Pentecost 19 2022

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

And thus be lastingly now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.

Cleanse all our hearts by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.

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

Amen.

Why don't I be the first reader and I'll have you the second?

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty mercy of God, it is only by your gift that your faithful people offer you true and laudable service.

Grant that you may run without stumbling to obtain your heavenly promises.

One God now forever.

Or cry you violence and you will not say.

Strife and contention arise so the law becomes a black, and justice never prevails.

The wicked surround the righteous.

Therefore, judgment comes forth perverted.

I will stand at my watch post and station myself on the rampart.

I will keep watch to see what he will say to me and what he will answer concerning my complaint.

Then the Lord answered me and said, Write the vision.

Make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it.

For there is still a vision for the appointed time.

It speaks of the end and does not lie.

If it seems to tarry, wait for it.

It will surely come.

It will not delay.

Look at the proud.

Their spirit is not right in them, but the righteous live by their faith.

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

You have issued your decree.

My indignation has consumed me.

Your word has been tested to the uttermost.

Your justice is an everlasting justice.

Trouble and distress have come upon me.

The righteousness of your decrees is under is everlasting.

Paul Savannah said Timothy to the Church of the Thessalonians and God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

Grace to you.

And peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

We must always give thanks to God for you, sisters and brothers, as is right, because your faith is growing abundantly, and the love of every one of you for one another is increasing.

Therefore, we ourselves boast of you among the churches of God for your steadfastness and faith during all your persecutions and the afflictions that you are enduring.

To this end we always pray for you, asking that our God will make you worthy of God's call and will fulfill by God's power every good resolve and work of faith, so that the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in you, and you in Him, according to the grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.

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

A man was there named Zacchaeus.

He was a chief tax collector, and he was rich.

He was trying to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd, he could not, because he was short in stature.

So he ran ahead and climbed a sycamore tree to see Jesus because Jesus was going to pass that way.

And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.

So Zacchaeus hurried down and was happy to welcome Jesus.

But all who saw it began to grumble and said, He's gone to be the guest of one who's a sinner.

Zacchaeus stood there and said to the Lord, Look, half of my possessions, Lord, I will give to the poor.

And if I defrauded anyone of anything, I will pay back four times as much.

And then Jesus said to Zacchaeus, Today, Salvation has come to this house because he too is a child of Abraham.

The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the Lord.

Please be seated.

Something funny with the sound today, I don't know what it is.

Can you hear okay?

If you can't, like do this, and I'll give another try, okay?

Really?

I mean, don't be afraid, because it's important that we hear, right?

At the end you might wish you hadn't, but we'll we'll give it a go.

I'm just curious to know if anybody knows that cute little song I learned in vacation Bible school.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man.

Do you know this one?

Anyone not know this song?

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he.

He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see.

And the Lord said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I'm coming to your house today.

Isn't that lovely?

That's really sweet.

Has very little to do with the story.

So let me let me tell you about this story, and hopefully you have a reaction to hearing not only is this guy tax collector, he's a chief tax collector, and he's rich.

How many of you love the IRS?

Let me make it worse for you.

It's not just the IRS.

The way this worked in the ancient world is the tax collectors were conquered people.

So Rome wants money.

They actually don't much care about what you do as long as you don't have a revolt and you send money up the pipeline.

They decided that the best way to get money is to have people collect money.

But when you occupy a territory that goes from Spain to India, you need a bureaucracy.

So you might have the head of the tax administration, but then you gotta have subheads, and then you gotta have states, and you gotta have counties and townships, and you get it, right?

The way this works is if Rome wants a buck from Beth, all they need's a buck, but they gotta pay the guy overseeing the tax board, so that's two bucks.

Well, then that board's gotta pay the county and the state, so that's four bucks.

You see how this racks up, right?

And add to that effect that Beth is Jewish.

Well, she's not, actually, but in the ancient world, right, Zacchaeus is Jewish.

He's passing Jewish money to a foreign power they don't like.

Beyond that, the way the rules go is you get whatever you can, just give us the buck.

So, as normally happens, you see people doing well, and you start to think, because they're cheating?

Maybe he was, maybe he wouldn't.

Add to the fact that a tax collector was allowed to bring Vinny and Larry.

Sandra, you owe me a thousand ducats.

I'm gonna make an offer to you, you can't refuse.

Give them to me.

I don't got them.

Vinny started with the thumbs.

You see how this goes.

Now that happened a little bit, right?

You allowed to like bring people to the edge to get their money.

We don't know if Zacchaeus was that guy.

We don't know.

But we do know he's going to a place that's economically impoverished and he's got money.

You can tell by his clothes, and hey, he's a turncoat getting it.

He's Benedict Arnold.

Really?

So I learned that Jesus was able to read the guy's mind and know his heart and all of this.

But look, you don't gotta be a mind reader.

You see somebody walking around in nice clothes and everybody else has frocks on, it's clear they got money.

And when people start saying, Jesus, that guy's a dirty tax collector, well, I don't know that he needed to read his mind.

And so it could be that Zacchaeus was short, but what I want you to hear is something different, perhaps.

Maybe Zacchaeus was normal height.

And Jesus is gonna walk through, and the people say, We're tired of you, and they do what they call in the MBA the box out.

They box him out.

And he's not tall enough to see over them, you see.

So he could have been very short, but he could have been regular height, and people say, We don't like you, we don't like your success, we think you're a cheat, we think you're a thief, you're complicit in the government, you don't get to see the guy.

So he does his thing.

He climbs a tree.

He goes down on a limb.

Literally.

And he really goes down on a limb when you remember people in the ancient world didn't wear pants.

I mean, really, they wore like dresses.

And underwear wasn't in what it is now.

I don't want to be too graphic, but it was like a nail apron from Home Depot.

It wasn't like grief.

So when you talk about letting it all hang out and going out on a limb, that's this guy.

He has had to sacrifice his dignity publicly because his own people won't let him have access to Jesus.

And then Jesus says this remarkable thing.

He says, I have to stay with you, come on down.

Do you notice that he has didn't do anything nice?

He climbed up a tree because he's desperate.

I don't know what he's desperate for.

Something.

And Jesus says, Hey, I see you, you're desperate.

I show up at desperate people's homes.

Now, cognitively, we get it.

Sick people need doctors more than healthy people too in that moment.

We get that.

But look, if you're like me at all, and you've got somebody like Kitty Carmen, who's 99 years old and has been faithful her whole life, you would like for her to get the goodies from the Lord.

Would you not?

Especially if your alternative is the person you don't like.

So I don't know what blank you fill in.

Maybe you say, Hillary Clinton's a crook, and she should just have to repent and whatever.

Imagine her in the tree.

Maybe it's Justice Kavanaugh you don't care for.

He's up in a tree in his legal robes and he doesn't have good underwear, and there he is.

That might have been not a good analogy.

He does it because he's desperate.

And sometimes we forget that people we don't like are desperate for life as much as we are.

And sometimes we forget when we think about who deserves comfort and goodies from the Lord.

It is kitty carmine, but it is most certainly people who nobody else seems to stand.

This is a story about that.

So the people grumble.

How are you going to this obnoxious feeling you are blank?

When you've got kitty carmine in a wheelchair.

And Zacchaeus does this interesting thing.

He says, I'm giving half my stuff away today.

And if I defrauded anybody, I'll pay him back times four.

400% plus the principle.

I think I did that accurately.

And Jesus says this interesting thing.

Salvation has come to this house today.

I'm sure Jesus is talking about what happens when he dies, but I think what he's saying when he says the word today is today.

Like now, in this life.

This is a guy who is estranged from you and he's trying to make it right.

Now, I want you to imagine somebody took some money from you.

If they paid you back what they stole, last four.

Hundred percent.

Would you be comfortable with that arrangement?

How many of you would say no, they should pay more?

You'd say, aha, look, I got four times the initial, I got it back, we're all good, right?

Here's the real question.

How many of you would do business with that guy again?

I wouldn't want to.

You know how the saying goes?

Fool me once, shame on you.

Fool me twice, don't fool me again.

Isn't that how it goes?

Shame on me.

Okay, okay, right.

I don't know where I heard that backward.

Thing is, I met this prisoner a couple years ago.

Some of y'all met him too.

He could probably press like 400 pounds.

He got a lot of tattoos in the joint to cover bullet holes that he earned.

Prison broke that man.

Broke him.

And I'm talking about like a tough guy.

And when he talks about prison, he weeps because it broke him.

And the thing he said is, Mike, I did something really dumb.

And I've been in jail 20 years.

And I have to tell everybody I meet for the rest of my life, I went to jail, and who's gonna hire me?

Fool me twice, shame on me.

His question is, how do I pay my debt to society?

I thought the time in jail was supposed to do that, and no one will hire me.

I get that.

I screen people who work here so that we can have safety.

The question is, where's salvation?

Yes, there's accountability, and where's salvation?

And if somebody gave you your money back times four, could you be reconciled with them?

Or is that what it would take for you to shut them out of your life?

I don't have a good answer, but I hear that question.

And I believe in accountability and I believe in oversight, and I also think this is a story about somebody who doesn't deserve it getting it.

Because after all, who deserves it?

Isn't that the whole point?

It's a gift.

God's grace.

Barbara Brown Taylor, she's an Episcopal priest.

She says, sometimes we get salvation wrong.

We make it this big, huge thing.

And really, salvation in the Bible is just any time somebody has a key and they unlock a door that they could just as well have locked.

Salvation is when you got a key.

And you can either lock a door or you can unlock it.

Jesus unlocks a door here.

You hear it?

He unlocks a door.

Where are we in this story?

Habakkuk is this really interesting thing, and somebody after the 8 o'clock service said, wow, it sounds like Habakkuk's talking about 2022.

Stuff's really hard.

What the heck?

And then Habakkuk makes this conclusion that probably you all know if you ever went to church before, the righteous live by faith.

The righteous practice intentional myopia, cognitive dissonance.

They may not see the world turning when they put in energy and life and righteousness and goodness and peace and patience and kindness, self-control.

They may not see it, and they do it anyway, because of their faith, or frankly, sometimes let's just call it stubbornness.

I don't see it.

But God's doing it anyway.

Sometimes we think the righteous live by faith.

Oh, that means like holy people who have really nice piety.

No, righteousness in the Bible means people who practice justice.

Sometimes we forget there's more than one kind of justice.

Like you did this thing, you get a spanking.

That's called retribution, retributive justice.

We sometimes forget.

Not everybody has equal access to the law.

That's called distributive justice.

Getting people equal access to the law, distributive justice.

Sometimes we forget this other kind of justice called restorative justice, whereby we have to reconcile a perpetrator and victims together.

We have to because God's going to do it when we die, and why should we wait?

If God's going to do it, it must be good, even if we don't think it's good.

The righteous live by that faith.

I hate this, but God's going to do it.

So, God, I'm going to do it until I think it's as good as you think it is.

That's in this Zacchaeus story, I think.

I think.

And that brings us, I think, to this really interesting quote.

I am still trying to get my head around this.

I saw this from Anne Frank.

And I'm not going to get it right word for word, but this is an Anne Frank quote I saw earlier this week.

And I just I want to argue with it in front of you a little bit.

Anne Frank said something like, you know, a lot of people get flowers when they die, and they don't get a lot of flowers while they're alive.

And that's proof that regret is stronger than gratitude.

You heard that before.

What I love about what we're going to do next week, All Saints Day, is that regret is gratitude.

It's gratitude we didn't show when we had the chance.

And what we believe about the communion of saints is it might get harder, but it is never impossible.

What I love about the communion of saints is that there's people I could not be reconciled to while they were here, and now they get it.

God has shown them why.

They know the gratitude I meant to tell them in this lifetime that I didn't have the chance to share.

Regret is not stronger than gratitude, it's postponed gratitude.

And this story on All Saints Day, I think they invite us to say don't wait.

Don't wait, because you don't have to.

Gratitude's a funny thing.

And I want to share a couple of ways it showed up for me this week, and we'll see if that has anything to do with salvation.

First thing I want to tell you is I do a lot of funerals.

I've done a lot of funerals.

Probably more than 200 since becoming a priest.

I mean that.

You know what I've realized the best eulogies are for me are the ones that describe the person that was instead of the person that we wish was.

Sometimes you roll into a funeral and there's all this glitter in gold, and you're wondering who that person was.

Because you didn't meet that one.

And I'll tell you, I don't know at what age you were allowed to use profanity as gratuitously as punctuation marks, but I know JB Fox did.

Man, you'd say hello, JB, and he'd say, hell.

And if you could just wait, his heart would open.

And it was very soft after that hard meeting.

And you know what I'm gonna miss the most about JB?

That hard meeting and then the softness.

I don't need a gold gild or wish JB didn't do that.

I miss him saying hell.

Because that's who he was.

I don't know what your experience with grief is.

I miss the quirks the most.

Because those were the unique parts of the person.

And I'm grateful for J.B.

Fox's gratuitous use of profanity.

Because it's who he was.

It's who he was.

Sometimes we have these moments of gratitude that we forget because they seem insignificant.

They seem small.

They're not big, high, holy, important things.

And saints are people, I'll just tell you, living or dead, who have chosen, even in small moments, to do something.

Could be the rest of their life they didn't do much good.

But for that moment, they did this thing.

They chose to do this thing.

That makes them a saint.

Somebody did a thing for me two weeks ago.

They read online that it was National Clergy Appreciation Day.

I don't know what that is.

I've never heard of it.

There's also the Buy Your Priest a Beer Day.

Like these, who made these up?

I don't know.

Probably St.

Arnold's did.

Um, anyway, the equivalent of Hallmark, right?

So somebody sent me a card.

It's National Clergy Appreciation Day, and I want to see this card because I appreciate you.

It's a small thing.

So grateful that Jan Smith Shannon heard about this thing and connected it with me and decided to tell me about it.

I didn't even know that was a thing.

I'm not even sure it is a thing.

Touch my heart to get that card.

It's a card.

She didn't cure my cancer.

I don't have cancer.

And it made life bigger.

And it makes my life bigger to say, you gave me that thing.

I was listening to a uh Hindu track this week by accident.

Somebody introduced somebody to this playlist they really liked.

A lot of it was really like high European church music, which was lovely.

And then there came this like Hindu track that involved like some drumming on a tabla and a sitar and this guy doing this kind of chant.

And um initially I was like, I don't know if I like this, but I found myself getting swept up in it.

And I had this really interesting thought, like it came from somewhere outside me, because I don't normally do this.

I sort of thought, like, you know, I'm really sure this guy was not thinking of me when he laid this track down.

He didn't know me, I don't know who this guy is.

I don't even know what he was thinking.

Maybe he just made this track because it was like important for him.

Like this was a song of devotion, and like really lifted his spirit.

And how lovely that having not even met me, he gave me a gift.

I'm glad I get to tell you this.

I don't get to meet him in this lifetime.

I don't think.

I'm not gonna wait till I die to say it was lovely.

Because gratitude is about life now, and regret is about life later.

The good news about God and the communion of saints is it's all gonna come out later.

Why wait?

Why wait?

And this is a moment where it's important to hear in a story like Zacchaeus.

In the Episcopal Church, we get there's all kinds of saints in the world.

Some of them aren't even Christian.

We take faith so seriously in the idea that God is everywhere all the time.

Everywhere all the time.

That God can be fully present in you even if you don't know it.

I don't know, Gandhi, but I'm sure grateful for his legacy and ministry.

Hope you are too.

And I know people who aren't dead yet.

And I'll call them saints.

Sometimes we worry about that.

We say, well, what if they totally denounce the Lord and become evil and wicked and corrupt?

And I guess they could, but would that take away from the life they've given me?

No way.

My mom could become a Wiccan.

I don't think she could.

But she could.

By the way, wickeds do some nice things, right?

Like, we met some wickcans.

Like, this seems good, right?

They seem like they got some good stuff going on, right?

She could become hateful and evil and superstitious.

Would that take away from the 75 years of ministry she gave me?

No.

We say that in church.

You don't gotta be perfect to point somebody else to God and practice salvation.

The question is, who's unlocked doors in your life?

Maybe there were seven locks and they only had the power to unlock one, but they did.

Maybe they didn't even have the power to turn the key all the way, but they tried.

This is what we do on All Saints Day.

This is what we do when we talk about salvation.

What are the locks?

I know people who don't pray at all.

But they love people who are homeless.

Does God prefer one thing over the other?

I hope not.

Don't you hope not?

This is what All Saints Day is about.

Now, I want to offer to you, and I do this every year, there's some ways we can get out of regret, because regret means I miss the chance to tell somebody when they could hear it how much I appreciated them.

That's life-giving to do.

I hope you agree.

When somebody has touched your life, it is life-giving to share with them, you touched my life.

And I want to suggest if you really want to get ready for Advent and Christmas, this is the season to do it.

Like start on Tuesday, on All Saints Day, November the 1st, and do this thing.

However, you want.

Pick somebody once a day.

And offer them gratitude.

You could do it like an encyclopedia.

Take a picture of Kathy Hill.

Put it in a journal.

Kathy Hill served to the point of exhaustion on the lots board because she believed in the life of the place.

Thank you for doing that.

It's an inspiration and it touches my heart.

You could tell Kathy that or you could keep it quiet.

Do it.

Do it over small things.

Put it on social media.

Shoot.

Social media is full of junk.

It's full of junk.

How about a post that calls out people for doing good?

What we see is the opposite.

Oh, I can't believe so-and-so changed their mind.

What a waffler or whatever.

Put a post up that says, Susan Manville took my son out to dinner because she believed in him in moments I couldn't.

Thank you, Susan Manville.

Put that post up.

Write a card.

You may not even remember this.

You may not even remember this, Don Anderson.

Twenty years ago, when I bought a house and I didn't have money to replace the roof, you shared money directly with me so I could buy new shingles.

You didn't even know me.

Maybe it wasn't a good investment, but man, it was a gift.

And I do myself a disservice to forget.

And I do you a disservice not to honor your gift that you did not have to give.

Salvation happens small moments.

I don't know perfect important people.

I don't.

I knew some important people.

Like Chris Kraft.

He's important.

And I knew Betty Ancraft.

And you know what I love about Betty Anncraft?

Let me tell you about Saint Lee.

This is what I miss about the lady.

Chris had a bunch of stuff in the house and he died, and she had to take care of all of it.

And someday she'd kick his ashes.

How could you leave all this stuff, Chris?

I love her for that.

I mean, I love the woman for that.

She knows.

Because I told her, and also because she's dead.

And so God has revealed the gratitude that I have in my heart for her.

All Saints Day is when we don't wait anymore.

We don't wait.

We don't wait for Zacchaeus.

We don't wait for people who kick the ashes of their dead husband in frustration.

We say thank you.

I see God in you.

And look, I love writing thank you notes, and I just want to share with you, I think, a way to do this well.

I grew up saying thank you for your generous gift.

It was this thing, Mike.

I'm trying to get away from that.

What I'm trying to say now is when you wrote a note to me on Pastor Appreciation Day, when you did that thing, it touched my heart because you heard about a thing you'd never heard of and you connected it to me, and you wanted to share that with me.

You took the time, you took the energy to make a connection.

I don't know what I would have made.

And it made me feel honored.

It made me feel seen.

A good thank you note says, you did this, and I felt like this.

Thank you.

I'm not gonna tell Jan that her note was generous.

I don't know why she wrote it.

I don't know.

But what I do know is she did.

And it touched my heart.

I don't need to judge her intention.

I need to say you did this thing, and it touched my heart because.

Now, whether you do this in a journal or on social media or with a note, I hope you'll do it this month.

I hope you'll do it because you'll enjoy your life more.

And I hope there's a zakia somewhere that you might consider even just trying to turn the key.

I hope so.

The reason I hope that is because God thinks it's good even if we don't.

Why should we wait until we're gone to enjoy the goodness that God wants us to have now?

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

That's found on page 358 of your red prayer book.

Page 358.

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

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

For us, our salvation, he came down from heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, he became imparted from the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake was crucified under his childhood.

He suffered death and was buried.

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

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

He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.

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

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

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and Apostolic Church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the freedom of sins.

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

Amen.

For the Holy Church of God, that it may be filled with truth and love and be found without fault at the day of your coming.

We pray to you, O Lord.

O Lord, have compassion.

For all the holy people of God, for all bishops and other ministers, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, Kay, and Scott, our bishops in the Dyson Circle of Prayer, All Saints Stafford, Calvary Richmond, Christ Church Eagle Lake, and Christchurch Matagorda.

For Michael, our presiding bishop, for Mike, Jim, Craig, and all the priests in our community, we pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For all who fear God and believe in you, Lord Christ, that our divisions may cease and that all may be one as you and the Father are one.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the mission of the Church, that in faithful witness it may preach the gospel to the ends of the earth, we pray to you.

For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and forbearance may grow among nations and peoples, we pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For those in positions of public trust, especially Joe, our president, and Greg, our governor, that they may serve justice and promote the dignity and freedom of every person.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer, for refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For this congregation, that we may be delivered from the hardness of heart and show forth your glory in all that we do.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For our enemies and those who wish us harm, and for all whom we have injured or offended, for ourselves, for the forgiveness of our sins, and for the grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives, we pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For all who have commended themselves to our prayers, for our families, our friends, and neighbors, especially Chris, Sue, Kevin, Jan, Miriam, Celia, Derek, John, Pam, Nick, Robert, and those the congregation wishes to name at this time, silently or aloud.

We pray to you, O Lord.

For all who have died in the communion of your church, especially, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that with all the saints they may have rest in that place where there is no pain or grief, but eternal life.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

And rejoicing in the fellowship of all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our Lord.

Jesus, for yours is the majesty, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory now and forever.

Amen.

The confession was in the prayers, and God heard us the first time.

So the peace of the Lord be always with you and also with you.

If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in the room right behind the one we're sitting in now, we call that the room the Narthix, 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.

And thanks for worshiping with us.

I want to raise to your attention a couple opportunities that are happening this week.

You'll find all of this on our website, master calendar, and e-news, but sometimes it's nice to have a reminder of what's going on.

So this morning, two opportunities right after the service.

One is that our school had a book fair this week, and the book fair is open for your shopping in case you've got somebody in your life that could use a good story.

Child, grandchild, you.

So please have a look in Chris Hall if that appeals to you, and our school is doing this.

It's a win-win for us because uh we we build our own library through this, if that makes sense.

So books are good, building our library is good, and if that appeals to you, there it is.

Uh, the other thing that you'll see right after the service is a little table.

Um, one of our teachers practices this thing called genius hour.

And during genius hour, kids come up with ideas like that they want to test that usually have to do with learning and bettering the world.

And some of our kids decided they'd like to have a fundraiser for the Bay Area, uh, the animal shelter here in Nassau Bay.

And so they've made some crafts.

And of course, you may not want the craft, it's your souvenir for doing what's right.

So please be generous in your consideration, both with your words and your attention, on your way out today, because it takes boldness to make crafts to benefit animals.

It does.

It's too bad that it does, and it does.

So you'll see that on your way out.

Um, please also, today's the last day we're amending our directory.

And again, if you're not getting a birthday card, it's because I don't know when your birthday is, so please write it because I like sending them.

So you'll see the directory out here in the Narthex, and you can amend it by adding your birthday, changing your address, our phone number.

That's it.

If you did not get your photo taken, please send us a family photo, or I'm tempted to draw one of you.

And you won't like my work.

So please do it because a directory without photos just isn't helpful.

It's not helpful.

So we want your photos so we can really connect.

Uh connect here in the place.

Okay.

Uh this Saturday is November the 5th.

It's our first Saturday of the month.

So food distribution in the parking lot from 7.45 will be done by 9.45, and the weather seems like nice now, right?

So I hope you'll enjoy time together practicing justice.

And that's on Saturday from 7.45 till about 9.45.

You don't need RSVP, you can show up.

This coming Sunday is a high holy day in the church.

There will be candles and incense and bells, and that's to remind us multi-sensory of the light and music in our lives of the saints, even flawed ones.

So if somebody has departed in your life, like they died within the last year, if I did their funeral, I know who they are, and I will read their name.

If I didn't, I may not know them.

Please send that name to Ellen by Tuesday so that we can celebrate the saints who have departed.

And you'll see in the hallway that our kids have made this middle American tradition of an ofrenda for Dia de los Muertos, right?

This is the day of the dead in which we celebrate saints who may have died several years ago.

You're gonna see these like shoe boxes that try to encapsulate what this person meant to the family.

It's a beautiful tradition.

If you want to make one, put it out there.

We'll celebrate it.

My daughter made one for my father last year, and I was surprised how meaningful it was that my daughter made a shoe box to my dad.

It was meaningful.

It was meaningful.

That's why we do it.

Because it could be meaningful for you.

So that's an opportunity.

Bring it, at least pay attention to what our kids have done because it's really cool.

It's about honoring people who have made their life bigger.

That's always a good thing.

Next Sunday, um, we're also gonna have an opportunity between services to hear about a parish camping trip.

We're going to Paladuro Canyon for spring break.

We will be tent camping.

I don't have any RV spots.

If you're interested at all, we'll do that between services.

We can come talk about it.

Um, it's really nice to go places together.

It's really nice, particularly with church, because we tend to be on our best behavior.

So, uh, right?

Like you know, you're gonna see these people at church, right?

So it makes it for a really lovely trip.

If you're interested, it'll be between uh services next week.

I know there's a lot, there's always a lot because you all do a lot.

Um we're collecting Thanksgiving bags from a quarter.

These are for families who will not have a traditional dinner unless we provide it.

I just want to be clear.

And you know what?

It's not everything, but it's a way of showing love.

There's a shopping list out there in the Northhex, and some people have said, hey, I don't want to go shopping, but like, is there somebody who will?

Yeah.

We think a bag costs$75.

That's a lot of money.

Which is why they won't have it if we don't give it.

I hope you hear this, right?

So um I'm a big believer in shopping if you can, but if you can't, I have people who will shop for you, and that's kind of the donation.

If you don't make it the whole thing, that's okay, right?

We can do more together.

So some people do 20, and some people do 20, and we get a bag at the end, right?

And we offer a family a thing that we enjoy.

Uh the deadline for that is Tuesday, November the 8th.

Oh no, I think it's the 8th.

I think this is our last week.

So, like, try to bring it on Sunday, and if you forget, you can bring it the next Monday.

But like during this week, I want to bless those bags.

Like, I want to ask God to bless these people so they know that people they've never met believe in their dignity and value, and they experience that in the food.

I want to do that.

So, so if you can have them next Sunday, I'll bless them in front of all of us.

The other thing to remind you is that we are doing our pledge drive right now, and that's gonna end in three weeks when we consecrate our pledges on what we call Christ the King Sunday.

If you don't have a pledge card, I've got extras.

To me, as a priest, it's none of my business what you choose to pledge, but it is my business to bless what you pledge.

I hope you hear that.

I want you to make a pledge.

I do.

Because I believe in the ministry we do here.

Your pledge may not have any finances, it may not.

I want you to make a pledge that you're gonna be invested in this community and ministry in the next year, and I want to bless that.

Uh I'm going on vacation this week, and then I'll start calling.

It is not the call of shame, it's the call of connection.

And you may say, hey, I turned my pledge card in and I want to call anyway.

I will call you.

Just let me know.

You did hear I'm going on vacation this week.

So I want to give you a huge thanks.

What I love about this community is that you threw an amazing festival for people last weekend with great weather, and you may not even realize how healing it is to get together as a group, having not been able to do that for two years.

You pulled it off, and I was sorry to miss it.

Not because of fear of missing out, I knew what I was missing, and I was sad to miss it.

And I love that you did it.

The spirit of that festival and the joy of working together, it's palpable, it's beautiful.

I got to see it for a second on Friday, and then I went to climbing training, and what I love is that you get that.

You get I wasn't here because I was doing something for the larger life of the church, just like you were.

I love that about this place.

It's not fear of missing out, I know what I'm missing out, and thank you.

We had people who are brand new, they've never done a festival and they took leadership roles.

Thank you.

We had people who didn't do leadership at all, they just came and enjoyed themselves.

Thank you.

This is our most visible invitation to the community, and it was lovely.

I can tell by looking at the photos and the stories, so thank you.

I do want you to hear.

I was at clergy conference this week, and that's not a vacation, but I did you enjoy your week?

No.

And yes, it was a lot of work and it was good work.

And one of the things we don't always get to know is that we have a very wise and compassional, compassionate, and thoughtful bishop.

We do.

And I'm sorry you don't always get to see that because he's got 161 parishes.

But I respect and love that man.

And that is the way he gathered us at clergy conference, thoughtfully, deliberately, and compassionately.

And just so you know, because somebody thought this was interesting, I want you to hear this.

We do this annual presentation at clergy conference where the bishop gets up in front of us, 400 clergy members, and says, Here's a slide of things I never thought I'd have to say out loud.

You want to hear some of these?

To clergy.

This white thing's called an alb.

Number one, wash your alb.

Because I go on visitation, they're yellow and they smell wash your alb.

Number two, get your teeth cleaned.

Our dental insurance covers four cleanings a year, and he knows who doesn't use them at all.

Get your teeth cleaned.

Number three, I am ordering you to open the common cup.

I'm ordering you as your bishop, you will have a common cup available.

All the medicine says this is airborne.

This is airborne, not surface borne.

You don't have to use the common cup.

And you know what makes me glad here at St.

Thomas?

We beat the bishop's order.

But he thoughtfully explained why that's an order.

It's core to our piety that you have that option.

Not that you have to do it, but that you have that option.

Don't go off on people on social media.

It's a fun game we get to play in the room.

Like, I wonder who he's talking about.

Somebody in here.

This is the kind of thing that we get to do, and some of it's light, and some of it's directive, and this is what the bishop does with us every year.

Hey, as your bishop, I'm noticing this, and let's talk about where the life is and where the life isn't.

And he doesn't just say don't.

He says, here's why.

Here's why I need you to do this as your bishop.

That's one small component of the 40 workshop opportunities we have, of the networking opportunities we have to get together with other clergy to think about how we can conspire not to be lone rangers, but to be a church in 160 locations.

So thank you.

And that's part of clergy conference.

And I am going on vacation this afternoon.

So I will be back next Sunday.

I'm going on my real vacation now.

And I gotta tell you, what I love about you, even if you don't tell this to me, as a group, you say, good for you.

Good for you.

You need that.

I love that about you.

Even when it means I'm gonna miss a visit with you, you say, take that vacation.

Thank you.

Continue to walk in love.

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

And well, if we are done the sea, even there shall thy hand lead me, and I right hand shall hold me to the chat.

And from your own hand have we given to 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, and he invites you to meet him here.

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

We lift up your hearts.

We give them to the Lord.

Let us give thanks to the Lord God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

The bayus burst with song from wind and birds and waving grasses.

The abundance of birds flying freely reminds us of our own freedom.

And the many ways you provide sustenance in your kingdom.

From the depths of the ocean floor, you made room for clear lake, and appointed it a respite and sanctuary for your creatures.

We, like your Son, our Lord, are called to drink from these oases for the Spirit to get away and rest in communion with you.

We marvel as we wander alongside pines and wildflowers along the creeks, where jumping fish dance above the lake, and pelicans, egrets, duck, and geese eat and drink from the water's edge.

And we remember, you have given us the living water to quench our thirst.

Our spirit is refreshed, and our strength renewed.

We welcome the passing of seasons and broad circles of time with anticipation of new things to come, and we recognize that same feeling of hope that encircles our faith.

Our lives are lived between sunrises and sunsets in brilliant colors, but at night the limitless stars have a way of pushing back the boundaries of our lives, and we dream of heaven and your wonder.

And with all these blessings of your creation around us, O God, we come together in communities on the bayous, by creeks and lakes, on trails and marshes to receive your word, which has been sown in rich soil and grown into a fruitful crop in the body of Christ.

So we join with saints and angels in proclaiming your glory as we sing.

As we gather to praise your name, we see your greatest glory, your son, our Savior, reflected in each other's faces, and we know the magnitude of your love for us and ours for you.

On the night before he died for us, Jesus was at table with his friends.

He took bread, gave thanks to you, broke it, and gave it to them, and said, Take, eat.

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

Do this in remembrance of me.

As supper was ending, Jesus took the cup of wine.

Again, he gave thanks to you, gave it to them, and said, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood, my life force, given to nourish your own.

Whenever you drink it, drink it in remembrance of me.

And now gathered at your table, O God of all creation, and remembering Christ, crucified and risen, who was and is and is to come, we offer to you these gifts of bread and of wine, and we offer ourselves a living sacrifice.

Pour out your Spirit upon these gifts that they may be the body and blood of Christ.

Breathe your spirit over the whole earth, and make us your new creation, the body of Christ given for the world you've made.

In the fullness of time, bring us with all your saints from every tribe and language and people and nation to feast at the banquet prepared from the foundation of the world.

Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, to you be honor, glory, and praise forever and ever.

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, honor 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, bind to kingdom and our power and our glory forever and ever.

Amen.

Therefore, let us keep the feet.

Alleluia.

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, intention that's dipping is open to my right, your left.

Drinking directly from the chalice is open to your right, my left.

We don't mix behaviors.

So we only dip in the dip cup, we only sip from the sip cup.

And reminder, the prayer book says, your intention to receive is as good as receiving.

That's how great God is.

So if you need or feel the need to pass, have a blessing, knowing that God can do magic.

The best kind, nourish you without eating.

Renewed by this bread from the heavenly table, we beseech you, Lord, that being the food of charity, it may confirm our hearts and stir us to serve you and our neighbor through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Praying, discipleship, salvation.

It doesn't have to be the blue iris.

It could be weeds in a vacant lot or a few small stones.

Just pay attention.

Then patch a few words together and don't try to make them elaborate.

This isn't a contest, but the doorway into thanks and a silence in which another voice may speak even through our own.

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

Amen.