Pentecost 4 2021

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

Blessed be God's family now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

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

Cleanse the thoughts 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.

Keep, O Lord, your household, the church, in your steadfast faith and love, that through your grace we may proclaim your truth with boldness and minister your justice with compassion for the sake of our Savior Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen.

But Samuel grieved over Saul.

And the Lord was sorry that he had made Saul king over Israel.

The Lord said to Samuel, How long will you grieve over Saul?

I have rejected him from being king over Israel.

Filled your horn with oil and set out.

I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.

Samuel said, How can I go?

If Saul hears of it, he will kill me.

And the Lord said, Take a heifer with you and say, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do.

And you shall anoint for me the one whom I named to you.

Samuel did what the Lord commanded and came to Bethlehem.

The elders of the city came to meet him trembling and said, Do you come peaceably?

He said, Peaceably, I have come to sacrifice to the Lord.

Sanctify yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.

And he sanctified Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.

When they came, he looked on Iliab and thought, surely the Lord's anointed is now before the Lord.

But the Lord said to Samuel, Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him.

For the Lord does not see as marvelous.

See, they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.

Then Jesse called Aminadab and made him pass before Samuel.

He said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Then Jesse made Shama pass by.

And he said, Neither has the Lord chosen this one.

Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel.

And Samuel said to Jesse, The Lord has not chosen any of these.

Samuel said to Jesse, Are all your sons here?

And he said, There remains yet the youngest, but he's keeping the sheep.

And Samuel said to Jesse, Send and bring him, for we will not sit down until he comes here.

He sent and brought him in.

Now he was ready and had beautiful eyes and was handsome.

The Lord said, Arise and anoint him, for this is the one.

Then Samuel took the horn of all and anointed him in the presence of his brothers.

And the Spirit of the Lord came mightily upon David from that day forward.

Samuel then set out and went to Lana.

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

Psalm twenty, we will read responsively by the half verse.

May the Lord answer you in the day of trouble.

From God's holy place may you receive help.

May God remember all your offerings.

Grant you your heart's desire.

We will shout for joy at your victory and triumph in the name of our God.

Now I know that the Lord gives victory to the anointed one.

Some put their trust in chariots and some in horses.

Yes, we do have confidence, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord.

So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him.

For all of us must appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each may receive recompense for what has been done in the body, whether good or evil.

Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we try to persuade others.

But we ourselves are well known to God, and I hope that we are also well known to your consciences.

We are not commending ourselves to you again, but giving you an opportunity to boast about us, so that you may be able to answer those who boast in outward appearance and not in the heart.

For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God.

If we are in our right mind, it is for you.

For the love of Christ urges us on, because we are convinced that one has died for all.

Therefore all have died.

And he died for all, so that those who live might live no longer for themselves, but for him who died and was raised for them.

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view.

Even though we once knew Christ from a human point of view, we know him no longer in that way.

So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation.

Everything old has passed away.

See, everything has become new.

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

Glory be to thee, O Lord.

On that day, uh Jesus said, the kingdom of God is as if someone would scatter seed on the ground and would sleep and rise night and day, and the seed would sprout and grow.

He does not know how.

The earth produces of itself, first the stalk, then the head, then the full grain and the head.

But when the grain is ripe, at once he goes in with his sickle, because the harvest has come.

Jesus also said, With what can we compare the kingdom of God?

Or what parable we use for it?

It is like a mustard seed, which when sown upon the ground is the smallest of all the seeds on earth.

Yet when it is sown it grows up and becomes the greatest of all shrubs, and puts forth large branches, so that the birds of the air can make nests in its shade.

With many such parables Jesus spoke the word to them as they were able to hear it.

He did not speak to them except in parables, but Jesus explained everything in private to his disciples.

The gospel of the Lord.

I've mentioned this to you a few weeks ago.

At the time of Jesus, there were other charismatic healers.

One of them was named Honey the Circle Maker, and he would draw a circle on the ground from which he would draw his power to heal people, and according to ancient records, he did sometimes.

There were people like John the Baptist who said, Look, here's the heart of the law, and Jesus is gonna mostly repeat what he says from what John the Baptist said.

But here, Jesus is doing something actually unique.

He's teaching in parables.

Parables, as far as any New Testament scholar I've read, are truly unique to Jesus.

And I want to spend a little bit of time about what they are before we talk about these ones before us.

A classic approach to parables is that they're analogic reasoning.

So, you know, when we make an analogy, we compare something we understand to something we don't, and in so doing, we're helpful, it helps us understand what we don't understand.

Um if you want to do that in math terms, we do that through uh mapping functions.

So I've got a function and I want to know the output, and so I'm able to map elements from the domain onto the range, and then I'm able to understand both sets.

Umbody cares about that.

Umic reasoning.

Here you go.

The kingdom of God is like this little teeny tiny seed, and when you sow it, it becomes a big bush.

The analogy opportunity is faith starts small and it can grow.

Well, that's lovely, and that's probably true.

But if that's all Jesus had in mind, don't you see he wouldn't have to explain that to the disciples later?

They probably would have got that one the first go around.

So I want to suggest to you there's more going on here than just a simple analogy.

And when you took high school English, you might have even learned this in middle school.

One of the principal vehicles of analogy is a simile, right?

Uses the words like or as.

And then maybe you also learned about metaphors.

And the way I learned about it way back in middle school was that a metaphor is really just a simile that doesn't use like or as.

So here's a simile.

He ran like the wind.

Here's a metaphor.

I am a rock.

Now, they could be doing the same thing, but uh, these poetic people who are way past me creatively, um, they've pushed my thinking on this a little bit to say, look, a metaphor actually is different from a simile.

What a metaphor does is it compares two things that actually aren't comparable at all.

And at the end of the day, instead of understanding one better from the other, you have to question both things.

Now you may not like this, but again, if you're one of those math people, imagine that you're doing a mapping function, but now the arrows go both ways, and the conclusions you get in the middle are a whole bunch of questions.

That's a terrible diagram, I'll put it away.

So let's talk about this one just for a second, and it's easiest with the mustard seed.

First of all, it's not the smallest seed, and any farmer knows that, and you know this if you've got a pantry.

A mustard seed is significantly bigger than a poppy seed, and people have been growing those things for a long time.

Second of all, uh, mustard is not something you were allowed to plant.

It was against the Torah to plant mustard because it's an invasionary wheat.

Now, y'all know if you have a garden and you're growing peppers and tomatoes, whatnot to plant in that garden, is some mint.

And why is that?

It'll take over from the root system.

And you know, mint does something else really funny.

Like if you grow mint next to a strawberry, strawberry will taste like surprisingly minty.

Mustard will do this too if you want to try it.

You may say, oh, it's the turmeric.

No, but you can try this.

Pull the lid off the mustard and leave it in your refrigerator, lid off, see what happens to the smell of your refrigerator in about a week.

It's not positive, by the way.

So only do this on a fridge you want to get rid of.

More than meets the eye, mustard's invasionary.

Now, that's a nice analogy, isn't it?

Hopefully, our faith life, we plant a little bit, and it does start to invade the rest of our lives and color and flavor, everything we do and say.

Now, that's a nice analogy.

You see how that works?

But here's where it starts to get a little tricky in the world of analogies.

The kingdom of God is like a weed.

Well, that's a head scratcher.

Uh helps you understand why Jesus had to explain this stuff to folk.

My dad gave me this wisdom because my dad had a botany degree, and um I had this really great experience when I was in high school of working at his nursery, especially when I didn't want to.

And um, my dad was able to say, most of the time, what do you know, we were pulling weeds, and one of the things I remember my dad saying very clearly is, do you know, a weed is just a plant you don't want.

So a live oak could be a weed if that's not what you want.

Mint can be a weed if that's not what you want.

A classic rose can be a weed if that's not what you want.

So now here the analogy start to break down a little bit because it's really hard for our brains to do this.

The kingdom of God is like a weed.

Well, I don't like that.

Because I like roses, I don't really care for clover.

In fact, I work really hard every year, and I don't do I'm not always successful on my lawn to get rid of the weeds, the grassy stuff I don't want in the yard.

Jesus says the kingdom of God is like that stuff you don't want.

And that stuff you don't want, you intentionally plant.

Let's go on with a little bit.

I'm not a gardener.

My dad turned me against it.

I've done all the gardening I ever want to do.

Um but I do understand a few principles in gardening.

If you're growing something like a tomato, what you don't want is a bunch of shade blocking the sun, right?

So did you notice that what a mustard bush does is it turns into a huge shrub that shades everything else, like affects the produce you want, and will make it taste mustardy, which you don't want.

And then mustard does one other thing that Jesus identifies it harbors birds.

Do you want birds in your garden?

You know what birds do to your produce, right?

Same thing squirrels do, they eat it.

So the kingdom of God is like an invasionary weed that is something you don't want, that you intentionally plant so that it can affect the taste of the things you do want in a way you're not happy with, and it can harbor natural predators for the other stuff you want.

Now you see Jesus has to explain that.

What Mark forgot to do is include that explanation.

So Jesus just gave it to those guys, and now we're left to try to sort of well figure that out for ourselves.

And here is a conviction for sure that God's grace is much bigger than what we settle for.

And that the people we don't want, let's just call them weeds, the kingdom of God is not absent from those people.

The kingdom of God is fully present in those people.

And that means anytime we see somebody and we think, oh, there's a weed, God is inviting us to reconsider our gardening frame so that instead we can see grace.

And instead we can see fruit.

Now, this bit about the birds, I have to tell you, is really frustrating for me because, you know, if you do garden, you want to keep your own produce, and there's a lot of pride in it.

And if things like squirrels and birds carry that away, it's really, really frustrating.

But you know, Dr.

King said this interesting phrase, right, which is that the uh human history is long, the arc of human history is long, but it bends toward justice.

And I invite you to consider that what birds do, even though they might be temporarily annoying by eating your produce up, they do scatter seeds.

And that's the long view about what it's like to sow grace in the garden.

Sort of like that ancient saying that a wise man plants a tree in whose shade she will never sit.

Jesus is inviting us to consider that we sow seeds of grace not.

Just so that we can eat the produce, but so that God's grace can grow and spread in the world.

And sometimes it takes longer than we like.

Now I'm a frugal gardener.

I like to sow just a few little seeds, and I really like them to grow, or I get really mad at them and want to quit.

And here is Jesus encouraging us to be a different kind of gardener.

Be in it for the long haul, because the truth is when the fruit is right, and we didn't get this passage today, we get it out of Galatians though.

Fruit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law.

Those fruits, don't you think the world could use a lot more of those seeds?

And if we stop sowing them because we don't see it, then the world would stop having it.

And here's the promise of faith those seeds move on in the Lord.

And we get this other parable about seeds.

Jesus starts out by saying, Well, you know, nobody really knows how they work.

They just sort of grow up.

And it's really tempting to say, oh, those ancient bumpkins, they had no understanding of how agriculture works.

But if you've ever tried to grow something, you understand it doesn't always work.

I followed the directions on the package, I used the right fertilizer.

I cannot grow an avocado to save my life.

I've planted it on a hill, I've done all the watering stuff, I took it back to Home Depot and got another one when it died.

That one didn't work either, so I just sort of quit.

Once upon a time, my daughter got this Meyer lemon seed and it was genetically modified.

You know, Monsanto made it so it wouldn't grow another lemon, and she planted that in the yard, and for you know it grew a lemon tree.

I mean, these are the mysteries of agriculture, right?

You can read the books and do all the fertilizing, and then you can somehow get a lemon tree to grow when it's impossible.

And that's how it's always been.

And, you know, I think there's this great reminder for us, I really like to be in control over my spiritual development.

I really like to be in control, frankly, of most outcomes in my life.

And here's Jesus trying to say, look, the reason that we can't ultimately be in control of our own spiritual development like we'd want to, is because spiritual development is not climbing some kind of steps so we can transcend life.

Spiritual development is about being transformed so we can find God present in the weeds.

And this is a real throw to gardening then and now.

Instead of pulling up weeds, Jesus invites us to fertilize them.

That's a tough teaching, don't you think?

The reason I think it's right is because he had to explain it.

Yeah, that's why I think it's right.

And we get to hear the same thing actually in this lesson from Samuel.

Now, a lot of us don't realize that this is absolutely a political act of it's a political act, what Samuel's doing.

He's anointed this king called Saul, and we've heard that last week.

Saul is a tall guy, he's soft-spoken, he doesn't centralize all the clans, and then now he's going to, while Saul's still king, Samuel's going to anoint another king.

I mean, that's that's treason, right?

And what a lot of us don't realize is what's going on in this story.

You know, uh, every country has their own little idiosyncrasies about how it is uh they prepare people to be rulers.

So I don't know if you know this.

If you'd like to be king of France, there's something you have to do.

And it's not just to have a crown put on your head.

There's a place you have to go, must go, in order to be king of France.

Does anybody know this?

Idiosyncratic.

It's not Paris.

It's not.

You have to go to Rem.

Reims.

You have to be coronated in Rem, or you're just the crown prince.

If you know your history, Joan of Arc had to take Rheim so the dolphin could become king of France.

A lot of us don't know that if you'd like to be the monarch of England, you don't just get a crown.

That's only half the battle.

The other half, do you know, Kathy, you know this.

What else do you have to do?

You have to be head of the church.

You have to be head of the church, but there's somebody else who makes you head of the church.

It's the Archbishop of Canterbury, and do you know what they have to do to you?

Same thing Samuel does.

Anoint.

They pour oil on your head.

In the Hebrew Bible, the way you're made monarch is not with a crown.

People pour anoint, they pour oil on your head.

Has to be a prophet, which, by the way, this is the word Messiah, somebody who's been anointed.

In Greek, the word for Messiah is Christ.

So here is Samuel gonna anoint somebody to be king.

And this is the equivalent of putting a crown on your head at Ram's cathedral.

And Samuel sees a climbing rose and says, That's a beautiful king.

And God says, nope.

And then Samuel sees a queen palm that survived the freeze.

And says, That's a beautiful king.

And God says, no.

And what we don't often understand, because there's this description that David is handsome, but you know, he's the youngest son, which means he's the least important in a culture that values the oldest kids.

He's keeping the sheep, which is the least important job there is, and it's kind of smelly work.

The other kids probably had their annual bath whether they needed it or not.

And then David's been out on the field and probably smells like a sheep, and here he comes.

And there's this important bit that we don't realize in Hebrew.

It says his eyes are beautiful, but nobody actually knows what that word means.

It's a word that happens here and describes Jacob's wife Leah, and it could mean that he has weak eyes.

We don't have to be beautiful.

We always like to aggrandize this because look, he must be the most beautiful person, but please notice that would underscore what the whole reading says.

The reading says he is not the most beautiful person.

He's young, he's immature, he's smelly.

And God has looked past all of that, and don't you see that's what Jesus invites us to do as healthy spirituality is to find God's presence in the weeds.

David is a weed in the story.

And if we only settle for what we consider beautiful, then honestly what we're doing is arguing with God about what is right and beautiful and lovely.

So there's this hymn in the hymnal that we, well, I happen to love.

All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.

Maybe you've heard it.

There's a Monty Python version.

I'm just going to sort of not directly quote it, but it says sort of things like all things ghastly and dreadful, all creatures fat and squat.

It's tongue-in-cheek, but actually it's the gospel.

It's the gospel of Jesus Christ to look at things we consider dreadful and ghastly, whether they're people we work with or people on the news or people whose politics don't align with ours, and find seeds of grace in those people.

That's the invitation for spirituality that is life-giving for the world.

And this is the reminder that we don't produce fruits from love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self-control so that we can feast on it.

We produce those fruits so that we can nourish the world.

That's the point of this.

And if we hoard our fruit, don't you see we're limiting the seeds of grace?

Grace.

It's a big word.

We deeply need it.

I mean, don't you think?

Even if the way you define grace is live and let live, we could use a lot more seeds like that in the world.

The world could really use nourishment from that kind of fruit.

And this is where we get to hear Paul say, everything is made new.

I don't think Paul's saying that Christ ontologically changes things so that they become new.

I think what Paul is trying to say is that when we understand grace, Jesus opens our minds to perceive the goodness that's always been there.

We're the ones who are made new when we find God in the weeds.

We're the ones who are made new when we sow the seeds of grace, even when we don't see the produce coming to bloom.

The truth is I can't control how I feel most of the time.

I get mad over the silliest things.

I mean really silly things I get mad over.

But I sure can't control whether I fertilize that or not.

And maybe Jesus is inviting us to consider what we do to the ground instead of trying to control every step of the plant.

Do you sow seeds of gratitude?

Do you sow seeds of hope?

Jesus is inviting us to be made new, don't you see?

Because our own the evolution of our own brain wants to find negatives about ten times faster than it wants to find positives.

And God would renew us.

Not so we can be more useful, but so we can be more joyful.

I want to tell you a weed story.

I didn't tell too many stories on my spouse.

But some of you know I have a spouse who is not a faithful church attender.

I think she's been about seven times in the last five years.

And I was talking to my spouse the other day about fear of my own weeds and my spirituality because we were both raised in traditions that emphasize there were right kinds of piety.

Right.

And what that meant, of course, is there were wrong kinds of piety.

So right piety means spending an hour every morning before you do anything else.

Really, this is lessons we learned.

Reading your Bible and asking God to do favors for people you like.

That's what we grew up doing.

Right spirituality means pulling up weeds so they don't flourish.

So you don't think like me go over to that Lutheran church.

I mean, that was the way we pulled weeds.

We'd pull them out of our place and we'd throw them somewhere else.

So I told my wife.

I'm just a little bit worried because the piety that raised me is not really where I am anymore.

And I don't know what that means.

It feels like I've got like a lot of weeds in my spiritual life.

And she said, Oh honey.

You know, wanting to do the right thing, wanting to be socially just.

I mean, that's about the best thing there is about you.

The way I grew up, that was weedy faith.

We had to be right.

We had to be right, which meant taking the Bible so literally we forgot to take it seriously.

We had to see weeds like that woman thinks she can preach.

Let's correct her and pull that weed out.

Look at those people.

They think that God would happen to care about two men wanting to be married.

We need to set them straight.

And so what a gift that my wife was able to see things I fear as weeds and see them as producing seeds of grace.

And this is our invitation is not just to look on ourselves with affirmation instead of fear, but to do that kind of affirmation with one another.

Hey, that thing you do is sort of different.

I'm coming to appreciate it.

That's the spiritual discipline Jesus invites us to consider.

Now, I said this a few weeks ago, and I'm going to stand behind it.

If you don't have something nice to say, it means you haven't thought enough.

And I think that's right.

If you don't have something nice to say, if you look at somebody else and you see, that's just a weed, I mean, isn't it crazy to think, right?

We all tend to think that a rose is a beautiful thing.

But if you don't want a rose, it is a weed to you.

But it's not a weed to God.

And this is our invitation.

Not that we can be better rose growers, but that we can be made new so that we can see God's garden, that we can sow seeds of grace without fatigue.

So that we can look at the very people we thought were weedy and say, boy, you are different.

Thank God for that.

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

We believe in one God.

Father, the Almighty, Maker of the Heaven, of all that is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally God of the Father, God from God, Alright from life, true God from true God, begotten unmade, 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 with the Virgin Mary and was made man.

For our sake he was crucified under Pontius 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 worshiped 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.

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

We pray to you, O Lord.

For all the holy people of God, for all bishops and other ministers, for Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, our bishops, in the diocesan cycle of prayer, all Saints Crockett, Christchurch, Jefferson, and Christchurch Nacodoges.

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

Lord, have compassion.

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

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

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

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the peace of the world, that a spirit of respect and forbearance may grow among nations and peoples.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

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

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

For the poor, the persecuted, the sick, and all who suffer.

For refugees, prisoners, and all who are in danger, that they may be relieved and protected.

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

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

We pray to you, O Lord.

Lord, have compassion.

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

Lord, have compassion.

For all who have commended themselves to our prayers, for our families, friends, and neighbors, especially Chris, Sean, Jerome, Mickey, John, Lavon, Paxton, Joanne, Mark, and Lee, and those the congregation wish to name at this time, silently or aloud, we pray to you, O Lord, Lord, have compassion, for all who have died in the communion of your church, especially Martha, and those whose faith is known to you alone, that with all the saints they may have rest in that peace where there is no pain or grief, but eternal life.

We pray to you, O Lord.

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

To you, O Lord, our God.

For you is the majesty, O Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory.

Now and forever.

Amen.

Now I made a mistake, and I do this sometimes, but we've already prayed for the forgiveness of our sin and the power of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives.

So we're just going to stand on that.

God heard us the first time, and your prayers have been granted.

So the peace of the Lord be always with you.

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

And thank you for worshiping with us today.

There's a few announcements I want to call to your attention.

You'll see many of these in the e-news, but uh a couple you won't.

So uh first, we'd like to plan in advance around here, around uh service that we do, and normally we would be doing our next fresh food distribution on July 3rd, the first Saturday of July.

But the food banks closed that weekend, so we'll be going July 31st.

So uh you'll hear me say this a few more times.

I just don't want you to show up on the third because there won't be anybody here.

So uh July 31st will be our next one of those.

Um I'd like to um let you know a really great thing.

Sometimes we're not always aware of all the ministries that are happening.

And so up in the video booth is Hal Snapp, one of our club leaders and our scout leaders, and he just got back from taking scouts to camp, which is always stressful to coordinate all those logistics.

But of course, you know it's really joyful ministry that's happening.

And so, Hal, thank you for leading our our youth.

I'd like to introduce this possibility to you that one of the things we have at St.

Thomas being across the street from NASA is some really smart physics type people.

And one of these people, this has sort of become a tradition here, is a former professor of astrophysics at Rice University.

And he's going to be leading us in the month of July on Sunday mornings through this book called Astrophysics for People in a Hurry.

Yeah, so I'm in a hurry.

And he happens to be a fantastic teacher.

This is Paul Clutier.

And one of his former students who also has a PhD in physics, Lila Anderson, and then Antha Atkins, who's on our vestry, are going to help Paul and us talk about the ways in which these aren't just analogs, but ways of entering into family of God mentality through astrophysics.

So I promise you'll learn something, even if this is what you do already.

But this is on Sunday mornings beginning July the 4th from 9 to 10:15, and we'll do that all through July.

So I just want to raise this to you because it's pretty rare that you have an expert in the field who also happens to be a fantastic teacher do this with us.

And this is the only parish I've ever been a part of that would want to do this.

And I and I and I love it.

No, I do.

I mean, we're across the street.

We sent people to the moon here.

We might as well learn about what they did.

So I hope you look forward to doing that together.

A reminder that we're doing a few studies already.

So on Sundays in June, we're still reading this book, Invite, Welcome, Connect, so that we can enhance not just the way we do things, but the way we envision things.

And we can see folks as God sees folks and enhance the way we invite and welcome and connect people.

On Wednesdays, we're reading this lovely book.

Whether you join us on YouTube or not, on Zoom or not, we do put these on YouTube later.

It's called The Four Vision Quests of Jesus, and it's a way of understanding the Christian faith through a Native American perspective.

And it's a powerful book.

I mean, it really is life-giving.

So I just want to encourage you to read it, whether you can join us or not.

And we do post these online if you can't join us on Wednesday morning.

Okay, um, I want you to know some of you know these folks, but it's important.

We prayed for John this morning.

So Lavon and John Lucre have been pillars in the parish for a long time.

And I just want to offer to you that John is probably going to be transitioning into larger life pretty soon.

And I'm telling you this not only to direct your prayers, but so that you have an opportunity.

If you'd like to contact Lavon and express your joy or talk to John, you can express your joy for a limited time only.

And um, you know, sometimes we struggle.

How do we pray with some for somebody who has limited time?

Um sometimes I think we're attracted to say, God, keep them alive.

And I just want to encourage you, if you don't know how to pray, always pray for peace.

That this will be holy time for their family, that any reconciliation or gratitude that is outstanding can be accomplished, and that they'll know when it's time, and that they'll join the Lord without fear.

I mean, these are ways my church didn't always tell me to pray, and I want to hold them up to you.

They're fantastic ways to pray for people who are on the edge.

And so I hold that up to you about about John Lucre.

I don't know if you've known him.

He's a fine man.

He's a fine, fine man, and he's uh he's given to this community for years and years, and he's very worth emulating.

So whether you know him or not, we can always pray for this this holy time, and I encourage that.

I also want to hold up to you, you know, there's so many ministries happening here because of you that it's easy to forget them, but um it's it's important to highlight that, you know, we've got these dedicated folks at the nearly new thrift shop.

Vicky Buxton and um Joyce Wolfers are the heads of that thrift shop.

And you know, it's been a heck of a challenge to be in COVID, and they've struggled to, you know, we we rent this space and to keep the shop open.

And sometimes we think, oh, this is just an income revenue generator, and it's not, it's a ministry.

Um the thrift shop allows people to earn an income through consignment uh with dignity.

The thrift shop, if you go over there, um they mentor teenagers and young adults.

They do.

When people come in, they're not treated as customers, they're treated as human beings.

And this is a ministry in the community.

So we I don't thank these people enough, but I want you to hear the work of the nearly new and its volunteers is incredible.

It's community changing.

And if you're drawn to it at all, they can always use more help.

But I'm not just trying to do a sign up here.

I'm trying to say with gratitude, the nearly new, I'm looking out in the faces of people here, and I know it's changed your family's life.

And uh it's important to remember this and be mindful of the ways in which things like a little thrift shop is growing God's kingdom on earth.

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

If you would mind my puppy, take up your cross with really heart and humbly, take up your cross and touch, fill your weak spirit with Christ, stretch out your spirit up and break your heart and take up your cross, not a shame and let your footage watch me still for you accepted on a cross on Calvary's hill.

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

We just made ready for those who love him and those who want to love him more.

So come.

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

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

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

The Lord be here with you.

And also with you.

Uniting peoples of many languages and worldviews in the confession of one faith, and giving to thy church the power to serve thee as a royal priesthood and to 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.

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

He made there a full and perfect sacrifice for the whole world, weeds and all, 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, 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 sins.

Do this as oft as you 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.

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 there 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.

And now, as written by Mark Berry in the Spirit of Pentecost, let us pray that prayer in different words and in a different worldview.

O breathing life, your name shines everywhere.

Release the space to plant your presence here.

Imagine your possibilities now, embody your desire in every light and form.

Grow through us this moment's bread and wisdom.

Untie the knots of failure binding us as we release the strands we hold of others' faults.

Help us not forget our source, yet free us from not being in the present.

From you arises every vision, power and song, from gathering to gathering.

Amen.

May our future actions grow from here.

And I invite you to receive bread and wine through intinction, that means dipping, by coming to the aisle closest to your right.

Come down, please, in socially distanced intervals and return to your seat on the far side.

And if you'd like a blessing, please just cross your arms.

Freely thou hast given me thy body for my food, O thou who art afire, consuming the unworthy.

Consume us not, O our Creator.

Consume the thorns of our transgressions.

Instead enter into our members, our veins, our hearts, cleanse our souls, and sanctify our reasonings.

Make firm our knees and bodies with this nourishment from your table.

Illumine our five senses to see you ever at work in the world.

Always protect, guard, and keep us from soul-destroying words and deeds.

Give us understanding and illumination.

Show us to be a temple of thy one spirit, and not the home of many sins.

Thou art the only sanctification, nourishment, and light of our souls, O good one.

And to thee we ascribe glory day by day.

Amen.

May God, who by the Holy Spirit calls those of many languages and world views to proclaim Jesus as Lord, strengthen your faith, and send you out to bear witness to God in word and deed.

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

Amen.