Pentecost 8 2021

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

Blessed be God's family now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, under whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hid.

Cleanse the faults of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love thee and worthily magnify thy holy name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

And with thy Spirit.

Let us pray.

O Lord, mercifully receive the prayers of your people who call upon you, and grant that they may know and understand what things they ought to do, and also may have grace and power faithfully to accomplish them through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen.

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand.

David and all the people with him set out and went from Baal, Judah, to bring up the ark from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the Lord of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim.

They carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill.

Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart with the ark of God.

And Ahio went in front of the ark.

David and all the house of Israel were dancing before the Lord with all their might, with songs and lyres and harps and tambourines and castanets and cymbals.

So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obed Edom to the city of David with rejoicing.

And when those who bore the ark of the Lord had gone six paces, he sacrificed an ark and a fatling.

David danced before the Lord with all his might.

David was girded with a linen ephod.

So David and all the house of Israel brought up the ark of the Lord with shouting and with the sound of the trumpet.

As the ark of the Lord came into the city of David, Mesha, daughter of Saul, looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord, and she despised him in her heart.

They brought in the ark of the Lord and set it in its place inside the tent that David had pitched for it.

And David offered burnt offerings and offerings of well-being before the Lord.

When David had finished offering the burnt offerings and the offerings of well-being, he blessed the people in the name of the Lord of hosts and distributed food among all the people, the whole multitude of Israel, both men and women, to each a cake of bread, a portion of meat, a cake of raisins.

Then all the people went back to their homes to hear what the Spirit is saying to God's people.

The psalm appointed for today is Psalm 24.

We will read responsively by the half verse.

Who can ascend the hill of the Lord?

And who can stand in God of the holy place?

Those who have clean hands and a pure heart.

They shall receive a blessing from the Lord.

And the Lord of the God of their salvation.

Such is the generation of those who seek the Lord.

Lift up your heads, O gates, lift them high, O everlasting doors.

And the glorious sovereign shall we.

And who is this glorious sovereign?

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places, just as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before him in love.

He destined us for adoption as his children through Jesus Christ, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace that he freely bestowed on us in the beloved.

In him we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace that he lavished on us.

With all wisdom and insight, he has made known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure, that he set forth in Christ as a plan for the fullness of time, to gather up all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

In Christ we have also obtained an inheritance, having been destined according to the purpose of him who accomplishes all things according to his counsel and will, so that we, who were the first to set our hope on Christ, might live for the praise of his glory.

In him, you also, when you had heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and had believed in him, were marked with the seal of the promised Holy Spirit.

This is the pledge of our inheritance toward redemption as God's own people to the praise of his glory.

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

King Herod heard of Jesus and his disciples, for Jesus' name had become known.

Some were saying, John the baptizer has been raised from the dead, and for this reason these powers are at work in him.

But others said, It is Elijah.

Another said, It is a prophet, like one of the prophets of old.

But when Herod heard of it, he said, John, whom I beheaded, has been raised.

For Herod himself had sent men who arrested John, bound him, and put him in prison on account of Herodias, his brother Philip's wife, because Herod had married her.

For John had been telling Herod, It is not lawful for you to have your brother's wife.

And Herodias had a grudge against John and wanted to kill him, but she could not.

For Herod feared John, knowing that he was a righteous and holy man, and he protected him.

When he heard him, he was greatly perplexed, and yet he liked to listen to John.

But an opportunity came when Herod on his birthday gave a banquet for his courtiers and officiers and for the leaders of Galilee.

When his daughter Herodias came in and danced, she pleased Herod and his guests, and the king said to the girl, Ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it.

And he solemnly swore to her, Whatever you ask me, I will give you even half of my kingdom.

She went out and said to her mother, What should I ask for?

Her mother replied, The head of John the Baptizer.

Immediately the little girl rushed back to the king and requested, I want you to give me at once the head of John the Baptist on a platter.

The king was deeply grieved, and out of regard for his oaths and for the guests, he did not want to refuse her.

Immediately the king sent a soldier of the guard with orders to bring John's head.

He went and beheaded him in the prison, brought his head on a platter, and gave it to the girl.

Then the girl gave it to her mother.

When John's disciples heard about it, they came and took his body and laid it in a tomb.

The gospel of the Lord.

The first thing is to set a little bit of context.

This is happening in chapter 6 of Mark.

And what many of us don't realize is Jesus actually doesn't do anything, teaching miracles, healing, until John is put in prison.

So much so it's worth mentioning that most New Testament scholars say that Jesus was not just baptized by John, but actually studied under John as rabbi.

And that Jesus didn't begin his own public ministry until John could not continue his own because he was wrongfully incarcerated, as the story tells you.

So this is a flashback telling you what's happened behind the scenes as Jesus has sought to continue what John started.

There's a discontinuity, it's important to hear.

John loses his head.

That actually is a privileged way to die.

It's reserved for people who have power or esteem.

Jesus, on the other hand, is crucified, which is a punishment reserved not just for insurrectionists, but for people who are poor.

So it's important to hear the contrast.

Both John and Jesus receive injustice.

Oddly enough, John receives injustice with honor.

I don't know if you've realized this.

I want to offer you a simple observation before I give you a much harder one.

If you're having trouble following the characters, maybe you should.

Once upon a time there was this guy called King Herod, and he had a bunch of kids and he called them all Herod.

Sort of like George Foreman named all his kids George.

So there's a lot of Herods out there, and turns out Herod ends up marrying a lady named Herodias, who has a daughter, also named Herodias.

Again, it's going to be hard to catch on, but this is what's going on.

Simple observation.

Once upon a time, I believed that it was really important when I made a promise that I'd do it, even if it was a bad promise.

I believed in doing that so that I could have integrity and I can be reliable.

And I have got to tell you, there came a few moments, and I can remember them very sadly as a parent to my now 20-year-old son, in which I said, if you do A, there will be consequence B.

Consequence B was not something I ever should have put on the table.

But on more than one occasion, he did A, and I gave him consequence B so that he could trust me.

This happens in the story.

Herod makes an oath he shouldn't have made.

I want to put before you that if you get nothing else out of the story today, we don't have to live like that.

In fact, the world would be much better if we didn't double down on our foolish nonsense.

The world would be much better when we realize we've said something foolish if we say, I repent of that and quit.

Strangely enough, we've decided as a nation that we don't want our political leaders to learn anything.

What we want them to do is always be right and never change their opinion.

This is what we demand of them.

It's the strangest thing to me.

Counter story is that once upon a time, Gandhi advocated position Q.

And then a week later, he flip-flopped and advocated position R.

And one of his opponents said, now you're saying R, last week you said Q.

What's wrong with you?

And Gandhi said, Ah, my friend, don't you see?

In the last week I learned something.

If you hear nothing else, an opportunity to live into the gospel of Jesus Christ is to learn and repent, especially when we're wrong.

I don't think we can influence national politics for the rest of the nation, but I do know that what we laud and the ways we practice this ourselves are influential and important.

What you said was wrong.

What I said was not charitable or just, and instead of doubling down on it, I'm gonna go back on my word for the sake of the gospel.

If you get nothing else, please get that.

Now I want to talk about this other story.

And it's gonna be a little bit prickly.

In the story, King David, we heard about him being crowned last week at Hebron, has captured this city, Jerusalem, that no Israelite had set foot in.

And now, because he's captured it and made it the capital of twelve clans that were very ununified for what it's worth, he is now going to make this his political and religious capital, and so he's bringing the ark.

Many of you have seen Raiders of the Lost Ark.

You know what George Lucas thought it looked like.

He's wrong, that doesn't matter.

It was believed that God stood on the thing, not sat, but stood.

And David is bringing this into Jerusalem to make it the center of Israel's religion.

Never mind that David's palace will be four times bigger than the temple that's going to be built.

In the story, David is wearing, did you notice, a linen ephod and dancing with all his might before the ark.

And there's this interesting line where his wife sees him doing this.

Did you notice she despises him?

Maybe you didn't realize that a linen ephod is like a chasuble.

It's something that the high priest alone should wear.

And David is not the high priest.

He is impersonating an officer.

What he's doing when he brings in the ark is making himself the head, don't you see, of both state and church.

The lectionary skips a little section here.

Along the procession, he removes the linen ephod so that he is dancing in a loincloth.

To make sure you know what that would look like, it's like a nail apron that you could get at the Home Depot, sort of covers the front.

He's dancing with all his might before the Lord.

His wife upgrades him.

She says, that's rather undignified what you're doing.

And David says, I will become much more undignified than this.

Now, I've got to tell you, the church that raised me taught me to hear that David, of course, is the hero of the story, and this is just some sour grapes woman.

And it's dangerous and it's wrong.

I'll become much more undignified than this.

David is not becoming undignified so that he can worship God.

He's becoming undignified so he can worship himself.

And let me suggest to you that if God ever asks you to do something that is going to strip the dignity from your family, don't do it.

If God asks you to do something that is going to amount to you combining political and religious power, rethink that.

The lady in the story gets depicted as a sour grapes woman.

And don't you see that's because the story was written by David.

And this starts to reveal what's happening in the gospel.

We have a name for it in English, and it's called systemic misogyny.

I want you to hear this story about Herod because the way the story of Herod's written, he was just a good guy.

He was trying to protect John the Baptist, and there it is, this lady, his brother's wife, who has led to John's downfall.

Never mind that Herod's the one with all the power.

Never mind that Herod's the one who incarcerated John to begin with.

Never mind the women were treated as chattels, as commodities.

And what's happening in the story is Herod is trying to show his brother Philip who's in charge by taking his most valuable possession, which is his wife, who is a thing and not a person.

Herod has taken Herodias like a cell phone or a car.

He is showing his brother Philip he is the king, because I can take whatever you have, as if his wife is a commodity.

His wife doesn't have the luxury of a moral argument.

She is stuck in a position with no rights and no power and has a daughter.

Whose survival depends on what she is able to do.

So please understand her opposition of John the Baptist is all about her ability to survive and keep her daughter alive.

And we would be foolish to think that Herodias has any choice other than the way the story unfolds.

You might be wondering, what's the good news in that?

The good news is we don't have to repeat this story, even though we sadly often do.

I want you to consider that we have basic problems, and I don't just mean socially, I mean in the church with the way we use things like language.

What do you call a high school girl or an adult girl who has relations with a boy?

Of course, you call her a prostitute if you're being nice, or you might call her a slut.

What do you call a man who has relations with a woman?

There is no equivalent.

And by the way, this is what the Bible defines as sin with a capital S, and it exists in our language.

That's what's happening in this story.

Systemic misogyny.

She turned nine this week, and by some miracle, she doesn't have any body shame.

I don't think so.

Sometimes I think it'd be nice if you had some.

This is a miracle because when she was one, I went out to dinner with her mother, and a member of our intimate family looked at us, a married couple with a daughter, and said, Oh, Emery, look how short your mother's dress is.

That was from a family member who loved us.

It's not just teenage and adult women, sorry, that we slut shame.

It happens to little girls.

You know what we call little girls who know what they want?

We call them bossy.

You know what we call little boys who know what they want?

We call them leaders.

And it's sin with a capital S.

And it's what's happening in that story.

We have a separate set of vocabulary with which we strip the dignity from women and girls, and it underpines everything that's happening in these stories.

And these stories tell us we ought to despise that kind of leadership instead of celebrating it.

These stories tell us that when we worship that kind of leadership, it leads exactly to these kinds of outcomes, which we don't have to and should not repeat.

A friend in the parish reminded me of how wrapped up in this I am.

We so often use masculinity as our default, so we say things like, well, there's Olympic soccer and then there's women's soccer.

Have you met our female priest instead of I'm a male priest.

And my colleagues in ministry are priests, whether they're men or women.

When we make these very tiny, small defaults, we create a world in which people like Herodias have no options.

I don't know if it would interest you to know that the Pew Research Group did a study on women's issues in Congress about 10 years ago.

You know what the most influential factor in congressmen deciding on legislation that benefited women was?

It was not whether or not they were Republican or Democrat, it was whether they had a daughter.

And I would put before you it's whether or not they had a daughter they loved and respected.

And that's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Maybe you're wondering what on earth Paul's letter has to do with any of this.

Best I can tell, it has revolves around this word that maybe you've heard before.

You see, Paul says that we've been destined to be adopted as God's children.

There's another way to hear that word, and that's the way John Calvin, maybe you've heard of this word, predestined.

This is actually the same word.

Now, the way John Calvin heard the word predestination was he perceived that grace was so valuable that God wouldn't waste it on people who didn't receive it.

So if you know anything about predestination, some people are born going to hell because God's not going to waste grace on stuff they're not going to accept.

In a cute way, you say number six is an effix and number seven goes to heaven.

That's predestination.

Carl Bart, arguably the most influential Protestant theologian of the 20th century, even though many scholars will tell you it was his secretary, a woman, who came up with this reading and not Carl, actually paid attention to the letter.

And I don't know if you've noticed it.

Paul doesn't talk about persons being predestined, he talks about our adoption being predestined through Jesus.

The predestination is not about who gets grace.

The predestination is about who gives it.

And who gives the grace, according to Paul, is Jesus.

And who's supposed to get the grace?

Don't you see?

Paul uses the word us, women and men.

And our own liturgy, you're going to hear it in a few minutes when we celebrate the Eucharist.

Jesus was a sacrifice for the whole world.

Not for those people who earned it.

Not for men, a couple ladies.

The whole world.

And maybe part of the thing we need to repent about myself included.

Are the words we choose that create a reality that we're 52% of the planet?

We'll earn the best 90% of the male counterparts.

We got work to do.

And that's the good news.

The good news is we don't have to stay where we are.

And it takes us, I think, trusting that God's grace is for the whole world, and that means our language and the way we treat women and men needs to embody that.

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

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God for God, life of light, true God for true God.

But God is not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

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

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

For our sake he was crucified under Hodges Pilate.

He suffered death and was buried.

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

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

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

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

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

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the 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.

For calling us to serve you and among your people.

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

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

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.

Lord, in your compassion, pure prayer.

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 our earthly home and all creatures who dwell therein, 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 hearts show compassion through our thoughts, words, and deeds for those who are hungry, homeless, neglected, abused, exploited, or in any other need.

Lord, in your compassion, 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, Sean, Jerome, Mickey, John, Lavon, and Paxton.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

The 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.

We give thanks, 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.

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

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Rejoicing in the fellowship of all your saints, let us commend ourselves, one another, and all our life to Christ our God.

Amen.

Let us confess our sins against God and our neighbor.

Before God, with the people of God, I confess to my own brokenness, to the way that I wound my life, the lives of others, and the life of the world.

May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the Spirit enable you to grow in love.

Amen.

Before God, with the people of God, we confess to our brokenness, to the way we wound our lives, the lives of others, and the life of the world.

May God forgive you, Christ renew you, and the Holy Spirit enable you to grow in love.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

If you're new to us or haven't done this before, in that little room right behind us called the Narthex, there's some cards that say welcome.

And we'd be tremendously grateful if you'd fill one of those out so we have a record of your visit today.

And thanks for worshiping with us.

A few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Many of you know that right before COVID started, we were building for our future and looking to hire a minister to families.

And I'm really grateful to report that we have just done that.

So beginning August 1st, Alex Hillis, who comes to us most recently from St.

Mark's in Bel Air, will join us as Minister to Families at St.

Thomas.

Maybe you're wondering what is that?

Well, a Minister to Families does things like children's ministry and youth ministry, but really in the context of how do we grow parish families together.

So please join me when we get to August in welcoming Alex.

He's not here today.

But our first opportunity to do something with Alex as a parish will be August the 4th.

That's a Wednesday night.

We'll be able to come back together and literally break and share some bread and play bingo.

So you're gonna see this Wednesday.

You'll also see it on Facebook.

Uh, the opportunity for you to sign up for as many people as would like to come and eat, because our holy smokers and a few of our sizzling sister ladies are gonna help sort of cater this event so you can literally just show up and enjoy yourselves, uh, meet Alex and be back in the same room with other people finally.

So um I hope you'll take advantage of that opportunity and join me when it's time in welcoming Alex into the parish and into our mutual ministry together.

I want to call attention to you that um our next fresh food distribution is going to be on Saturday, July 31st.

So that's about two weeks, two weeks, three weeks from yesterday.

Um you can show up at 7:45 in the morning, you don't have to sign up ahead of time, and we're always done by 10.

It's going to be hot, so if you come, just make sure you bring some water.

And the great thing about this event, if you've been or haven't before, is that it is an event for all ages, and so children, seniors, people who look like me can all find something to do with this event, and it really is glorious to work together to provide food security in our area.

Seems like there's something else I'm supposed to mention.

There are a few things going on study-wise, and so you'll find these in the e-news.

There's a tremendous series going on right now that invites you into the secrets of the universe.

I mean, literally.

Um, former Rice professor Paul Cludier is guiding us through the book Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

If you can't always make it on Zoom, they do get recorded to our YouTube program, and it's really a rare opportunity to hear from a true expert what's going on.

And Paul has an incredible gift of being patient with questions I probably should not be asking, um, but also guiding us along the way.

So I hope you'll take advantage of astrophysics for people in a hurry.

And on Wednesdays, there's a study now of a book called A Muharista Theology.

And if you're interested in knowing more about those, I'd be grateful to tell you.

Uh, one other fun thing that's getting ready to happen next week, the Christ Hall bathrooms, the one off the hall, are going to be kind of part in our progress because a parishioner has given us a generous gift to redo them.

So for the next couple of weeks, we'll use the bathrooms here in the Narthex, and by the end of July, the ones in Christ Hall will look as nice as these, um, which is really, really wonderful.

Continue to walk in love as Christ first loved us and gave himself for us, an offering and sacrifice to God.

God me in my hand and in my understanding.

God me in my eyes and in my big understanding.

All things come of thee, O Lord.

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 not been for a long time or ever before, you who have tried to follow, and you who have failed, come.

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

The Lord be with you and also with you.

Uniting peoples of many languages and world views in the confession of one faith, and giving to thy church the power to serve thee as a royal priesthood and preach the gospel to all nations.

And therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and singing.

Thy tender mercy didst give thine only Son Jesus Christ to take our nature upon him, and to suffer death upon the cross for our redemption.

He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, and did institute, and in his holy gospel command us to continue a perpetual memory of that, his precious death and sacrifice, until his coming again.

For in the night in which he was betrayed, Jesus took bread, and when he given thanks to thee, he broke it, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he given thanks, he gave it to them, saying, Drink this, all of you.

This is my blood of the new covenant which is shed for you and for all for the remission of sin.

Do this as oft as ye shall drink it in remembrance of me.

Wherefore, O Lord and Heavenly Father, we thy people do celebrate and make with these thy holy gifts, which we now offer unto thee, the memorial thy son hath commanded us to make, having in remembrance his blessed passion and precious death, his mighty resurrection and glorious ascension, and looking for his coming again with power and great glory.

And we most humbly beseech thee, O merciful Father, to hear us, and with thy word and Holy Spirit to bless and sanctify these gifts of bread and wine, that they may be unto us the body and blood of thy dearly beloved Son, Jesus Christ.

And we earnestly desire thy fatherly goodness to accept this, our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, whereby we offer and present unto thee, O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies.

Grant, we beseech thee that all who partake of this holy communion may worthily receive the most precious body and blood of thy Son, Jesus Christ, and be filled with thy grace and heavenly benediction.

And also that we and all thy whole church may be made one body with Him, that He may dwell in us and we in Him, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord, by whom and with whom and in whom, in the unity of the Holy Ghost, all honor and glory be unto thee, O Father Almighty, world without end.

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.

In the spirit of Pentecost, please join me as we pray.

A different translation of that prayer is written by Andrew Jones.

Our Father who lives above and beyond the dimension of the internet, give us this day a life worth blogging.

The access to words and images that express our journey with passion and integrity, and a secure connection to publish your daily mercy.

Your kingdom come in the new spaces today, as we make known your mysteries, posting by posting, blog by blog.

Give this day the same ability to those less privileged, whose lives speak louder than ours, whose sacrifice is greater, whose stories will last longer.

Forgive us our sins, for blog-rolling strangers and pretending they are friends, for counting unique visitors but not noticing unique people, for delighting in the thousands of hits, but ignoring the one who returns, for alluring visitors but sending them away empty-handed, for updating daily but repenting weekly.

As we forgive those who trespass on our sites, to appropriate our thoughts without references, our images without approval, our ideas without linking back to us.

Lead us not into the temptation to sell out our congregation, to see people as links and not as lives, to make our blogs look better than our actual story.

But deliver us from the evil of pimping ourselves instead of pointing to you, from turning our guests into consumers of someone else's products, from infatuation over the toys of technology, from fame before our time has come.

For yours is the power to guide the destinies behind the web logs, to bring hurting people into the sanctuaries of our sights, to give us the stickiness to follow you, no matter who is watching or reading.

Yo is the glory that makes people second look our sights and our lives.

Yours is the heavy ambiance forever and ever.

Amen.

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.

Go forth in the world in peace, be of good courage, hold fast that which is good, render to no one evil for evil, strengthen the faint-hearted, support the weak, help the afflicted, honor everyone.

Love and serve the Lord, rejoicing in the power of the Holy Spirit, and the blessing of God Almighty, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit be amongst you this day and remain with you always.

Amen.