Lent 4

Bless the Lord who unburdens all of our sin.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, unto whom all hearts are open, all desires are 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.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

But if we confess our sin, our burdens, and our transgressions, God is faithful and just to forgive our sin and cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.

God has not dealt with us according to our sin.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us.

As far as the east is from the west, as a parent has compassion on their children.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

And all that is.

Bless the Lord, O my soul.

And forgive on all creations.

So let us give thanks to God for all the gifts freely bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation and earth and sky and sea.

We thank you, Lord.

For all that is gracious in the lives of women and men, revealing the image of Christ.

We thank you, Lord.

For our daily food and drink, our homes and families, and our friends.

We thank you, Lord.

For minds to think, hearts to love, and hands to serve.

We thank you for.

Above all, we give you thanks for the great mercies and promises given to us in Christ Jesus our Lord.

To him be praise and glory with you, O Father and the Holy Spirit, now and forever.

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Gracious Father, whose blessed Son Jesus Christ came down from heaven to be the true bread which gives life to the world.

Evermore give us this bread that he may live in us and we in him, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen.

But the people became impatient on the way.

The people spoke against God and against Moses.

Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.

Then the Lord sent poisonous serpents among the people, and they bit the people, so that many Israelites had died.

The people came to Moses and said, We have sinned by speaking against the Lord and against you.

Pray to the Lord to take away the serpents from us.

So Moses prayed for the people.

And the Lord said to Moses, Make a poisonous serpent and set it on a pole.

And everyone who is bitten shall look at it and live.

So Moses made a serpent of bronze and put it upon a pole.

And whenever a serpent bit someone, that person would look at the serpent of bronze and live.

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

Psalm one o seven, we will read responsively by half of the verse.

Give thanks to the Lord who is good.

Let all those whom the Lord has redeemed proclaim.

God gathered them out of the land.

Some were fools and took to rebellious ways.

Then in their trouble, they cried to the Lord.

God sent forth a word to heal them.

Let them give thanks for the mercy of God.

Let them offer a sacrifice of thanksgiving.

All of us once lived among them in the passions of our flesh, following desires of flesh and senses, and we were by nature children of wrath like everyone else.

But God, who is rich in mercy, out of the great love with which he loved us even when we were dead through our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ.

By grace you have been saved, and raised and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the ages to come he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace and kindness towards us in Christ Jesus.

For by grace you have been saved through faith.

And this is not your own doing.

It is the gift of God, not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

For we are what he has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life.

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

Jesus said, Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only Son, that everyone who believes in him may not perish, but may have eternal life.

Indeed, God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

Those who believe in him are not condemned, but those who do not believe are condemned already, because they've not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

For all who do evil hate the light, and do not come to the light, so that their deeds may not be exposed.

But those who do what is true come to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that their deeds have been done in God.

The Gospel of the Lord.

Amen.

Please be seated.

The fourth Sunday in Lent is traditionally set aside to be what's called Rose Sunday.

In Latin, it's called Leere Sunday, and sometimes you hear it called Refreshment Sunday in the lowest circles.

It's a reminder that all of this sober repentance work that we normally see in the color purple or even older in burlap is meant not to curry some sort of favor, but to result in joy for the world in sharing God's joy.

How many of you, before St.

Thomas anyway, have been in a place where they celebrated Rose Sunday?

It's relatively rare.

I see a few folks have done it, yeah.

So it's a it's a really pleasure to do this with you because again, it reminds us that this is not about proving our faithfulness to suffering, it's about receiving God's gift of joy more and more and more.

I want to tell you one other thing that doesn't really matter, except it is a joy for me to remember, which is that six years ago today, um I gave a sermon on these texts down at Grace Episcopal Church in Galveston.

It was my guest preaching for the call committee.

It was on these texts, and they called me anyway.

So it is a privilege to be here with you six years to the day to talk about um these same readings.

And the first thing I want to say is that many Episcopalians have not read the Book of Numbers, and I can understand why.

It's a really bizarre book.

It's sort of like, frankly, the Grimm Brothers' fairy tales.

It's a book of cautionary tales, and the message is very clear.

If you complain, it's gonna get worse.

Go figure.

The people are in the middle of a desert and they're hungry and thirsty and they complain.

What's the matter with them?

Uh in the story, it's really, really interesting that the serpents fall upon the people, and apparently they're poisonous serpents, and the snakes are biting people.

And then Moses has this not only idea, but instruction, which is absolutely against what we heard last week in the ten words.

The instruction is build a graven image, put it on a pole, lift it up.

Absolutely contradicts the ten words.

And it's really weird if you think about it psychologically that this is some sort of like Stockholm syndrome, right?

The people are getting bitten by snakes, and they make an idol out of a big, strong, powerful snake.

And when I say idol, I mean it because if you read through the rest of the Hebrew Bible, they take this bronze snake and they put it in the temple and they worship it and they give it a proper name.

It's called Nehushton later.

And King Hezekiah is the one who ultimately destroys it.

But in Numbers, God suggests that they make this thing.

It may be helpful to hear uh what it is about snakes, just really briefly.

In the ancient world, the snake was a symbol of immortality.

In fact, one of the uh perhaps the oldest saga we've discovered, the Epic of Gilgamesh, uh, speaks a little bit to why that is.

If you've read the Epic of Gilgamesh before, Gilgamesh ultimately finds fruit that will give him eternal life.

Gilgamesh is not like me.

If I found that fruit, I would eat it immediately.

Instead, Gilgamesh is so happy to have it that he takes a nap.

And while he's sleeping, a snake eats the fruit, and so snakes are immortal, and the symbol of that is they shed their skin.

Now, look, ancient people knew that snakes die.

We know that snakes die, but the idea that they shed their skin and regenerated made them sort of a symbol in the ancient world for healing and immortality.

And in case you didn't know this, if you look at the symbol for physicians, it is in fact two snakes on a pole.

Um this iconography is really, really old.

Um, it is as old as the Hippocratic Oath.

In fact, it's older than that, where people in the Greek world would go and worship either the gods Aslepius or Serapian in these cults of healing, and the snake being the symbol of immortality was the picture of the deity.

Have you ever looked at the doctor's pole?

They're not regular snakes, they have something.

They have wings.

And maybe you've heard the Hebrew word seraphim.

Seraphim in Hebrew means burning ones, like ones that are always on fire, and it's also the root of the word snake, so that it seems like in Hebrew iconography, a seraph was a winged snake that was always on fire.

I didn't see that on the flannel board growing up.

But I hope it's interesting for you to hear.

Now, the story says something really interesting before we go to the gospel.

In the story, the people look at a bigger, badder, stronger version of the snake that's biting them.

But if you read the text not even very carefully, you notice even though the venom doesn't kill the people, the snakes don't stop biting them.

And I think this is a really important thing to consider on Rose Sunday.

The trials and travails of the world don't go away.

That's what happiness about is about.

Joy is about those trials and travails happening, but the venom being removed.

And I think this becomes an interesting image of what forgiveness is like.

So, forgiveness, we've been talking about this for weeks.

Anne Lamont says, forgiveness is giving up all hope of having had a different past.

It is accepting what has happened to me, but also being grateful for the person that it's made me.

And that doesn't mean the wounds and the bites go away.

It means the venom is no longer lethal.

And just as a transition statement, forgiveness is all giving up all hope of having had a different past.

Isn't it interesting that we ask God to forgive us?

God, we hope that you will accept us just as we are.

I'm really happy to tell you God's answer is, I do.

And that's why this gospel is so interesting.

It starts out with this bit about Moses and it says, right, in the middle of being bitten by all kinds of things, God's answer is not a big bad serpent.

God's answer is Jesus, who most certainly was bitten when he was crucified.

And I want you to consider that in Luke, Jesus says, Father, forgive them.

They don't know what they're doing.

And that has to be the key to joy and forgiveness.

And it makes Jesus like the snake and yet very unlike the snake.

And then follows arguably one of the most familiar passages in the whole Bible, whether you're Christian or not.

You can see it at every football game.

For God so loved the world that God gave God's only begotten Son, right?

What we often forget, because I think we've been given this lens, or I'll just speak for myself.

The way I heard this was, I mean, yeah, God likes the world.

God loves the potential of the world.

God loves the world if we believe the right stuff.

And I want to suggest to you it is a terrible corruption of the passage.

The passage reads that God is madly in love with the world exactly as it is, not for what it might be.

And then when we hear this business about eternal life and perishing, we often map an anachronistic frame onto it that involves eternal punishment in hell forever, or being dressed with a harp forever.

And it is very clear when you read the Gospel of John that the words eternal life include what happens after you die, but are really about how it is we experience life.

And all of us know people who have been very much physically alive but have already perished.

Some of us have lived years of our lives having perished and hopefully found new life.

And if we could take the frame of this, God might love you, but God doesn't like you away, we could hear a radical call for the joy that Lent offers us.

Lent is not about us giving something up or becoming miserable so that we can earn the gift God has already given.

Lent is about doing the work so we can enjoy the gift that God has already given.

Gift of life.

The gift of love.

He didn't mean that enough.

The liturgy always has the priest absolve you.

Because that's how God is.

So that we can enjoy what God has already given.

Now, if you've been following the Wednesday morning group, which is about sin and shame and guilt and reconciliation.

The story I'm going to tell you is probably not great because you've already heard it.

But I reawakened to the following story this week, and I just have to set it up by telling you that once upon a time I was a chaplain in a geriatric heart hospital run by the Catholic Church.

So eight staff chaplains were nuns.

Now they weren't wearing the habit nuns, they were nuns.

And the nuns had a lot to teach me, and the strong memory I have is of the nuns offering really controversial religious propaganda.

I don't know how much experience you have with religious propaganda.

I'll tell you a bad experience I had as a waiter.

Once upon a time, I would wait tables at the Cracker Barrel in South Carolina, and sometimes people would do me a tremendous favor of trying to save my soul after I waited on them without giving me any money.

And the way they would do this is by giving me a religious track.

I will here too for refer to this as religious propaganda, that looked like a hundred dollar bill on one side, and on the other side it said, This is worth more than money.

This is the salvation of your soul.

Believe in Jesus and you won't go to hell.

Often people did me the great favor of giving me that track without a tip.

That was their tip.

What a sad state of affairs.

I was very familiar with tracks.

People come to my house still here.

I tell them I'm a priest.

They still want to give me religious propaganda.

Most of it's really negative.

So one of the nuns gave me this religious propaganda.

It was a little card, and it had, of all things, a pink rose on it, and it had little flowers, and it had script writing, the same kind that is on the birthday cards my mom buys me every year.

Maybe you've seen that kind of card before.

And I had to read it like four times, and 20 years later, I'm still actually trying to live into the gift of that card.

It said, God, help me accept the truth about myself, no matter how blank it is.

Now, some of you already know what goes in the blank.

I want you to pretend like you don't or just give other people a turn.

I'm going to ask you to do something very unepiscopalian.

You may not come back to church because I'm doing this.

I would like you to say how you would fill in that blank.

God, help me accept the truth about myself no matter how blank it is.

What goes in the blank for you?

Help me accept the truth about myself no matter how difficult or how hard it is.

Painful.

Help me accept the truth about myself no matter how painful it is.

Maybe the word ugly.

The ugly truth or inconvenient.

The religious propaganda said, God, help me accept the truth about myself, no matter how beautiful it is.

Oddly enough, that was really painful to hear.

I think it's so difficult for us to hear something like that because it's not just like an extra sentence we can add to our religious narrative.

It invites us to scrap the whole thing and start over.

And don't you see that's the whole point of Rose Sunday?

Dismondo says that God's standards are low.

They're really low.

Like there's nothing you can do to make God love you anymore.

And there's nothing you can do to make God love you any less.

And I think more and more in my spiritual journey, I'm daring to actually believe that's true.

And that's the gift of Rose Sunday.

The work is because that's true, not because we have to earn it.

Dignity and value from God is our birth right.

And often we can't see it in the people that bother us most because we cannot imagine it's true about ourselves.

And I know it's right because it's bigger than I am, and because it's really hard.

And it's an interesting practice to think that God doesn't just put up with our foibles.

I have said this in church before, but I will say it again because it matters, and I don't think my wife will be mad at me for sharing it.

God does not love us in spite of our flaws.

I used to think that was the case.

But as I've grown in love, I realize that love doesn't love somebody else in spite of who they are.

We love one another because of who we are.

And so once upon a time, I had this conversation with my wife, and I'm so glad she shared it.

It was a work.

You see, she would work and she would leave her dishes until later.

And when I got home, she might bring the dishes up to the sink, but she wouldn't wash them.

Now, me, I'm really happy to wash the dishes immediately, especially if there's some tomato-based food in there.

Because, well, if you don't do dishes, let me tell you.

The sooner you wash that, the easier it is to clean.

I put up with it for a long time.

I loved her in spite of it, and then I don't remember if I asked.

I'm sure I didn't.

I'm rarely gracious enough to ask.

I think she told me, listen, I know this bothers you.

The reason I'm doing it later is because I want to connect with you first, and the dishes can wait.

I hate that.

And that thing I thought was a wart, was an invitation to grace.

And God loves us like that.

And what if we could love ourselves alongside God like that?

And what if we could dare to erase the script that gets in the way of us loving ourselves and loving the people that frustrate us the most like that?

It would take some imagination.

We'll call that part prayer.

It would take reforming our habits, we'll call that part discipleship.

And in the end, don't you see, there would be a lot more of this in your life, in theirs, and in the world.

And this is why we're so embarrassed in the Episcopal Church to talk about evangelism.

Because evangelism, as it's usually used, says God loves you, but God doesn't like you.

God help me accept the truth about myself, no matter how beautiful it is, that is good news.

And the world is desperate for it.

And you know it's so hard and painful for us because we think if we actually believe that, we'd stop working.

If we believe that God accepted us like we are, well, what would be the incentive to improve?

What would be the control mechanism?

Because we can't add a sentence to our narrative.

God is inviting us to embrace what good news really means and rewrite the script.

I don't know what your Linton discipline is or if you have one.

But I would invite you this week, because it's rose week, to take your rose home and put it somewhere.

By the way, trim the stem.

Do that every couple of days, put some new water in it, it'll last longer.

And I'm gonna invite you in your home, every time you see that rose in the next week, because it should last a week, to pray that prayer.

God, help me accept the truth about myself.

No matter how beautiful it is.

Put it somewhere where there's a mirror.

Put it somewhere where your family will see it.

Make it not your Lenten obligation.

Make it your rose.

A rose for a rose.

And then full of the joy that you grow in trust of that God has for you.

Make Christ love visible with the rest of the world.

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

We believe in one God.

With all our heart and with all our mind, let us pray to the Lord.

I ask your prayers for God's people throughout the world, for all people and ministers, for the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, for our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, and Kay, in the diocesan circle of prayer, Epiphany Calvert, Holy Innocence Madisonville, St.

Andrew's Bryan, and St.

Bartholomew's Hempstead, for Justin the Archbishop of Canterbury, and for our presiding bishop Michael, I pray for the church.

I ask for your prayers for all who govern and hold authority in the nations of the world, for the members of the armed forces, and for all who struggle for peace and justice, that they may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.

I pray for justice and peace.

I ask for your prayers for our parish and for our veteran, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

I pray that our community may discern clearly and minister effectively.

I ask for your prayers for St.

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

I pray that we may be bearers of God's grace to all who come through our doors.

Pray for those in any need or trouble.

I ask your prayers for all who seek God or a deeper knowledge of God.

I pray that they may find and be found by God.

I ask your prayers for the departed, especially Melba and Jerry, pray for those who have died.

Let us give thanks for our blessings and pray for our own needs and those of others, especially Chris, Sean, Mark, Jerome, Janet, and Leslie.

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

O Lord our God, accept the fervent prayers of your people, and the multitude of your mercies, look with compassion upon us and all who turn to you for help.

For you are gracious, O lover of souls, and to you we give glory, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, now and forever.

The socially distanced peace of the Lord be always with you.

Good morning, and thank you for worshiping with us in St.

Thomas today.

A few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Huge thanks to many of you who uh supported the St.

Thomas School Gala.

I'm really pleased to report we came in over budget, so thank you for your support.

It's a tough year and it really means a lot.

And a few people have asked, hey, we love the children's art so much.

Is there any way we can interact with it?

And you'll see an opportunity, especially rolling forward, that there's some lovely stationery with our children's art on it that's available, and it's a great way that you can share the art and the beauty of our school with people you know and you love through notes.

So those are available up front.

I just wanted to make a few announcements.

One is that our next fresh food distribution is two weeks from yesterday.

So that's Saturday the 27th, the day before Palm Sunday, and we can use volunteers from 7:45 until 10.

Um, also, uh, it has been a joy.

I have met with 18 different families already, and I hope to meet with yours if we haven't.

Um, this is what I call an unnecessary clergy visit.

And I would be grateful to have an unnecessary visit with you.

Just to reconnect.

It's been a difficult year, and quite honestly, I hope that it is part of the fabric of our church lives that we do this every year.

And of course, you know there's no limit in clergy visits, uh, but I'd like to start it off with you.

I don't have an agenda when I come to these meetings.

If you have one, I'm happy to meet it.

But mostly I would just like to have connection with you.

Someone asked me how do we how do we do that?

Um, call or email, and I'll be grateful to work around you and to come to your home or have you in mine or meet in the office or a park.

So please take advantage of that.

It means a great deal as your priest to spend time with you.

Um some of you know um we've had two parishioners pass into larger life, and their funerals have been planned now.

Uh, Melba Weaver, her funeral will be this Saturday at 10, and we'll stream that uh via YouTube so you can watch from your home.

And Jerry Mulder will be next Thursday, the 25th, also we think at 10.

You'll see that announcement in your e-news.

Umest parishioner.

She was about to turn 102.

And um, I want to say this because many of you don't know her, but she is the only person I know who was affected by the last global pandemic.

Her mother and her grandmother died from the Spanish flu when she was one year old, within a month or two apart.

And Melba is this interesting person.

She ended up losing vision in one of her eyes, and her favorite story, I've heard it probably ten times, each time with exuberance and joy.

She had had a surgery so she could see out of her eye, and ultimately it stopped working.

And she said to the ophthalmologist, What's the deal?

You said this surgery was gonna work.

And his reply was, Well, I didn't think you'd lived this long.

And I mean, what a beautiful spirit to tell that with a smile on her face.

She really was a rare and exceptional person, full of the same kind of beauty I'm trying to describe and not necessarily good at.

So I invite your prayers for her family and a celebration of her life this week.

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

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

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

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

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

Not because the church invites you, it is Christ.

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.

It is very meet right in our bound in duty that we should at all times and in all places give thanks unto thee, O Lord, Holy Father Almighty, everlasting God, who just bid thy faithful people cleanse their hearts and prepare with joy for the Paschal feast.

That fervent in prayer and in works of mercy, and renewed by thy word and sacraments, they may come to the fullness of grace which they Thou hast prepared for those who love thee.

Therefore, with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, we laud and magnify thy glorious name, evermore praising thee and saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God of hosts, heaven and earth are full of thy glory.

Glory be to thee, O Lord Most High.

Blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest.

All glory be to thee, O Lord our God, for that thou didst create heaven and earth, and didst make us in thine own image.

And that 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 had 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 for the remembrance of me.

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

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

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

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 thee 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.

Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.

These are the gifts of God.

I invite you to receive bread or blessing by coming to the aisle closest to your right, coming down to the front and returning to your seat on the far side.

You alone are my heart's desire, and I long to worship thee.

You alone are my strength, my shield, and you alone bring my spirit.

Almighty and ever-living God, we most heartily thank thee for that thou dost feed us in these holy mysteries with the spiritual food of the most precious body and blood of thy Son, our Savior Jesus Christ, and dost assure us thereby of thy favor and goodness towards us, and that we are very members incorporate in the mystical body of thy Son, the blessed company of all faithful people, and are also heirs through hope of thy everlasting kingdom.

And we humbly beseech thee, O Heavenly Father, so to assist us with thy grace, that we may continue in that holy fellowship and do all such good works as thou hast prepared for us to walk in, through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom with thee and the Holy Ghost we are honor and glory, world without an end.

Amen.

Do not be dismayed by the brokenness of the world.

All things break, and all things can be mended.

Not with time, as they say, but with intention.

So go.

Love intentionally, extravagantly, unconditionally.

The broken world waits in darkness for the light that is you.

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.