Pentecost 15 2021

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

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 of all power and might, the author and giver of all good things, craft in our hearts the love of your name, increase in us true religion, nourish us with all goodness, and bring forth in us the fruit of good works through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

And as you're being seated, I invite our children to children's chapel with Alex there in the back.

The voice of my beloved.

Look, he comes, leaping upon the mountains and bounding over the hills.

My beloved is like a gazelle or a young stag.

Look, there he stands behind our wall, gazing in at the windows, looking through the lattice.

My beloved speaks and says to me, Arise, my love, my fair one, and come away.

For now the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come, and the voice of the turtle dove is heard in our land.

The fig tree puts forth its figs, and the vines are in blossom and give forth fragrance.

Arise, my love, my farawing, and come away.

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

We will read Psalm 45 responsibly by half verse.

My heart is stirring with a noble song.

Let me recite what I have fashioned for the king.

You are the fairest of people.

Grace flows.

Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.

Therefore, God, your God, has anointed you.

All your garments are fragrant with myrrh, aloes, and cassia.

Kings and daughters stand among the noble women of the court.

Every generous act of giving with every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of life with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.

In fulfillment of his own purpose, he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruit of his creator, creatures.

You must understand this, my beloved.

Let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger, for your anger does not produce God's righteousness.

Therefore, rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank of growth of weakness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.

But be doers of the word and not merely hearers who deceive themselves.

For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in the mirror, for they look at themselves and on going away immediately forget what they were like.

But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty and persevere, being not hearers who forget, but doers who act, they will be blessed in their doing.

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

Thanks be.

Now, when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around Jesus, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them.

For the Pharisees and all the Jewish leaders do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders.

And they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it.

And there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.

So the Pharisees and scribes asked Jesus, Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?

Jesus said to them, Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written, This people honors me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.

In vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.

You abandon the commandment of God and hold on to human tradition.

And then Jesus called the crowd again and said to them, Listen to me, all of you, and understand.

There is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.

For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come.

Fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly, all these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.

The gospel of the Lord.

Please be seated.

So we're not hearing about the bread of life anymore after five weeks in a row.

But it's really important to hear also what we're not hearing today.

So I want to give you a couple of those things that we're not hearing.

Number one, we're not hearing Jesus practice anti-Semitism.

It would be very easy to say Jesus is criticizing Jewish behavior and practice, and friends, the guy was Jewish.

So this is not an omnibus criticism.

Jesus is not actually saying anything new from the Hebrew Bible.

He's saying that when we get fixed so much on human tradition, we can forget what the tradition was meant to guide us to.

Life together.

That shouldn't be shocking.

And oddly enough, it was shocking because these people thought the tradition they were following was doing exactly what Jesus said it wasn't doing.

So we're gonna have to hear some modern particulars, which I'll do in just a second.

Another thing Jesus is not doing is talking about germs.

So, you know, we hear this like, oh, is Jesus saying you don't have to wash your hands before you eat?

Well, keep in mind, there was no dial in the ancient world.

This is not a resolution against using antibacterial soap.

The stuff didn't exist.

This is not a text where Jesus is saying, not.

It doesn't matter if you wear masks or not, it's what's inside that makes you sick.

This is not that.

I suspect many of you, if you buy produce, especially from the farmer's market, take it home and wash it.

Like people were doing.

He's not saying don't do that.

It's really important.

You all realize probably that there's a little thing over here on what we call the credence table.

This is where we put the communion elements until we go to receive them.

This little bowl right here is called the Lavabo bowl.

And it's used so the priest can ceremonially wash, have their hands washed before celebrating the Eucharist.

And look, we use regular water.

Actually, we use distilled water here, only the best for you all.

But you understand, you understand medically it does nothing.

I hope you understand that.

It's a symbolic act about our desire for hands to be figuratively clean when we serve you from the Lord's table.

Now I'm going to use hand sanitizer, which medically does something, right?

So I hope you understand there's this symbolism.

Of course, the problem is when we take the symbolism and we use it as a barricade to dignity and to invitation.

It's easy to think, all these ancient people, I just didn't know anything what they were doing, and we've moved on past that.

But I put to you that not all that much has changed.

So let me share with you one of these uh stories I was initiated into.

A strong memory when I was four, my mother explained to me that when I go to use the potty that is not at my home, the thing to do is line the seat with paper.

This prevents me from getting germs.

I don't know if you had that experience.

I want to tell you there's absolutely no medical research behind it.

None.

I still want to do it.

It's a tradition.

Of course, you know if you've seen the movie The Help, that part of what fed that tradition is that white cheeks don't go on black seats.

And that's sin.

And that's what Jesus is talking about when we take a tradition and use it to exclude people or exclude us from being in contact with them.

Look, the potty thing may not have spoken to you, so let me tell you another way in which I believe we're irrational.

If you had a hamburger with a bun, and this is a controlled experiment, somebody put a cockroach on top of the bun, removed the roach.

I suspect most of you would want to clear away the whole hamburger and not just the bun.

It's irrational.

You understand it's irrational, but it's this gut level with which we often respond.

Maybe in the case of the hamburger, it's relatively innocuous, but if you were around in the 80s when we were all terrified about HIV and AIDS, we didn't want to want to touch somebody that could have been sick.

We want to use a water fountain, could have been sick.

Heck, forget the 80s.

There's a high school in San Diego.

I used to coach wrestling.

There was still, now it wasn't enforced, but there were two water fountains in the gym.

And you know why they were two?

There was the white fountain and the colored fountain.

This is what Jesus is talking about.

These traditions that rob people from the dignity and equity that God intends.

Sometimes we settle for that stuff.

And Jesus invites us, frankly, not to be hypocritical.

I don't know who your people are.

But let's not deceive ourselves.

We all got people.

Maybe these are people who have body odor.

Don't want to touch them.

I don't know if I'll get that off me.

Having wrestled in high school, that was an actual concern.

Maybe these are undocumented immigrants.

Maybe these are people who are transgender or LGBTQ or something that is not normalized in our heads.

Here's the irony.

When we remove ourselves from touching other human beings because of some human or cultural tradition, it's precisely that lack of contact that reinforces our prejudice and separation.

Because what the research says is that if you'd like to connect with somebody, it takes touch.

You might like to know how long it takes.

Apparently 50 seconds.

So if you ever like to connect with your spouse and you give each other a quick hug, you didn't do it long enough.

It's true.

The one-minute hug, the 50-second hug, is what it takes for your brain to release oxytocin, which is a chemical that myelinates the neurological pathway of connection with another human being.

If you would like to connect to somebody whose humanity is a challenge for you, the best way you can do this, according to the research, is touch them for 50 seconds.

Would you like to increase the odds that it works?

Go from this to interlaced fingers because the more surface area you have, the more oxytocin your brain releases.

Now, of course, what's in it for the person you're discriminating against?

Well, a little bit less than there's in it for you.

But what if we were able to say, you know, granddaughter, I just don't know about the choices you're making.

Could I hold your hand for just a minute?

You can keep your opinions, but when we lose human dignity and connection, we've got it wrong.

So this is an easy strategy.

See, when you won't sit on a seat someone else has sat in, not only are you not connecting hands, you are disavowing any physical connection, which means you're creating a spiritual rift as well.

And that's what the research says.

It would be bold to say to somebody, you know, I just am finding myself in so much judgment.

Could I just hold your hand for a minute?

I think actually most people might go ahead and give you their hand.

I do.

If you were able to ask that way, I think so.

And it wouldn't just be good for them, don't you see it'd be good for you and the rest of the world?

And this is what Jesus, I suggest, is talking about today.

Who do we exclude and why do we do it?

And one more short story.

Once upon a time, I had just taken what we call the general ordination exam, which is something like the clergy bar.

It's a 21-page essay test administered over three days, and at the end of it, you simply get a pass-fail grade.

So after 21 pages, you get pass- or fail.

It's a really lovely instrument of assessing what we know and how we practice.

One of the questions on the clergy bar the year I took it had to do with whether or not your church could host a local group of Muslims after their synagogue, after their mosque burned down.

And we had a discussion in an adult forum about this, and somebody said very ingenuously, and I'm really grateful that they felt honest, and we talked about this, and it changed for all of us because they were able to say their gut.

Their gut was, oh yeah, of course, you can have them anywhere in the building except the sanctuary.

Because if they were in the sanctuary, they might defile the reserved sacrament.

And that's a human tradition.

Because how on earth can a human being defile God's grace?

Isn't that the point?

Is that God is undefilable?

I hope so.

Now, changing gears a little bit.

I mentioned to you a few weeks ago when we talked about David and Bathsheba, how in general the compilers of the lectionary have tried really hard to keep controversial and uncomfortable readings out of the curated Sunday lectionary.

Instead, what they do is they take parts in which people are chopped into pieces and they put that in the Daily Office because they know most people won't read that.

This is true.

By the way, the Bible is full of those stories.

I don't know if you knew that.

You just won't hear them on Sunday mornings because they're kind of offensive.

Sometimes the compilers of the lectionaries, they just let some things through, and you're wondering why did they do that?

And they did it again today.

They did it with this book that his young evangelicals just made us blush when we read it.

The Song of Song, the Song of Solomon.

I don't know if you've ever read the book.

What we've done as a Christian tradition, our Jewish brothers and sisters have not been so silly as to do this, is we've made it all allegorical.

We've said, oh, this describes the relationship between God and the planet, or God and the church.

But I just want to be really clear.

If you haven't read the book, it's an erotic love poem between a man and a woman who aren't married.

It's very physical.

Now, why we thought we needed to tame the Bible, I don't know.

But this is the decision that we've made.

And uh I want to suggest to you that the way we treat our bodies and relationships in church, more often than not, represents traditions of human beings that frankly denigrate our own experience of being embodied.

And if you read this book, Song of Songs, you'll notice a couple interesting things.

It's an ancient book.

The woman talks as much as the man does, which defies culture both then and now.

The woman has agency in the book.

She's not a piece of property to the man in the story.

The church needs to hear that.

The church needs to hear that.

I'll just speak to my own experience.

Many of you didn't grow up with the same kind of evangelical baggage I did, but the way I grew up was marriage is this great thing, and once you get married, you'll figure it all out.

But we're not going to talk about any of that stuff in church.

Lo and behold, the revelation did not arrive on my wedding day.

There was not a voice from heaven that said, Do this, do that.

So, what happened as a result was that frankly, I had no idea what healthy intimacy might look like, both physically, emotionally, or spiritually.

I had no idea because the church didn't want to talk about it.

And maybe you know this.

In general, 80% of people who attend church are women, and at least 90% of women have intense body shame.

That is, they are not comfortable in their own skin.

And this book is for you.

This is a book that's body affirmative.

This book says God made our body with things like nerves and created pleasure, and that pleasure is good.

And rather than coming here and saying your body is bad, this book asks us to consider the traditions of human beings.

Because if you've been around small children, you realize they're not born with body shame.

We do that to them.

We do that.

And we don't have to do that.

We don't talk about embodiment, which means we don't give our kids or our youth or our newlyweds or even our seniors anything healthy to look forward to or evaluate their relationship with.

And it's wrong.

Because if this is really a sanctuary, then this is the place where we ought to be able to talk about embodiment, intimacy, that God created us good and for pleasure, and that we need not be ashamed of our body, even if culture holds up ideas that we can never live into physically.

I didn't hear that as a kid.

And I'm glad there's kids in the room right now hearing that.

You read this book, you'll understand that the ancient threshold of beauty looked a lot more like Marilyn Monroe than Twiggy.

The ancient threshold of beauty looked a lot more like a 42 than a 24.

And what that reminds us of, quite honestly, is the body you're in is beautiful to God, and it was created to enjoy.

And if we settle for anything less, we're doing exactly what Jesus wants the Pharisees not to do.

I've actually tried to learn to enjoy my body from my daughter.

And if you've been around a small child, again, you can see that they don't blush at the things that make us blush.

And that isn't bad.

Now we understand that there's rules about social propriety.

But sometimes we get so stuck on this symbolic hand washing that we forget the point.

And what Jesus says is when we do that, it's revealing what's really in here.

And the way that we hold others down.

The book of James does this thing.

I've been struggling with you out loud for the next couple of weeks, at last past weeks, since reading this book called Nonviolent Communication.

I'm just going to continue to hold it up because it is absolutely challenging much of my core values in a really positive way.

The book of James says we should be slow to speak and quick to listen.

I'll tell you why I think that is, having grown up learning how to be critical and evaluative of everything.

I'm not talking about being analytical.

I'm talking about critical.

I often don't even know how to talk in a non-evaluative way.

Which means I better slow down.

And open both my mind and my heart to what communication that builds one another up looks like.

And I struggle with it.

Because at the end of the day, I don't want my daughter doing anything because she thinks it'll please me.

I want her living her life because it makes it bigger.

And isn't that what we want for our kids?

I don't want her extrinsically motivated that she needs to curry favor with me or she might make God mad, as if we make anybody mad.

We choose to be mad when people do stuff.

And I want to tell you as you priest, God chooses not to be mad with you.

This is really good to hear.

Anger is a choice, and unlike us, God chooses not to be angry with you.

And so I don't want to choose to be angry with my daughter.

And I don't want her doing homework because I might be mad if she doesn't.

I want her doing her homework because learning is inherently rewarding, and the world is a big place.

And it would be sad to live in a small one.

Isn't that what you want for your kids and your spouse?

Not your reproval, their delight.

I gotta slow down with what I say.

James says, be slow to become angry.

Because James, like modern psychologists, understand anger is our choice.

And we can choose a different way.

James is going to go on.

We heard this in the Collect of the Day to say, true religion cares for widows and orphans.

True religion is not about how perfectly you intone your prayers or how many candles you light.

It's about how you care for the very bottom tier in our created cultural and social hierarchy.

It's about women and girls living in Kabul who, for the last 20 years, have not had to cover themselves completely with a burqa.

Who now all of a sudden.

Well, you you know how that sentence is gonna end.

True religion is about how we treat those people.

And true religion is about how we think about the traditions we create, because the truth is, if men have a problem with women's bodies, then men need to be wearing blinders instead of women need to cover themselves up.

Now that may sound really nuts, but I can tell you I've run in this neighborhood for six years, often with no shirt.

And let me tell you how many times people have commented on how nice my behind is.

You might be saying that's because it isn't nice.

But I would like you to know that when my spouse walks the neighborhood, she has been commented on repeatedly by people who live in the community.

That's the definition of sin.

It's a human tradition, and it teaches women that they're commodities, and we don't have to do it.

In fact, Jesus says, y'all better stop that.

It reflects the worst in you, not the best.

We have constantly before us these human traditions.

Oh, you better not do this stuff wrong.

You'll make God mad.

Oh, well, you know, this is the worst one.

You know this if you're a woman or if you've had a daughter.

How do you teach our kids to be comfortable in their body, knowing that some people will take advantage of them based on how short their shorts are, and they'll say, she was asking for it.

And it's sin to say anything like that.

These are the traditions Jesus invites us not just to re-evaluate, but to throw out.

To throw out.

They don't just benefit our girls.

Don't you understand?

When we do this for another human being, it helps us grow as well.

It makes our love and our compassion and our empathy and quite honestly our joy in the skin God gave us greater.

So it is worth your while to do this.

Reevaluate your traditions.

Who are you afraid to touch or to drink after?

Or to sit on a seat with.

It takes a lot of work to change the traditions of the elders.

But I invite you to join me in doing that work because it's holy work.

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

We believe in one God, the Father.

All that is seen as we believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, knowing the Son of God, eternally God and the Father, God and God, I am light, good God, and true God, be honest in the name, only the Father, who in all things may for us and for our salvation, we came to heaven, but the God of the Spirit of the Virgin Mary and His name.

Our Savior is suffering the Holy Spirit.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord with your life, we received the Father and Son, with the Father and Son, he is worshiping the Lord, Jesus Christ.

We believe in the Holy Happy Church.

We have for the community we live in, for clean air to breathe and safe water to drink.

For the courage to protect creation and the persistence to make informed decisions every day.

Equip us, God.

For the victims of oppression throughout the world, especially those who have been silenced by governments, abuse, and poverty, empower their voices and our ears to hear them.

For refugees and those displaced by war or strife.

May they know peace and hope again.

For those who hunger, satisfy their physical and spiritual needs.

Mentor and guide, elected and appointed officials throughout our world, that they might pursue justice with compassion.

For forty-three years of female clergy shining your light in the Episcopal Church.

We praise you and we thank you, O Lord.

Enable our laity, deacons, priests, and bishops to discern your work in the world and boldly join it.

May your church function as one body.

Bless our day school, the teachers, the staff, the families, and students.

May St.

Thomas will grow and empower wisdom, love, knowledge in our world.

We praise you for the constant love, compassion, diligence, kindness, and guidance of spouses, siblings, parents, friends, and extended families who have put us and others before themselves.

May we join in making Christ invisible.

Mend broken relationships and comfort those who are alone.

Strengthen our patience and embolden our forgiveness.

Equip us to emphasize even when we are emphasize, even when we are in pain.

Grow your hearts to love as you do.

Protect the dignity of those who are in physical decline and hardship, remembering especially Chris, Sean, Jerome, Mickey, John, Lavon, Paxton, Rick, Nick, Martha, Janice, Lisa, and the celebration or petitions of the congregation who wishes to name at this time silently or aloud.

We pray for all who have died, especially Betty Ann.

May they have a place in your eternal kingdom.

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.

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Have mercy upon us, most merciful Father.

In your compassion, forgive us our sin, known and unknown, things done and left undone, and so uphold us by your Spirit that we may live and serve you in newness of life to the honor and glory of your name.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.

The Almighty and Compassionate Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sin, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

There are a number of announcements I want to call to your attention.

And first, a special welcome to our visitors and guests.

Thank you for joining us in worship today.

Right behind us in this room, we call the Narthics, there's these little cards that say welcome, and we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out if you haven't before, so we have a record of your visit.

And again, thank you for worshiping with us.

A few announcements.

So this coming Wednesday is our next fresh food distribution.

Normally we do these on Saturdays, so this is a one-off, but we're going to do it on Wednesday evening from 4 to 6 right here in our parking lot.

So school will be out and dismissed.

If you'd like and you're able to help, we can take volunteers beginning at 3:45.

We'll set up some pop tents because it's probably going to be really hot.

But we're expecting to give 90 households representing about 400 plus people something like$10,000 in retail groceries.

And so it's a fantastic ministry this Wednesday from 4 to 6.

And yes, all ages and abilities can meaningfully serve at this event.

Starting next week on Sunday morning, this will be on Zoom right now, only Zoom.

Hopefully, we'll move into hybrid conditions where we can be in-person Zoom at the same time.

But we're going to start reading this book I've been talking about for the last couple of weeks called Nonviolent Communication, written by one of our Jewish brothers, Marshall Marshall Rosenberg.

You can buy the book on Amazon if you're interested.

And I just want to tell you, as your priest, even if you don't come to the even if you don't come to this meeting, the book, it just offers so many transformative ways to live into your own skin.

So I really want to hold this up.

It's been immensely valuable to me.

I'm still trying to struggle into it, and it's been so valuable, I want us to read it together.

So that'll be between 9 and 10 starting next week.

We'll read about 35 pages a week.

So a few pages a day will get us there.

Really delighted to introduce to you our new organ scholar, Nathan Chafts.

Can I ask you to stand so we can see you over the organ?

Welcome to Nathan.

Nathan starts his tenure with us as organ scholar today.

He's a student at the St.

Thomas University up in town.

And part of what we do here at St.

Thomas is we not only have people join us in ministry, but we're able to mentor them.

So Nathan is studying the art of music, and then we're able to do this work with Garmin, who is probably better prepared than anybody I know, to mentor to somebody into the practice of music in ministry.

And so Nathan's our organ scholar, and he's coming two weeks in advance of our resumption of choir.

So if you're interested in singing in the St.

Thomas choir, we're going to resume that distanced, careful, in two weeks.

And Garmin's the guy to speak to.

If you don't know who Garmin is, you can speak to me and I'll connect you with him.

The other thing that we're doing as part of the mentorship we offer the community and mutual ministry, many of you know this, is that we have these paid internships.

They're called choral scholars.

These are people who are in high school or college that are discerning whether or not a career in music is something for them.

So they're able to come and enhance the ministry we offer, but also receive some of the mentorship from Garmin as well.

We're still looking for a couple of choral scholars.

So if you know anybody in high school or college that is interested in making this discernment, please talk to Garmin or to myself.

One last announcement to call to your attention.

Ever since the Icons and Transformation exhibition, which has been now two and a half years ago, we have strategically enjoyed that long hallway right behind us that we just paid off as an art exhibition space.

It actually curates beautifully.

And because of COVID, it's been a little bit bare.

And we would like to get back to the tradition of curating art.

And one of the things that would be helpful for us to do as we look to reconnect with one another is curate some of your art.

So you'll see this in the e-news, but we're asking for folks to consider offering a high-resolution photo.

If you don't know what that is, I'll explain it to you later, of either a place they've visited in the world, especially during the last 18 months, if possible, you can be in the photo or not, or some natural beauty that's spoken to you so that we can reconnect with the beauty we've been experiencing but haven't been able to talk about.

We're asking that if you want to do this, that uh you make a donation that covers the print for the canvas, and of course, at the end, the canvas is yours to take home and decorate your home or office with.

And what we'll do is print a little temporary label.

Bon each photo, so we can see who went there and where it was.

I hope this will be fun.

If it does not sound fun, don't do it.

But I hope it will be fun and a way again to see where our people have been in the world, either pre-COVID or during COVID, because a lot of us enjoy traveling and have not been able to, and it's great to connect with the wider world.

Some of us have been able to travel even during COVID, and it's just good to see how the world is a bigger place than it often feels sometimes.

You can talk to me or email me about this opportunity, but I hope you'll go in on it, and uh two is our limit.

If you want to do two, that's our limit.

Okay.

Walk in love.

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

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

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

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

The Lord be with you.

Lift up your hearts.

Let us give thanks unto our Lord God.

We thank you, Creator God, that we live in a place where the glorious revelation of yourself is all around us.

The bayous 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 that you've 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 and 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.

And so we join the saints and angels in proclaiming your glory as we say, Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

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

Hosanna in the highest.

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, gave it to them, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the 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 of the new covenant, which is poured out for you and for all for the forgiveness of sin.

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

Now gather at your table, O God of all creation, remembering Christ crucified and risen, who was and is and is to come, we offer to you our gifts of bread and wine and 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 have made.

In the fullness of time, bring us with all your saints, especially Martha, 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 honored, 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 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.

Please join me in the spirit of Pentecost as we pray that prayer in different words.

God, so holy, full of grace, make the world a better place.

Give us the food we need for today.

Forgive us our wrongs when we go astray.

Help us always to do good and love others like we should.

God, we love you, we are yours.

Spring wide open heaven's doors.

Amen.

Hallelujah.

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

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

Come and eat joyfully with the resolution and understanding that we will continue to struggle and that God will always sustain us if we sustain one another.

Come and feast Jesus being good on me.

God of truth, we have seen with our eyes and touched with our hands the bread of life.

Nourish our faith that we may grow in love for you and for each other, and nourish the world in your image through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Amen.

What we choose changes us.

Who we love transforms us.

How we create remakes us.

Where we live reshapes us.

So in all our choosing, O God, make us wise.

In all our loving, O Christ, make us bold.

In all our creating, O Spirit, give us courage.

In all our living may we become whole.

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

Amen.