for a long time, and we just want to give it every chance we can to be a ministry of light in the community, right?

It's the reason our parking lot has cars in it six days a week.

So we want to give it every chance we can given times are tumultuous.

So I hope you'll think, uh, how can I support that?

If you want to know how, let's talk.

Because we can come up with a way, right?

There's many gifts in the spirituality closet, and there's many gifts in the support closet.

And we can do more together.

I don't know if I'm missing anything.

I don't think so.

I just want to tell you again how lovely that meeting was in Kristal.

It was so well put on.

Bob and Jan and Garmin and John and Liz Corley, Kathy Hollowell, and Tom Morrow and Ellen Maston have worked tirelessly for five years to give us the best information we can have.

And I think we just got it.

In a very concise, followable way.

And what I love about our congregation, I do love this, is that we open our hearts and our minds when it's time to make a decision.

We don't just act with our feelings.

Thank you for being those kind of people who are open and curious to continue to walk in love.

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

And I did, I know what I wanted to tell you.

I don't usually do this.

Well, last time I was in Jordan, I bought some myrrh oil.

Don't drink this.

But I would like to offer you, because it's epiphany, after the Eucharist, I'm gonna invite you to come to the rail if you want.

And I will anoint you with myrrh and offer you an epiphany blessing for the year.

If you want, you don't have to do this, but I'll make it clear when it's time to do that.

And if you want to, you just come to the rail.

I'll put some oil on you and say a blessing that's individual for you to start the new year.

Now walk and low.

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

So let's see.

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 with you.

And also will you lift up your house.

We bring them to the law.

Let us give thanks to the Lord of God.

It is right to give thanks and it is right, and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth.

Because in the mystery of the word made flesh, you have caused a new light to shine in our hearts, to give the knowledge of your glory on the face of your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

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've 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.

Is one of us to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

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

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

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

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he 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.

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.

And 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.

Hallelujah, Christ our Passover, is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, let's keep the feast.

Hallelujah.

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

Behold who you are and become the grace with which you receive this Christmas God's work and burn what our skin has played to one with love is Christmas play.

But here it is.

Now, let's pray together.

Loving God, we do that for restoring us to your image and nourishing us with spiritual food for the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.

Now that the glory people forgiven healed and renewed, that we may grow in your love to the world and continue with the rest of life of Christ our Savior.

Amen.

And as you consider what you might share in ministry, I hope you'll be challenged and inspired by this blessing.

Sometimes we have to dare to be fools for Christ.

That means sometimes we have to be willing to give food to people who don't really need or deserve it.

Sometimes we have to be willing to work with some people who might even exploit us.

Maybe this is as close as we can come to an experience of self-emptying.

It is the experience of being useless in the presence of the Lord.

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

Amen.