Pentecost 21 2021

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Blessed Jesus family.

Let's pray together.

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

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.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Lord, we pray that your grace may always precede and follow us, that we may continually be given to good works.

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

Amen.

A reading from Job.

Job said, Today also my complaint is bitter.

His hand is heavy despite my groaning.

Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his dwelling.

I would lay my case before him and fill my mouth with arguments.

I would learn what he would answer me and understand what he would say to me.

Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power?

No.

But he would give heed to me.

There is an upright person who could reason with him, and I should be acquitted forever by my judge.

If I go forward, he is not there.

Or backward, I cannot perceive him.

Or to the left he hides, I cannot behold him.

I turn to the right, I cannot see him.

God has made my heart faint.

The Almighty has terrified me.

If only I could vanish in darkness, and thick darkness would cover my face.

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

Oh my God, I cry in the daytime, but you do not answer.

Yet you are the Holy One.

Our ancestors put their trust in you.

They cried out to you and were delivered.

But as for me, I am a worm and not a man.

All who see me laughed me to scorn.

He trusted in the Lord.

Let the Lord deliver him.

Yet you are the one who took me out of the womb.

I have been entrusted to you ever since I was born.

Be not far from me, for trouble is near.

Many young bulls encircle me.

They open wide their jaws at me.

I am poured out like water.

All my bones are out of joint.

My mouth is dried out like a pot shard.

My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth.

Sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing until it divides the soul from spirit, joints from marrow.

It is able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

And before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.

Since, then, we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God.

Let us hold fast to our confession, for we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who, in every aspect, has been tested as we are, yet without sin.

Let us therefore approach the throne of grace with boldness, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

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

As Jesus was setting out on a journey, a man ran up and knelt before him and asked him, Good teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?

Jesus said to him, Why do you call me good?

No one is good but God alone.

You know the commandments.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness, you shall not defraud, honor your father and mother.

He said to Jesus, Teacher, I've kept all these since my youth.

Jesus, looking at him, loved him and said, Ye lack one thing.

Go sell what you own and give the money to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.

Then come, follow me.

When the man heard this, he was shocked and went away, grieving, for he had many possessions.

Then Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, How hard it will be for those who have wealth to enter the kingdom of God.

And the disciples were perplexed at these words.

But Jesus said to them again, Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.

They were greatly astounded and said to one another, Then who can be saved?

Jesus looked at them and said, For mortals it is impossible, but not for God.

For God all things are possible.

Peter began to say to him, Look, we've left everything and followed you.

Jesus said, Truly, I tell you, there's no one who has left house or brothers or sisters, or mother or father, or children, or fields for my sake and for the sake of the good news, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age.

Houses, brothers and sisters, mothers and children, and fields with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.

But many who are first will be last, and the last will be first.

The gospel of the Lord.

Every three years the lectionary takes us briefly through Job, and Eric got to mention it to us a little bit last week.

We got to hear the introduction to Job, which almost everybody will tell you is much, much older than the rest of the book.

I want to go backward just for a second to catch us up where we are today in this middle part of the book.

Many of you know last week we got to read that Job was a righteous man without sin who essentially lost everything he had in a little bit of a divine gamble.

And uh the end of the reading last week was quite interesting.

Job's wife comes to him and says, Why do you pers Why do you continue in keeping your integrity?

And then the word is questionable what she says.

What we read in the scripture last week, the interpretation, says, curse God and die.

And Job replies, The Lord gives and the Lord takes away, blessed be the name of the Lord.

I don't know if you remember reading this last week.

So in doing so, he does not sin.

Now, as a child, I grew up hearing that Job is the most patient person in the book.

But I want you to hear, Job has essentially very little patience as you continue to read.

What he has is perseverance.

And there's an interesting play of words that happens in the story I just recounted to you because Hebrew does not have a large vocabulary, fewer than 10,000 words in Hebrew, compared that to 540,000 words in English.

And in Hebrew, there's this word barak.

The translators are, they often struggle with how to translate, because it turns out the word Barak can just as well mean bless as it can mean curse.

So when Job's wife says, curse God and I, what she says in Hebrew is barak God and I, and Job says, the Lord gives, the Lord takes away Barak, the name of the Lord.

The interpreter has decided, or I should say the translator has decided, to render the word curse from Job's wife and blessed from Job, but I put it for you, you could just as easily switch those words around.

Perhaps Job's wife says, Look, you're suffering, you're covered with boils.

Why don't you just give God your blessing and die?

And Job might just as well say, Well, the Lord gives, and doggone it, the Lord takes away, cursed be the name of the Lord.

Sort of like in the South, right?

When somebody cuts you off in traffic, you could say, bless your heart.

And when someone does something really sweet, you could say, Well, bless your heart.

Usually, actually, it's a negative meaning.

We all understand that.

This is an interesting thing in Hebrew, that there is a choice.

And the choice, unfortunately, is not left to the reader because the translator has decided that Job's wife is the one who's wrong.

But I put before you, if you've ever read the book, Job kind of goes on to curse God, most of the rest of the book.

When I say curse, I mean Job says to God, You're not just and you don't love me correctly.

And what we read today is, look, I've done everything right in the relationship, and now I can't even find you.

And sometimes to read the book is why do bad things happen to good people.

And I want to tell you, if you read the book that way, you won't find the answer to it.

I'm not sure anybody's figured that out.

But I was blessed.

Well, you can decide if I was cursed, a number of years ago when I ran into a teacher who told me, I can't even remember the teacher's name.

This is kind of sad.

But instead of reading the book of Job as a question about God's version of justice, the book of Job is actually a really interesting inquiry into the nature of love.

Because the question really is, how do you know someone loves you?

Eric mentioned this really briefly last week.

Does Job love God because of what God gives Job?

Or does Job love God for who God is?

Those are really different questions.

Many of us, well, I'll just talk for myself, I guess, have had to contend either with our parents, our children, our siblings, or in a marital relationship.

Does our spouse, significant other, do they love me for me, or do they love me for what I do for them?

In friendships, this is often the case.

I don't know if you've ever met somebody who's self-destructive.

They're self-sabotaging because they feel like someone's starting to love them.

So what they try to do is show how unlovable they are.

I don't know if you've met those folks.

I have a few of them in my life.

Sometimes I'm one of them.

And that's an interesting play when I push against you.

Do you still persist in loving me?

This is an interesting human story.

What's curious about the book of Job is that God is in the story.

Today, Job goes on to rant because he's given God no reason to stop loving him the way he was used to.

And now Job can't find God because he's been stripped of all his material possessions, he's been stripped of his children, and he's been stripped of his health.

And he cannot find God anywhere.

Well, this is a normal Christian thing.

Lots of people come to me as a priest and they say, I just don't feel like God's answering my prayers.

I'll ask God, what should I do, and I don't get an answer.

I'll pray for this thing and I don't get an answer.

I'm not sure God's around, or put a different way, I'm not sure God loves me because God's not responding in the ways I think God's supposed to respond.

If this is not applicable to your faith life, I can stop, but I but I think this is universally applicable.

I just want to say that.

And reminds me a little bit of that William James poem, you know, to find infinity in a grain of sand.

Have you heard this before?

This is sort of the goal of life, says William James, is to find the infinite in the most smallest finite quantity.

And as the book of Job proceeds, what ends up happening, I don't want to spoil the ending, but perhaps Job can't see God because Job isn't looking the right way.

That is to say, I grew up hearing that saying as a child, seeing is believing.

Maybe you said something like that before too, I'll believe it when I see it.

And I wonder if sometimes the faith invitation is that we don't see it because we don't believe it.

That is to say, believing determines what we see.

And perhaps Job is fixated on a different kind of love.

Maybe a different version of love, one that is about reciprocity instead of omnipresence, one that is about my needs being met instead of loving somebody whether they meet my needs or not.

Hence, perhaps Job struggles to see God.

I don't know if you find yourself in those kinds of situations, but I do sort of think this is what's happening in the gospel.

There's a rich young man, and this is tough.

You know, I I maybe the lectionary writers perceived that down the road there would be stewardship season in churches.

So we'll just put this passage in the middle of the pledge of the pledge drive, because look, it's really clear.

Sell everything you have and give it to the poor.

I wish the Bible said give it to the church, because that would be much easier.

Um but of course we all kind of understand that that is not something that everyone should take literally.

Well, I don't think that's something everybody should take literally.

The young man goes away sad.

In fact, it says he goes away grieving because he has many possessions.

Actually, we're not really clear whether he does, in fact, sell them all and give them away.

So if he's grieving that he's going to divest himself, or he's grieving because he's not going to do this.

We don't know what happens to this person.

He doesn't show up again.

And then Jesus says the real showstopper, he says, boy, it's really hard for rich folk to get into the family of God.

That was a surprise in the day because we still have a little bit of this left.

It was assumed that God works in a karma system, so people essentially get what they deserve.

And if you're sick, it's because you earned it, and if you're rich, it's because you earned it.

So to hear that rich people would struggle would have actually inverted the way people were living.

Many of you have heard this in a history lecture.

People in the ancient world believed in something called the great chain of being, which is similar to like the divine right of kings or manifest destiny.

God blesses nobility and peasants, yeah, they didn't just put in their time, and then maybe, maybe, maybe down the road.

And so people who were rich had divine favor, and people who were poor, well, they needed to be more righteous.

People bought into that, and frankly, sadly, we sometimes do that too.

And so when the crowd hears this, that it's hard for rich folk to enter into the family of God.

Uh Peter just doesn't know what to do.

Well, well, look, Lord, we might not have been rich, but we left what we had, so what do we get?

It's one of those great questions about love, isn't it?

When you love somebody, depending on what you get, I'm gonna ask you, do you actually love somebody?

It's interesting when you read studies like, hey, um, what's the net effect of having children on you?

Most of the studies say a shorter lifespan.

Most of the stories say uh less material means.

And folks like me say with a joy, there must be more joy.

I don't know that there must be more joy.

I think there's an invitation.

I mean, the truth is, right?

There's no magical commodity in the world that when you have it is going to increase your joy.

That's my experience.

I've renovated my kitchen.

It's nice.

Didn't make me more joyful.

Or if it did, it didn't last that long.

I got some dogs.

I like having dogs.

Sometimes I don't like having dogs.

Especially if I'm going on vacation.

There's no magical quantity I want to suggest that just makes life better.

And I think coming back to Job, it really sadly depends on what I believe as to what I'm gonna see.

So I want to name two things in the story, if I can.

The first is, actually, I want to talk about three things.

The first is, I was talking to my wife yesterday, and I said, honey, I've just I wasn't planning on being here today, I should tell you.

I was planning on being at the beach, which is why my name's not in the bulletin.

Uh but here I so I got into this uh wrangling with the text a little bit late.

Like I didn't do it till Thursday, which is late for me.

And I said, Oh, you know, I'm doing that needle thing and I'm just stumped.

And she said, Well, look, here's what I think about it.

Now you need to know, my wife went to seminary and graduated valedictorian, and she has a law degree too, which makes her kind of like the person in the story, right?

Who's asking Jesus what to do.

She said, Well, look, I kind of think in general, people with means often do struggle to have empathy and compassion for people who have no safety net.

I thought about that because I hadn't thought about that.

I think there's a lot to it.

I just want to say that.

I think there's a lot to that.

You know, I've met people and I've been one of these people who intentionally lived in impoverished places so I could have solidarity with people who didn't have a safety net.

But you know the difference?

I could leave whenever I wanted to.

I don't know that Jesus is telling the guy in the story to do something literally, but I do want you to hear.

One way to hear the story is he's saying, You want to be in solidarity in God's family?

Because kingdom doesn't work for me.

You want to be in God's kingdom?

You really want to have solidarity with people?

Give up your safety net, and then you'll have empathy for people who don't have a safety net.

The truth is, I like many of you, I could blow all my money and I'd find somebody who'd take care of me.

Now I would never do that because I'm wired to be Tai Bay and independent and perfectionistic and all of those kinds of things.

But the truth is, I've got a safety net.

My worst day as a parent with that baby that was crying and crying and crying, I had somebody I could call.

It would have inconvenienced them.

I didn't necessarily want to do it, but I had somebody I could call.

And there are people in our community who do not have someone else to call.

And I'll tell you, I cannot imagine what it's like to be one of those people.

I'm not convinced I need to give up everything I have in order to understand that.

But I will tell you, I often find myself looking at folks who don't have my same safety net, whether it's education or family members or social network.

I see them making decisions that I tend to evaluate, that is to say, judge, when I don't really know what it's like to be that person.

And that sure does make it hard to be in the family with them.

Well, the family of God.

Actually, the family I grew up in, we're quite good at judging each other all the time.

But there's not a lot of life in that.

So I wonder if this is an invitation for empathy, because sometimes it is easier for me to thread a needle with a camel than have empathy with somebody's self-destructive choices because they don't have a safety net.

So I want to lay that out.

Second thing I want to say that I think is interesting about the story when we think about what it takes to be in God's family, and I have to be honest about this.

I grew up in a very, very evangelical church, and 10% giving was expected to the church.

It was like your minimum.

And I've seen a few people model this.

My mother was one of them who, even though we were on one income of a teacher's salary in Florida with two children, lo and behold, I found my mother wasn't just giving 10%.

She was giving 10% of her net.

That is before taxes.

And that was her minimum.

And I'm going to tell you, I don't know how she did it, except I'm coming to learn she did it differently than I do.

I often think, well, let me see what my bills are going to be this year, and then I'll figure out what percentage I can offer in reflection of my values.

And my mom redid that calculus.

She built her budget around giving that money first and then everything else stacked up second.

I gotta be honest, I don't know a lot of people who do that.

I'm not even prescribing it to you.

I just find it really inspiring because that's not how I tend to run my own finances.

Her 10% was again not just her minimum, and it didn't come after everything else.

It was her anger.

And I have to tell you, as a priest, I get to see people do this like I know who some of these people are.

Not everybody gets to see these people.

And I wish I could tell you who they are, because they make my life so much bigger.

They they model this anchor of generosity.

Some of them have means and some of them don't, and I don't know how they do it either way.

It's really quite interesting.

Follow-up story: one of my wife's friends is an attorney, started law just when my wife did, but works for a much bigger firm.

She makes bonuses in like the near six-figure range sometimes.

She asked me one day, well, first she said, I should tell you this.

She said a number of times, I make more money than I know what to do with.

And then she asked me one day, how much money do you give annually of your income?

Are you a 10%er?

And I said, Well, pretty close.

Yeah, actually, I am.

She said, Well, I looked at, I looked at the math.

I just couldn't give that much money away.

Isn't that interesting?

I make more money than I know what to do with.

But when I look at how much 10% is, I just couldn't give that away.

I wonder if the story isn't in some ways about that.

I'm not saying this in a manipulative way.

I'm wondering if sometimes we talk ourselves out of living into our value because we look at the tag.

That's weird, isn't it?

10% seems fine until you look at what it is.

That's what she was saying.

I'm gonna have more than I know what to do with.

But when I look at how much that more is, I don't know that I could do that.

I do think the story is a bit about that.

And I don't even just talking about money.

I think it's about what we choose to share with other folk.

I think it's an orientation to life.

We all understand, actually, increasingly as I get older, I understand that money might not be the most valuable thing I get to handle.

It might actually be my time.

Time's a premium.

Especially when you've got gymnastics three days a week for three hours.

Is it a premium?

You know?

Where are you going to put your time?

And with what spirit do you put it there?

And there's this interesting interplay.

I grew up that you give until it hurts.

But I did once upon a time have a great friend who said to me, actually, you give until it feels good.

It's an interesting thought, isn't that?

One that I think Jesus would approve of, and I think it might be the spin in the story between the young man grieving how much he has and what's asked, and somebody rejoicing to share what they choose to share.

Now I've got one other thought, and I'm going to step away from money for just a second, because I've got to tell you, I grew up where it is absolutely fine, admirable to help other people.

But I will not receive help myself.

I don't know if that's your orientation to life.

So I do find myself trying to tell people I am hard to help.

When they say, can I help you carry that in?

My answer is, I am hard to help.

I go ahead and own it now.

And there are these moments sometimes when things get through our armor, thank God.

I just had a birthday and lots of people, you know, express a lot of things about birthdays.

I have a hard time receiving that, you know, because I just want it to be ordinary in some ways.

I didn't want to receive gifts because I've got to tell you for myself, and this is an area of richness, even though I don't perceive myself as being super wealthy, I do have this richness of independence where receiving gifts is probably the most vulnerable thing I can do.

When I'm the one giving, ultimately I'm still in control.

I just have to be honest.

I determine who gets it and what I give, and I determine what they did with what I give.

Boy, but when I receive something, I actually start to think, oh man, I better do the right thing with what they've given me.

I better use it a lot.

Or I better publicly do something with it so they can see me using it.

Or I'd better write a thank you note immediately, which by the way I tried to do.

I think it's a nice practice.

And there's nothing wrong with any of these things, but it does making reception really difficult.

And of course, when we can't receive from one another, I think that's probably the definition of spiritual poverty.

So I was at Camp Barron this week with the school chaperoning on my birthday, and I woke up in the morning, and some parent had brought these happy birthday letters that were absolutely huge, and set them out in the middle of the volleyball court.

And each kid at camp had written me a birthday card, which has not happened before.

And when you get 42 of these things with things that say like, thanks for being the beast priest, P R E A S T, and it was supposed to say best, it's sort of disarming, you know.

Or or maybe I let it be.

And you know, uh there's this really interesting spirituality to reception, because of course, when somebody's able to give you something, that means you're coplanar with them.

But when you're giving, that means you're not on the same plane often.

You're above that plane, doling out what you have, and things only really equalize.

Well, when they equalize.

And you know, sometimes people come by and they want money because they're short on rent, or they want something because they've got electricity.

I don't often hear from them again, but sometimes they'll do something like, make a picture for me.

And receiving that deeply and joyfully seems to be what Jesus is talking about.

I want to take off the table when we talk about eternal life.

That happens just when we die.

I'm pretty sure Jesus is talking about how we live.

And the question is, what are we living into now?

Giving is great, but you know what's even better than giving is cheerful giving.

And you know what makes giving actually cheerful?

Well, I think, is probably joyfully receiving.

If I can't joyfully receive a gift, I'm not sure I can joyfully give one.

And this is part of our stewardship, not just in church with our money and our time.

This is our stewardship of our lives.

And it's the difference between life and eternal life.

And I think this is what Hebrews has in mind, because you know when it says the word of God is sharp, it's not talking about the Bible.

The Bible wasn't even put together, it's talking about Jesus.

And it's talking about the resurrected Jesus, who's able to divide all of this stuff out.

And I do want to say what I find really helpful is this an evangelical, I read this passage with a little bit of terror.

I read the Word of God as the Bible, and it's going to cut through all your crap.

But you know, what you go on to read is that because Jesus became incarnate, uh, this separation between spirit and soul is probably really about God understanding our intentions.

I've told you before that according to Renee Brown, the difference between a joyful life or not is whether you believe people are doing the best they can with what they have.

If you believe that, you have a much better chance of joy than if you don't.

She even says, look, I'm not even sure people are, but I know that if I will pretend like they are, my life will be better.

And that's kind of good enough for me, just to be honest.

It's kind of good enough for me that we can do that.

So what if, what if at our worst, that's how God relates to us?

I mean, again, I rarely think, how am I going to commit abject acts of evil?

Usually when I do something really dumb, I had some really good thinking around it.

And what if God gets that?

And because God gets that, what if God invites us to step beyond our intentions and to start thinking about our impact?

Because those are very different things.

I don't often intend to disappoint other people or to hurt them.

That's usually not my intent.

But it can be my impact.

I think I get to pay attention to both.

In fact, I think I need to pay attention to both.

Whether it's somebody coming up to church and asking for money, or somebody I see who I could just as easily ignore as say, can I do something to support you?

Or if somebody gives me something and I do the most vulnerable thing I can do, I try to enjoy it for what it is.

Again, I don't think this is just about pledges.

I think this is about the quality of our life and whether that quality is eternal or not.

So whether it's somebody outside the Starbucks or the median, somebody on TV with views who differ from yours, or when filling out your pledge card, I'd like to suggest to you to give until it feels good.

And after all, there is no gift too big.

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

We believe in one God, the Father and the Almighty, Maker of the Heaven.

All right, seen and unseen.

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

We defend the God of the Father.

God and God, I am life, true life, true life, to God and we are salvation, we can have heaven.

By the power of the Holy Spirit, we can hire death.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord in your life, received the Father of the Son, the Father of the Son, is for you.

We believe that the greatest sins.

We live in the world.

Let us pray for the church and for the world.

Grant Almighty God that all who confess your name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory in the world.

Lord, in your compassion.

We pray for all who govern and hold authority in every nation, for the members of the armed forces throughout the world, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.

Lord, in your compassion.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others, and to your honor and glory.

Lord, in your compassion.

Bless all whose lives are closely linked with ours and grant that we may serve Christ in them and love one another as he loves us.

Lord in your compassion.

Lead our parish.

Source of wisdom, guide us, a source of strength to support us.

A source of love that unify us as we pray.

Lord, in your compassion, guide St.

Thomas the Apostle School, that those who teach and those who learn may rejoice in the knowledge of your truth, that we may teach our students to love whatever is just and true and good, and that we may be bearers of your grace to all who come through our doors.

Lord, in your compassion, comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, or spirit.

Give them courage and hope in their troubles, and bring them the joy of your salvation.

Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially Ronnie, Chris, John, Aaron, Cynthia, Ken, Jan, Erin, Janice, and Nancy.

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

Lord, in your compassion, we commend to you, we commend to your mercy on all who have died, that your will for them may be fulfilled.

And we pray that we may share with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.

Lord, in your compassion.

Compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world.

Comfort those who mourn, strengthen those who are weary, encourage those in despair, and lead us all to fullness of life.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Amen.

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

God of all mercy, we confess that we have sinned against you, opposing your will in our lives.

We have denied your goodness in each other, in ourselves, and in the world you have created.

We repent of the evil that enslaves us, the evil we have done, and the evil done on our behalf.

Forgive, restore, and strengthen us through our Savior Jesus Christ, that we may abide in your love and serve only your will.

Amen.

Almighty God, who in Jesus Christ has given us a family that cannot be destroyed, forgive your sin.

Open your eyes and heart to truth and new life, and strengthen you to do God's will and live joyfully into God's family.

Amen.

Good morning, peace, and thank you for worshiping with us today.

Just a few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Most of these you'll see in your e-news.

After a little bit of break in respect for the Delta variant, nearly new shop is open again on Tuesday, the 12th, sort of normal hours, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.

And Saturday too.

So back up in five days.

If you are interested at all, they are, of course, taking donations, but also taking volunteers.

So Vicky's here if you're interested in learning more about the nearly new.

But I do, I can tell you something about the nearly new that's interesting, is it's not just an income generator.

It's an opportunity to make relationships with people like the gospel describes.

Some people rely on the nearly new, not just for their own goods, but for monetary income, which is really interesting.

And many people rely on the nearly new for faithful adult mentors, whether they know that's what they're getting or not.

So it's an incredible ministry.

I just I can't thank them enough for what they do.

Reminder that we've got a couple of things coming up down the road.

So trunk or treat is something we're putting on for our church and school kids.

As I mentioned to you, some families are still not sure about trick-or-treating because of COVID and their unvaccinated kids.

And so we put this on as a closed event for our church and school kids, some of whom won't have a Halloween experience without it.

So if you're interested in this, it takes 85 pieces of candy and an hour of your time and a costume if you want.

And you could decorate your car too, if that's fun for you.

But just showing up and doing this, I can't even tell you how much it ministers to not only the kids but the parents of these kids and these families that are in our community.

So that's on the 29th of October.

The 30th of October, the weather looks like it's turning this week, I hope for good, uh, in the in the lower direction.

It will be our parish picnic outdoor here.

We haven't been able to have a fall festival, so it's a dressed-down version.

Bring your own blanket or chair.

We'll have barbecue, our homebrewers are going to be here, and uh, we'll have some live music as well from 11 to 1, and you can just show up.

Uh but it will be a nice parish picnic.

Um you might have seen this in the e-news, and I'll get some hard lists.

McWorder Elementary, who we give the backpacks to, and the school supplies to, and uh, we did a great job this year, like we normally do.

They trust us.

So they emailed me this week and said, Can you guys help with Thanksgiving again?

And we need 70 families.

To get a Thanksgiving dinner.

And so there's a list of ingredients that they ask for on in the e-news, and I'll have a hard copy next week.

We're going to collect those for the next month.

We bless them, we bring them over.

And some people say, wow, this is expensive.

It is.

It is.

That's why they don't have it unless we help.

So it's a lovely opportunity to do this.

So you'll see that in the e-news.

And again, I'll get a hard copy next week and we collect that for about a month.

Another, there's two other things to add to just make note of.

One is that if you've had somebody, now we track everybody in the parish who has departed in the last year, but if you've had somebody in your family or group of friends that you'd like honored on All Saints Day in the church, All Saints Day is coming up.

If you email me that name, we'll make sure that we celebrate the ways they've contributed to your life on All Saints Day.

That's coming up in like three weeks.

And there's an added opportunity because you know this year, Halloween, All Saints Eve, is on a Sunday, and we don't celebrate All Saints Day until the following Sunday, November the 7th.

I'm not moving it.

That's how we're doing it.

And uh, you know, one of the ways we've done it here at our school is involved in doing this is by creating what's called an ofrenda.

Uh this is uh a Oaxacan tradition down in central Mexico.

Uh it goes along with Dia de los Muertos, the day of the dead.

But what happens is you're able to put a photo or a token of somebody who's enriched your life.

And by the way, in the Episcopal Church, saints are living or dead.

Somebody who's enriched your life, you'll have an opportunity to put on the altar on October 31st, and they'll stay here until all Saints' Day, and we'll celebrate the Eucharist in light of people who have led you to larger life, living or dead, on November 7th.

So names we take, and you can bring tokens or little pictures.

I'll give them back to you.

But that will happen on October 31st.

We'll have the ofrenda built, and anything you bring on Halloween proper day will stay there for the week here in the sanctuary, and you'll take it back with you on All Saints Day the 7th.

I hope that makes sense.

Last thing to mention is, of course, as pledge cards are out, uh, and please I invite you to pray over those.

A lot of times I just fill the thing out because based on what I did last year.

I just invite you to just slow down and think about what would be life-giving for you.

People have asked, how do I return them?

However, you want to.

If you want, I'll come pick it up at your house.

You can mail it, you can drop it off in the mailbox, you can put it here on a Sunday morning.

If you've got a messenger pigeon that can get it here, however, you want to get it is great.

Um, but we do consecrate those the Sunday before Thanksgiving, which I think is the 20th of November.

That's Christ the King Sunday, and that's when we always ask God to bless our pledges, to do more than we could ask or imagine.

And that's really important to me that we bless those pledges as your priest.

Uh so I I'd be grateful any pledge you like to make to bless on the 20th.

Continue to walk in love.

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

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

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

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

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

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ, he invites you to meet him here.

The Lord be with you.

Lift up your heart.

Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

All thanks and praise are yours at all times and in all places our true and loving God, through Jesus Christ, your eternal word, the wisdom from on high, by whom you created all things.

You laid the foundations of the world and enclosed the sea when it burst out from the womb.

You brought forth all creatures of the earth and gave breath to humankind.

Wondrous are you, holy one of blessing.

All you create is a sign of hope for our journey.

And so as the morning stars sing your praises, we join the heavenly beings, and in all creation as we shout with joy, Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna and the highest.

Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord.

Hosanna and the highest.

Glory and honor are yours, Creator of all.

Your word has never been silent.

You called the people to yourself as a light to the nations.

You delivered them from bondage and led them to a land of promise.

Of your grace, you gave Jesus to be human, to share our life, to proclaim the coming of your holy reign and give himself for us a fragrant offering.

Through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, you have freed us from sin, brought us into your life, reconciled us to you, and restored us to the glory you intend for us.

We thank you that on the night before he died for us, Jesus took bread.

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

This is my body broken for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, said the blessing, gave it to his friends, and said, Drink this, all of you.

This is the cup, is my new covenant and my blood poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

So remembering all that was done for us, the cross, the tomb, the resurrection, and ascension, longing for Christ's coming in glory, and presenting to you these gifts, your earth has formed, and human hands have made, we acclaim you, O Christ.

Dying, you destroyed our death.

Rising, you restored our life.

Christ Jesus come in glory.

Send your Holy Spirit upon us, and upon these gifts and bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of your Christ.

Grant that we burning with your Spirit's power may be a people of hope, justice, and love.

Giver of life, draw us together in the body of Christ, and in the fullness of time gather us with Thomas and all your people into the joy of our true eternal home.

Through Christ and with Christ and in Christ, by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit, we worship you, our God and Creator, in voices of unending praise.

Blessed are you, 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.

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

Feed on them in your heart by faith, and give thanks for all that Christ has given and done for you.

God of abundance, you have fed us with the bread of life and cup of salvation.

You have united us with Christ and one another, and you have made us one with all your people in heaven and on earth.

Now send us forth in the power of your spirit, that we may proclaim your redeeming love to the world and continue forever in the risen life of Christ our Savior.

Amen.

Rivers do not drink their own water, trees do not eat their own fruit, the sun does not shine on itself, and flowers do not spread their fragrance for themselves.

Living for and with others is a rule of nature.

We are all born to help each other, no matter how difficult it is.

Life is good when you are happy, but much better when others are happy because of you.

And the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be upon you this day, those who you love, and those for whom you pray.

Amen.