Pentecost 7 2022

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

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all, all desires known, and from you know the Spirit started.

Cleanse the thoughts of 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.

Let us pray.

O God, the protector of all who trust in you, without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy.

Increase and multiply upon us your mercy, that with you as our ruler and guide, we may so pass through things temporal that we lose not the things eternal.

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

Amen.

As we're being seated, our children are invited to children's church with Miss Julia in the back.

A reading from Hosea.

When the Lord first spoke through Hosea, the Lord said to Hosea, Go take for yourself a wife of Hordom and have children before, for the land commits a great whoredom by forsaking the Lord.

So he went and took Goma, the daughter of Dibelon, and she conceived and bore him a son.

And the Lord said to him, Name him Jezreel, for in a little while I will punish the house of Jehu for the blood of Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.

On that day I will break the bow of Israel in the valley of Jezreel.

And he conceived again and bore a daughter.

Then the Lord said to him, Name her Loruhama, for I will no longer have pity on the house of Israel, or forgive them.

But I will have pity on the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Lord their God.

I will not save them by bow or by sword or by war or by horses or by horsemen.

When she had weaned Lo Ruhamah, she conceived and bore a son.

Then the Lord said, Name him Loami, for you are not my people, and I am not your God.

Yet the number of people of Israel shall be like the sand of the sea, which can neither be measured or numbered.

And in the place where it was said to them, You are not my people, it shall be said to them, children of the living God.

Hear what the Spirit is saying to God the people.

You have been gracious to your land, O Lord.

You have restored the good fortune of Jacob.

You have forgiven the iniquity of your people and blotted out all their sins.

You have withdrawn all your fury and turned yourself wrathful indignation.

Restore us then, O God, our Savior.

Let your anger depart from us.

Will you be displeased with us forever?

Will you prolong your anger from age to age?

Will you not give us life again that your people may rejoice in you?

Show us your mercy, O Lord, and grant us your salvation.

I will listen, O Lord God, to what you are saying.

For you are speaking peace to your faithful people and to those who turn their hearts to you.

Truly, your salvation is very near to those who fear you, that your glory may dwell in our land.

Mercy and truth have met together.

Righteousness and peace have kissed each other.

Truth shall spring up from the earth, and righteousness shall look down from heaven.

O Lord, you will indeed grant prosperity, and our land will yield its increase.

Righteousness shall go before you, and peace shall be a pathway before your feet.

Rooted and built up in him and established in the faith.

Just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

According to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily.

And you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of every ruler and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with the spiritual circumcision by putting off the body of the flesh and the circumcision of Christ.

When you were buried with him in baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power of God who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you alive together with him.

When he forgave us all our trespasses, he raised in the record that stood against us with his legal demands.

He set us aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and authorities and made a public example of them.

Triumphing over them in it.

Therefore, do not let anyone condemn you in matters of food or drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or Sabbath.

These are only a shadow of what it is to come.

But the substance belongs to Christ.

Do not let anyone disqualify you for insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels or dwelling on visions or puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking, and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body, nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows with a growth that is from God.

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

Jesus said to them, When you pray, say, Father, hallowed be your name.

Your kingdom come.

Give us each day our daily bread and forgive us our sin, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us.

Do not bring us to the time of trial.

Jesus said to them, Suppose one of you has a friend, and you go to him at midnight and say, Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, for a friend of mine has arrived, and I have nothing to set before them.

And your friend answers from within.

The door's already been locked, my kids are with me in bed, I cannot get up and give you anything.

I tell you, even though he will not get up and give you anything because he is his friend, at least because of his persistence, he will get up and give him whatever he needs.

So I say to you, ask, and it will be given to you.

Search and you will find, knock, and the door will be opened for you.

For everyone who asks receives, and everyone who searches finds.

For everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.

Is there anyone among you who, if your child asks for a fish, will give a snake instead of a fish?

Or if the child asks for an egg, we'll give a scorpion.

If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask God?

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise you, Lord God.

And uh I want to talk to you a little bit about prayer, because for me that's where the readings are pushing me.

And I want to begin, obviously, this is what we hear in Luke, um, Jesus instructing the disciples how to pray.

And um, I want to talk a little bit about some of my own prayer experience in church, uh, and I want to remind you, um, some of you out there are are are educators, and there's this uh in education e is what we say is when we're trying to change somebody's schema, that is the way they view the entire world, it's kind of hard to do it in one step.

So it's really helpful to have a ramp that's called a scaffolding.

It's a way to get you from here to here in bits.

And once you get here, you're supposed to be transformed and not regress, right?

But taking one big step is tough.

So this, I think, is part of the scaffolding the church that raised me to talk.

The scaffolding is there are these different ways to pray, and but don't write these down because you can't use them when you play Scrabble, they're too long.

But um, you probably know some of this.

You can do prayers of supplication, that's where you ask God for stuff, right?

Like, hey God, you probably didn't know my brother's really sick, and it'd be great if you'd take care of that.

There's prayers of adoration, which is where you say, like, God, I adore you, thanks for loving me, right?

Maybe you've heard there's prayers of thanksgiving, like when you drive by a police officer way too fast and you're like, oh, thank God, I did not get a ticket.

Yes?

And then there's a few others, right?

Now keep in mind that's a scaffolding, right?

It's meant to take you somewhere, not to leave you, because the truth is if you parse prayer into these like different categories, I guarantee you you're missing something.

And and I missed something a lot because I thought it's this, it's this, it's this.

So uh and I've shared this story before, um, and I'm gonna add a new one today, but um once upon a time, I was doing my prayers of supplication for parishioners when I was living in California.

So I was out walking the dog, it's like five in the morning, and I'm going through my head about these people, either who I love or I'm having trouble loving, right?

And I'm holding them up kind of before God.

And I'm going through my list, frankly, of supplications.

Now, this is a special one, and I'm gonna throw it out there, even though y'all are better than me, but you know better than to pray like this.

But uh, there's this lady who I dearly love because she's a lovely human being, inside and out.

She's one of those people easy to love.

Like if you don't love this person, I don't know what's going on.

She's about 77, which means she's in great help, right?

Um used to be a teacher, watching over her grandkids, and she's decided and realized actually that her children are not going to raise her grandchildren in the church.

So she's been the one churching her grandkids who are lovely.

And she gets frankly some awful news, which is the stage four ovarian cancer diagnosis.

Now, I'm not a doctor, but I can tell you about the only thing worse is uh would would be uh well she was there, I forgot the pancreatic cancer is the only one worse, right?

This is bad.

And it's so bad, and I'm a little jaded because I've lived in hospitals doing my CPE.

I I I I have this conviction, and I'll just be honest, I thought, you know, I'm not dying from cancer from chemo, I'd rather die from the cancer.

I don't know if you're familiar with this idea.

Now I'm young and I know it all, but not much has changed.

So I'm there praying and I say, God, you know, this lovely lady, like just help her to accept she's gonna die so she can have some peace.

I prayed that prayer.

And this is really strange because I am not used to having this happen.

I had this voice strongly inside me say, Why do you get to pick what's best for her?

Rather than pausing and saying, like, oh, is that the Holy Spirit?

I said, Well, let me tell you why I get to pick.

Because I've been and I know what that looks like.

I've seen movies, I've seen it in real life, and I don't want that.

And the voice comes back and says to me, Why do you get to pick?

Again, I say something like, Well, because she's not even going to be able to do what she wants to do.

I mean, that's out of your control, whether your grandkids live into the church life.

And again, why do you get to pick?

And so the first time in my spiritual life, I had an argument with myself in God's presence.

And that was a moment on the scaffolding.

And I want to suggest.

You that if we think of prayer as something we say, we're missing a lot of it.

So because I've been in the woods for a long time, uh woodsy people are pretty cool, and they happen to really like the poet Mary Oliver.

And I want to share with you Mary Oliver's take on prayer, and I hope it might be a moment in your own prayer scaffolding.

This is called praying by Mary.

Actually, no, this is called the Summer Day.

Who made the world?

Who made the swan and the black bear?

Who made the grasshopper?

This grasshopper, I mean, the one who has flung herself out of the grass, the one who is eating sugar out of my hand, who is moving her jaws back and forth instead of up and down, who is gazing around with her enormous and complicated eyes.

Now she lifts her pale forearms and thoroughly washes her face.

Now she snaps her wings open and floats away.

I don't know exactly what a prayer is.

I do know how to pay attention, how to fall down into the grass, how to kneel down in the grass, how to be idle and blessed, how to stroll through the fields, which is what I've been doing all day.

Tell me what else should I have done?

Doesn't everything die at last and too soon?

So tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?

If I'm honest with you, the way I want somebody praying for me is paying attention.

That's what happens in this poem.

And I can't tell you how many years of my spiritual life I've prayed in thanksgiving for the natural world without ever paying attention to it.

I can't tell you how many times I've prayed for somebody else to do such and such, or think such and such, or vote such and such, having not paid attention to them at all.

Here I find probably one of these gateways in prayer.

Pay attention.

What I'm good at paying attention to is how people disagree with me and are therefore wrong.

What I am not good at paying attention to is the beauty that lies in people that I think are ugly.

And I want to suggest to you this is what the Lord's Prayer is about.

It's not a magic formula.

It's not like God loves these words more than other words you come up with.

The truth is, and there's a book about this we have to read in seminary, praying shapes believing.

The way we pray will determine the way we look at the world and see God and receive God.

And this is why I think it's so important.

And I know Luke's got the shortest version in here, but do you hear these words?

Normally we don't just say Father in heaven.

We say our Father.

Who is included in our?

And who's excluded in our?

Now we understand that cognitively, but if you'll ride with me for a second, we're lying.

We're lying when we say that.

We're lying because of the way we treat other people when they disagree with us.

We're lying because of the labels we put on other people when they don't comport themselves to the social norms we've accepted.

And Jesus has me on the hook because look, he says, none of you would give your kids a stone when they ask for bread.

I might have, actually.

There's been a couple of times when I've been so mad at my kids, I might have.

And by the way, that's this thing in outdoor ed we call halt.

Have you heard of this halt?

It tells you when not to make important decisions.

Hungry, angry, tired, you probably get.

L?

Do you know this one?

L?

It's when you're lonely.

One of those ways to not be lonely is to pray to our Father instead of mine.

My Father looks a lot like me, does a lot like what I think.

And Jesus says, our Father.

Ours.

And then there's this nasty challenge he puts in there.

Don't lead us to the time of trial.

For me, the time of trial is are you going to love the person in front of you?

In all of their unlovability.

Keep me from that trial.

I'd rather just love people who think like me.

The reason I'm saying this comes together for me has to be with the book of Hosea.

And look, I wouldn't bring this up normally because I don't like that word.

The W word.

I'll tell you, actually, I don't think a man has any business saying that word about any woman.

I don't.

And we understand a little bit culturally what's going on here.

Hosea has married somebody who has had relations with other people, and there's kids, and their lineage is in question.

And sure enough, it goes initially worse.

Like, I'll break your strength, won't have pity on you, you're not my people.

And what I love about Hosea that we all love, right, is in the end, God says, hey, those people you think aren't my people are my people.

Do you see the conclusion?

It's really nice.

So, reminder.

This is not just about inclusivity.

This is about how we pray and whether we see God in one another or not.

The people who are not my people, says God, are my people.

But there's something I don't like about Hosea, and I'm going to tell you now.

We all understand how this works.

It's an analogy about fidelity.

People who aren't faithful, they don't get in, but God loves them in the end.

The thing I don't like about it is that it's not critical.

Maybe you, I don't want to bore you, but in the ancient world, prostitution didn't happen in a red light district like in Amsterdam.

It happened at temples.

It was considered worship of other deities.

The people who were prostitutes were prisoners of war taken against their will and chained up in temples.

Hosea gets to marry one of these people.

I cannot imagine the God of my understanding saying to Hosea, go marry somebody really, really unfaithful so I can make a point.

I hope you're with me.

I can't even imagine God saying, just go pick somebody who's a prostitute.

Because you'd be marrying an object, not a person.

I just don't think that's how it goes.

To be honest, I think Hosea is looking back at his life and saying, I made these choices, here have been the difficulties of my emotions, and look what's happened, and God is like that.

But what Hosea doesn't say is, what's Gomer supposed to do?

What's she supposed to do?

She's taken here against her will.

She has no agency.

Those kids whose parents you're confused about, as a result, you're going to treat them poorly.

What's she supposed to do about that?

I've been gone four months, but I, you know, it's not gone from me is a concern for how it is that we talk about women and other human beings because it determines how we see God in them or not.

And this still exists.

It hasn't changed while I'm gone.

If a man sows his wild oats, we expect that.

If a woman doesn't, well, she's a prude.

If she does, well, she's a prostitute.

And it's wrong.

And when we use words like that, we're praying to my father and not our father, and Jesus calls us to the carpet on that today.

And the thing that we're missing from Hosea is hey, I had this analogy and I was totally wrong about it.

I married my wife because I chose to.

And my wife is a subject, not an object.

And when we have different standards for men and women, we live this story out in the wrong way.

Now, not everybody's into rap music, but I want you to hear that even Snoop Dogg has repented from his former lyrics.

I don't know if you know this.

When I was in high school, there was this album that came out, and sure enough, Snoop Dogg in his songs, if you want to call them that, whatever your preference is, referred to women, frankly, in rather misogynistic terms.

Either with the word ho or this other word that men should not say that starts with a B.

And um, this is you can this is easily searchable.

Snoop Dogg has said, yeah, you know what, I've learned a lot since then.

I married my high school sweetheart, I have a daughter, and they continue to teach me that that language is not helpful.

And I don't really know what's the right way to do this, but Snoop Dogg said, I'm not changing those words because they remind me of where I've been and how far I still have to go.

Do what you want with Snoop Dogg.

But I think just because something is in Scripture doesn't mean it bears repeating.

This is one of those examples that do not bear repeating, especially over the last month that we've had.

And it makes me wonder if we don't sometimes shortcut language because we don't even pay attention to the human being in front of us.

Instead, we see a decision that we want to have happen and we say, God, make that happen without bothering to think about what is in front of us.

I got lots of options.

I do.

I've got lovely people who in this room, I know this, if I needed help would help me.

And not everybody has that.

And we forget that.

We forget that not everybody has what we have.

And I worry sometimes that in prayer we get stuck at these five things that are like adoration and supplication, and we forget the whole goal of prayer is that we're aware of God wherever we go.

And when we have an ethical controversy within ourselves, we have that controversy in God's presence.

And when we've got someone in front of us who doesn't share the decision we've made, we take enough time to pay attention to the grasshopper and its wings and how beautiful it is and the burdens that it's carrying instead of they disagree and they're wrong.

Whatever your politics are, that preaches to you.

It preaches to me.

And I want to suggest that it takes us into the real magic of what prayer is, which is being open to the beauty and wonder that is both in our life and in the lives of people who are inconvenient in front of us.

Now, what about Colossians?

I'm just worried sometimes that we don't actually hear this letter.

Paul admonishes us not to be taken away by philosophies or foolishness.

And I was raised by a church that has degraded women, well, most of my life.

And that's foolishness, and it's a decrepit philosophy.

And it's what Paul warns us about.

Of course, this weekend is about women.

But it's not just about women.

This is about immigrants.

Soldiers who are fighting wars we don't believe should be fought.

Even about people who are ordering soldiers to fight wars, we don't think they should be taught.

And of course, I'm not saying there's no accountability.

I'm saying that our dignity before God is never at stake.

And I want to suggest that might be the most important criterion in how we pray.

If our prayers come at the dignity of someone else, we pray to my Father and not ours.

And here's the biggest line Jesus says forgive us our sins.

Accordingly, we are forgiving other people what they owe us.

I don't do a lot of business deals.

My parents told me don't do business with family.

We do sometimes.

Usually the debt I owe people is recognizing their God-given dignity when we disagree.

That's a debt I owe somebody invites Jesus to our contemplation.

A debt we owe is how we pray when it's hard.

A debt we owe is accepting somebody in all of their unacceptability.

A debt we owe is nourishing our kids when we don't feel like it.

And if we know how to do that, says Jesus, imagine how much more God does than that.

We're called not just to say these things, we're called to do them.

So I want to encourage you, if you want to grow your prayer life, I want to grow mine.

Pay attention to somebody this week.

Especially when they're hard.

In fact, if you find yourself sweating in your armpits during a conversation with your mother-in-law or your mom, that might just be the Holy Spirit saying, pay attention to that.

Pay attention to that.

Find the wonder in your hand.

This isn't just about how we pray.

This is about what we're going to do with our wild and free life.

In recognition of our father.

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

We Father Son bees worship and glorified.

Jesus Christ.

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.

Let us pray for the church and the world.

We thank you, O God, for your universal church and its mission, and for calling us to serve you and among your people.

Continue, we pray, to equip us with all we need to tell others of you, and glorify your name in all that we do.

We pray for the leaders of all nations that they may seek to do your will for the welfare of the people they lead and serve.

We pray for those holding public office in our nation, that they may be guided by your gifts of wisdom and charity.

We thank you, Creator God, for the beauty, majesty, and abundance of your creation, especially for its manifestation here around Clear Lake.

Keep us mindful of the holiness and fragility of your earthly home and all creatures who dwell within, that we may rejoice in being stewards and peacemakers.

O God, giver of all things, we thank you for the abundance of grace poured out upon us.

May we with grateful heart show compassion through our thoughts, words, and deeds for those who are hungry, homeless, neglected, abused, exploited, or in any other need.

Lord Jesus, healer of bodies and spirits, may your healing hand touch all who suffer in mind, body, or soul.

May those who attend to them use their God-given skill, wisdom, and compassion to restore them.

We pray especially for Chris, Ken, Nancy, Amber, Christine, Patrick, Dorothy, and Father Jim.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Congregation is invited to name their own celebrations or petitions silently or aloud.

Trusting that you are able to do more than we ask or imagine.

Lord, compassion, hear our prayer.

We give you thanks, Lord Jesus, for graciously restoring those who have battled and survived serious illnesses and near-death situations.

That by your help and the help of those sent to them, they may continue to serve you in this life according to your will.

We are especially grateful for.

Make your presence known, we pray, with those who grieve for broken relationships and struggle to mend walls created through conflict, disagreement, and mistrust, that they may seek and find forgiveness, repentance, and reconciliation.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Living God, we remember our loved ones and colleagues who no longer journey with us in this life, especially John.

Have compassion on all who mourn, and may the souls of the departed share in your eternal kingdom.

Rejoicing in the fellowship of all your saints.

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

Let us confess our sin against God and our neighbor.

Forgive what our lifts are today, what our hearts can no longer bear, and what you try to change, and that's great.

Jesus Christ, the light of the world.

Amen.

May God of all healing and forgiveness, who accepts us in all of our unacceptability, deepen your trust in God's grace and love and unburden you of all your sin, that you may behold and enjoy the glory of the Word made flesh.

Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

A couple announcements I want to make now.

Opportunities this week.

The first is that we're having our uh our normal fresh food distribution with the Gallaston Food Bank this coming Saturday.

Um look, it's gonna be hot.

You probably want to bring water if you're coming.

You may want to bring a hat.

I don't usually have sunscreen available.

Um, but we'll be 7.45 till 10 out here in the parking lot.

And uh you don't have to sign up to come.

You can just show up Saturday morning if that appeals to you.

Um next week we're having a the Holy Smokers are putting back sort of a celebratory uh breakfast to welcome you all back.

I'll be glad to be there as well, but mostly I'll be looking forward to time with you.

I I probably will fill the time with some uh boring travel photos and stories, but at least you'll have good food.

So that's next week between services starting at 9-ish, 9 to 10, something something like that.

Um okay, a couple other things that are pretty nice to note.

One is that um, and I just got back in a pack for this news, the school board uh is trying to take the safety of our kids very carefully, and as you imagine, in all churches, sometimes keys go down and they don't come back.

So we're gonna be re-keying the exterior doors a week from tomorrow.

And I won't have the new keys till that.

So anytime after August 1st, if you need a key, just come get a new one.

This is so that we can do the very best we can to keep our kids safe while they're at school.

Right?

Your interior door key will still work, but we have a new exterior door.

If you come normally on Sundays, I can help you out in two Sundays, right?

So I can check you out with new keys.

Um this is sort of what we're doing.

So this will show up in the E News too, just a reminder.

Other thing that happened, of course, while I was away, that's really lovely, is that Dee Hicks welcomed a new granddaughter, and she sent me a picture last night.

Absolutely adorable.

Uh she sent me a picture of a sleeping grandbaby, and those are always the best, right?

They just so cute when you sleep.

So uh this is uh Aliy Harris, D.

Hicks's, she's an eight o'clopper.

This is her new granddaughter.

And I told her I know a priest that'll do a baptism, so hopefully that'll happen.

Um reminder: if any of your loved ones, friends or family, grandchild, great-grandchild, niece, nephew, etc., welcomes any family member, we'd be grateful to celebrate uh them on the Lord's table.

Uh also, this cool thing happened while I was gone.

Um, somebody put forward a matching grant opportunity for the school.

Maybe you've heard about this.

We don't even know who it is.

Uh so somebody put together a very carefully anonymous matching gift.

They would give 50,000, and if it got matched, they'd get another 50.

And it got matched.

So this is really lovely that you all did this, and and uh super grateful.

In fact, we didn't just match the 50.

I think we're at 57.

Now, great reminder, there won't be an annual fund this year.

This is the annual fund for the school, so you won't get another ask.

Which means it's not too late if this is up to you, right?

So um I just want to put that out before you and really thank you for your generosity.

Um two other things that I think are worth to note.

Uh I did say supply.

Uh Jim McGill, who has been lovely the last three and a half months, is still on his bike this week, and he's got a moderate concussion.

Uh it's it's like a mid-level, but it's a thing.

So they would be grateful for your holding space for them uh in God's presence for your prayers, uh, for Beth and Jim alike.

So they're home.

They're home.

Um but uh but uh it's it's moderate enough.

He's not supposed to watch TV.

Just to kind of let me know, because I don't want to stimulate blood flow in the brain and result in a bleak.

I think that's okay that I said that because I had permission.

So uh your prayers for Jim and Beth are much appreciated.

And the great thing about having somebody like Jim is we get to keep him.

So so he'll be back and we'll be able to celebrate it hopefully next week.

The other thing that, of course, is fantastic with you all.

I mean, your your your care throughout the sabbatical I don't want to sound mushy, but I've felt it.

So so thanks.

And there were times where I needed your care and prayers, like that time I rolled off that mountain.

So I'm super grateful for you all, and you've been more than lovely and excited, and it just it touches my heart.

So thank you.

Continue to walk in love.

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

Yes, we have the mind of free the beautiful, the beautiful wheel save home.

And of your own have we given you.

This is the table not of the church, but of Jesus Christ.

It is made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.

So come.

You who have much faith, and you who have little.

You who have been here often, and you who have not been for a long time or ever before.

You who have tried to follow and you who have failed, come.

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.

And he invites you to meet him here.

Our service continues on page 367 of your red prayer book.

Page 367.

The Lord be with you.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right and a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, creator of heaven and earth, for you are the source of light and life.

You made us in your image and called us to new life in 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.

The calling of Israel to be your people, in your word spoken to the prophets, and above all in the word made flesh, Jesus your Son.

For in these last days, you sent him to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

In him, you have delivered us from evil and made us worthy to stand before you.

In him, you have brought us out of error into truth, and of sin into righteousness, and of death into life.

On the night before he died for us, 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, according to his command, O Father, we remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming in glory, and we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord of all, presenting to you from your creation this bread and this wine.

We pray you, gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts, that they may be the sacrament of the body of Christ and his blood of the new covenant.

Unite us to your Son and his sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit, in the fullness of time.

Put all things in subjection under your Christ and bring us to that heavenly country where with Thomas, Mary, and all your saints, we may enter the everlasting heritage of your daughters and sons through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all creation, the head of the church, and the author of our salvation.

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.

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.

Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.

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

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

Let's pray together.

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.

I want to give you a different blessing.

This is another Mary Oliver poem.

Instructions for living.

Pay attention.

Be astonished.

Tell about it.

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.