Lent 3

Bless the Lord who unburdens all of our sin.

God's mercy endureth forever.

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 name through Christ our Lord.

Amen.

Hear what our Lord Jesus saith: Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy exceedingness.

This is the first and greatest commandment, and the second is like unto it.

Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.

On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

The Lord is full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger, and of great kindness.

God has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our wickedness.

For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is God's mercy.

Holy God, holy and strong, holy and immortal, have mercy upon us.

As far as the east is from the west, so far would God set our sins from us.

As a parent has compassion on their children, so is the Lord merciful.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless God's holy name.

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all of God's faithfulness.

And so let us give thanks to God for all the gifts freely and faithfully bestowed upon us.

For the beauty and wonder of your creation in 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 and hearts to love and hands to serve.

We thank you, Lord, for health and strength to work and leisure to rest and play.

We thank you, Lord.

For the brave and courageous who are patient in suffering and faithful in adversity.

We thank you, Lord, for all valiant seekers after truth, liberty, and justice.

We thank you, Lord, for the communion of saints in all times and places.

We thank you, Lord.

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.

Almighty God, you know we have no power in ourselves to help ourselves.

Keep us both outwardly in our bodies and inwardly in our souls, that we may be defended from all adversities which may happen to the body and from all evil thoughts which may assault and hurt the soul through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God forever and ever.

Amen.

You shall have no other gods before me.

You shall not make for yourself an idol, whether in the form of anything that is heaven above, or that is on the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth.

You shall not bow down to them or worship them, for I am the Lord your God am a jealous God, punishing children for the iniquity of parents to the third and the fourth generation of those who reject me, but showing steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love me and keep my commandments.

You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not acquit anyone who misuses his name.

Remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.

For six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God.

You shall not do any work, you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns.

For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, but rested on the seventh day.

Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and consecrated it.

Honor your father and your mother, so that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.

You shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you shall not steal, you shall not bear false witness against your neighbor, you shall not covet your neighbor's house, you shall not cover your neighbor's wife, or male or female slave, or ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.

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

One day he tells his tale to another.

Although they have no words or language, their sound has gone out into all lands.

In the deep has God set a pavilion for the sun.

The law of the Lord is perfect and revives the soul.

The statutes of the Lord are just and rejoice the heart.

The fear of the Lord is clean and endures forever.

More to be desired are they than gold, more than much fine gold.

By them also is your servant enlightened.

Can people tell how often they offend?

Above all, keep your servant from presumptuous sins.

Let them not get dominion over me.

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight.

But to us who are being saved, it is the power of God.

For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and the discernment of the discerning I will thwart.

Where is the one who is wise?

Where is the scribe?

Where is the debater of this age?

Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?

For since in the wisdom of God the world did not know God through wisdom, God decided through the foolishness of our proclamation to save those who believe.

A stumbling block to Jews and foolishness and to Gentiles.

But to those who were called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God.

For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom.

And God's weakness is stronger than human strength.

Glory be to thee, Lord Christ.

The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.

In the temple, he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables.

Making a whip of cords, Jesus drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle.

He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

He told those who were selling the doves, Take these things out of here.

Stop making my father's house a marketplace.

His disciples remembered that it was written, The Zeal for your house will consume me.

Then the Jewish leaders said to Jesus, What sign can you show us for doing this?

Jesus answered them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

The Jewish leaders then said, This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?

But Jesus was speaking of the temple of his body after he was raised from the dead.

His disciples remembered that he'd said this, and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken.

The gospel of the Lord.

Acknowledge, we humbly beseech thee a lamb of thine own fold, a sheep of thine own flock, a sinner of thine own redeeming, in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

I want to offer to you a couple of different ways to hear the passages that are likely very familiar to you already.

And I want to start, if I might, with the passage from Exodus.

Many of us have learned these particular rules.

We typically call them the Ten Commandments.

And I hope it's really helpful for me to push on that a little bit because the scriptures don't call them the Ten Commandments, the Scriptures call them the Ten Words.

That is to say, in Greek they're called the Decalogue.

And maybe you're wondering why that's the case, because in Hebrew you can take each one of these rules and express them in a single, albeit hyphenated word.

As in thou shalt not kill is the word kill with the prefix not.

So you do that ten times, you have ten words.

And what's really interesting if you think about this is that these are ten principles.

And what kind of people take principles and turn them into commandments, people who are used to being enslaved.

And consider that's the context in which these were written.

Now look, these I think are pretty fair principles if you consider that they represent minimums.

But in no way do they lead us as a community or even as individuals into maximums of life.

Consider.

If you want to avoid killing somebody or being jealous or lying to them, I've got the easiest way imaginable for you to keep all those rules the rest of your life.

Go live by yourself.

In the middle of the desert.

By the way, people did that.

They're called the desert fathers.

See, when nobody's around, there's nothing to covet.

There's nobody to lie to, there's nobody to steal from, and there's nobody to kill.

But I'm pretty sure that the good Lord is not interested in us living by ourselves.

Consider this rule: don't covet what your neighbor has.

You can keep that rule without ever having empathy or compassion for your neighbor.

Sometimes we forget that empathy and compassion don't just mean we feel bummed when our neighbor feels bummed.

It means we are joyful with them when we're joyful.

But here, that this is a minimum.

It's not a maximum.

And to our detriment, we settle into the minimums, which, if you're honest like myself, you don't even keep these.

No, these are here not for us to codify and bow down to, but so that we can have a conversation about what it might mean to live out of these minimums into something greater.

It's an interesting exercise.

I used to teach world religions to middle schoolers, and every year we ask them, what would the ten words be that you would come up with that would guide us into larger living?

You still got time in Lent to do this, if you're interested.

I'm going to put a few up front.

Things that would make my life richer and enriching the lives of those I know and love and those I haven't even met yet.

The first one comes from Saint Ignatius.

Maybe you've heard of him.

He wrote the spiritual exercises, and ultimately the Jesuit order was founded by him.

St.

Ignatius says in the spiritual exercises, when somebody says something to you, it is a spiritual discipline and a godly way of praying to hear what they're saying in the best possible way.

Even if they say you can go to hell.

Imagine hearing that in the best possible way.

That sure would be living out of the minimums, don't you think?

It would take a lot of imagination, frankly, that I don't even have to imagine how that could mean something possible, and it would make my life a whole lot richer.

And it would make the lives of people you know and love and trust and distrust a lot richer if we did that.

Consider that if we were able to be joyful with our sisters and brothers, if we were able to have empathy and compassion for them, how that would be living out of the minimum into something greater.

Imagine if instead of being worried about idolatry, we made as a rule of life for ourselves the spiritual discipline of seeing the resurrected Christ and all of his glory with every single person we meet.

Especially those people that we're predisposed not to like.

I'm not talking about religious living, I'm talking about godly living.

And I want to suggest to you that we are going to come back to Lent over and over and over and over again because far too often we settle for the minimums, like I'm gonna give up chocolate, I'm gonna give up wine, let's live a little bit bigger and think about how we're gonna love our neighbor.

Let's live a little bit bigger and think about how we're going to love ourselves.

Let's live a little bit bigger and think about how it is we're going to treat our fellow human beings as if God actually cares about them.

I'm gonna do Lent 23 more times before I retire.

I'm probably not gonna get there before I'm done.

And that's okay.

I think the question is though, what are we aiming for?

What are we settling for?

What are 10, what are what's one rule of life you could live into for the rest of this land that would expand your life for yourself and others?

That's what this passage invites us to consider every time we hear it.

Not do I measure up to that, am I hearing that as a signpost on my way to godly living?

And what's really interesting about this story we hear that most of us know about Jesus driving the people out of the temple with a whip, is that we're hearing it in the book of John today.

Now, normally this is year B, we should be hearing it out of the book of Mark.

What difference does it make?

In Mark, Jesus does this on Palm Sunday, like in chapter 12.

In John, this is the first thing Jesus does, like in chapter 2.

The Gospel writers put this exactly in a different place.

I don't know why they did that, but I've got a theory.

First, let me tell you about what's happening in the story.

Here's a model of Jerusalem at the time of Jesus, and this is a lovely, lovely thing to see.

Um, what most people don't realize when they hear this story is the size and the scale of the place.

So the entire Jerusalem temple in the year 100 BCE was the size of this church.

The whole thing, like a basketball court.

When Herod the Great became king, he turned the temple from a basketball court into the eighth wonder of the world.

In fact, there are stones that weigh something more like 20 tons in the Jerusalem temple.

They are so big that archaeologists haven't figured out how they were even moved.

You may not know this, the temple is actually built over a valley.

There are arches underneath it that support it.

They didn't fill in the valley, they built arches underneath that pavement.

When Herod was done, it was no longer the size of the basketball court, it was two and a half football fields in size.

That's immensely huge.

What happened at the temple?

I can hold this up because the choir can't see it.

What happened at the temple?

Same thing what happened at the Acropolis in Athens.

This giant place right here, these two football fields were where people had the market.

That is, the Mall of the Americas.

Herod the Great turned the place from a strip center on El Camino into the Galeria.

Enormous.

It's important that you hear when Jesus drives out all the sheep and cattle and all the business, there is no way he did that.

One person cannot clear out the mall of the Americas.

This story is about a figurative cleansing of the temple.

It's not literal.

It cannot be done.

Money changers don't operate inside the temple.

It's a little hard to see from this picture.

There's a stairway going from down here up.

By the way, this little wall right here, that's the wailing wall in Jerusalem or the Western Wall.

It's a retaining wall.

It wasn't part of the temple at all.

Right outside here is where the money changers changed money, because as we heard in the Ten Words, you can't have any graven images.

And all the currency of the day had a portrait of the ruler, Caesar Tiberius, and it was considered idolatrous.

Couldn't enter the temple, even though it could be spent in the rest of the city.

So there were people there who changed the coins into solid silver blank coins.

They had no inscription.

They were currency.

It was metal.

Did they take a small commission?

Probably.

They were there, though, to make sure that idolatrous images didn't enter the temple.

So why is Jesus so upset?

Is this against having a craft bazaar in the church?

The part we didn't realize is that in these corridors here, around the temple, that's where everybody's tax records were kept.

As in how much you owed the Roman government.

We hold strong to that principle from Roger Williams and Ann Hutcheson separation of church and state.

This is absolutely the combination of religious and imperial power in the building where people believe God lives.

That's where your tax records live, too.

So it's easy to understand that Jesus is frankly relatively put out by that system.

But I also want to suggest that as fitting, perhaps, as his anger is that this is happening, when he's done with what he does, nothing really changes.

I don't know if you've thought about this before.

The money changers are not going to be shut down.

They're going to pick their coins back up and do what they were doing.

The people who were driven out of the temple, however many they were, like I said, imagine driving two football fields worth of vendors out.

Figurative story.

Even if they all left, they're coming back.

This is where they do business.

I want to suggest to you that maybe this story, I know this is going to sound crazy.

I want to suggest that this story comes at the beginning of John.

Because it invites us to consider there's something for us to think about and learn from what we do with anger about systemic injustice.

Being angry and flipping over tables does not end systemic injustice.

It does not.

Consider that when somebody robocalls you, you can say all kinds of cruel things to them about how they've interrupted their family time and how they're bad human beings.

I've probably done that before.

That's not going to end robocalls.

I know you know this because you keep getting them.

Jesus gets really mad.

I get mad at robocalls.

But getting mad and flipping over tables doesn't change the system.

The truth is, those people making those phone calls from Bangalore or from Knoxville, Tennessee, wherever they are, they're trying to make a living.

They didn't think up robocalling.

In some ways, I just I have to try to tell myself this so that I don't lose my mind when they call me at 6 o'clock when I sit down for dinner.

I've gotten where I just don't answer the phone anymore, which is good.

In some ways, they're being taken by the system as much as we are.

I'd like to think, this is gonna sound a little bit heretical.

I'd like to think this happens at the beginning of John's gospel because Jesus figures out it's not gonna work.

You can't flip over a table and change a system of injustice.

You all know that.

And it was really paralyzing this past year in the middle of a man losing his life when an officer knelt on his back for six hours, six minutes.

It was paralyzing to think, what do I do about that?

And you know that marching through Nassau Bay in a parade of protests is not gonna change that.

It can be paralyzing to know what we're going to do.

But I want to suggest to you that being angry at the system is the beginning, not the end.

And it's a minimum.

And we're being invited to consider how do we change systems?

What kind of systems?

The other day I went to the pharmacy.

I have insurance, I pay money for it.

I went to buy some medication.

With my insurance, it would cost me$20.

If I paid the cash price, it was gonna cost$10.

Friends, that's crazy.

I pay for my insurance.

I know what you're thinking.

How can that be?

Well, I have a high deductible health plan.

I asked the pharmacist, how can that be?

Well, once you've met your deductible, then it'll be cheaper.

The economics of that are mind-blowing.

I could have flipped over the cash register at the pharmacy.

Would that have changed the system?

Of course not.

We have a friend here who we met back in November.

He was incarcerated for 12 years.

We asked him on the phone call.

This is a guy who, frankly, was broken by prison because every time we talk about it, you can see it in his face.

We asked him, what can we do to help?

And he said immediately, there's nothing you can do to change the system.

It requires senators, it requires legislators, it requires people with power that we don't have.

We said, Well, what do you mean?

He said, How about the fact that when we leave prison we leave with$50 and we owe 25 of it back to the prison for parole, and we have to go to 18 meetings within the first 10 days of being released, but we're also supposed to have a job if we want to honor our parole.

We could get mad at the parole officers, but they're as constrained as the prisoners.

This is what I'm talking about with this temple system.

It's really, really hard.

We asked him, What can we do?

He said, you know what you could do if you really wanted to be serious?

You could offer people some backpacks that had something like a cup in them.

He told us when he left prison he didn't have anything.

He didn't even have a cup to drink out of.

He said, you could take a chance and actually try to employ somebody who's been incarcerated.

Because when you've been incarcerated, it's really hard to get a job after that.

He said you can make a difference to a few people.

And I think if we're going to take Jesus seriously, the system changes when we decide we're going to do more together.

The system changes when we decide we're going to do enough not just to stop people being washed downstream, but to change the currents.

And I think if we're honest and clever about this, no individual person is going to change the current of the stream.

It's going to take more than me and you to do this, but I am sure we can do more together.

I think we come back to Lent each year to remember that there is something bigger than ourselves, and that the minimums we settle for change or determine what it is we live into.

And this, I think, is our opportunity when we hear these stories.

Do we settle into them as minimums?

Yeah, you get mad, you flip over those tables, or do we say, I get that anger, and is there something we can do that's going to be more beneficial to the system and those who are exploited by it?

That's the difference, I think, between minimal living and godly living.

And you know, there's a reason I think that godly living is really hard.

And that's because God is that much greater than us.

But isn't that the whole point?

We come to worship God who is greater than we are, not God who is better at living into minimums than we are.

That is the goal of this church community.

That's the goal of our faith, is so that we can trade up, so that we don't settle into these minimums that don't require things like empathy or compassion, or frankly, even getting to know the neighbors who live beside you.

We're allowed to trade that up for something bigger, like community.

We're invited to trade up things like tolerance for respect.

We're invited to trade up putting up with somebody for appreciating how we might be different.

And as long as I'm here, we'll do this 23 more times together.

But our goal, I think, each lent is not just we're gonna get another chance.

Our goal is to remember that these things God would like us to live into are so good, so much better than what we settled for, that we shouldn't wait any longer to pursue them.

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

We believe in one God, the Father.

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

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

For the peace from above, for the loving kindness of God, and for the salvation of our souls, let us pray to the Lord.

For the peace of the world, for the welfare of the holy church of God, and for the unity of all peoples.

Let us pray to the Lord.

For the people and clergy of the church, for bishops and other ministers, the priests in our community, Mike, Jim, Craig, Bill, and Lillian, our bishops Andy, Hector, Jeff, Kay, in the Diocese of Texas, St.

Peter's Lago Vista, St.

Richard's Round Rock, and Trinity, Marble Falls, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin, and our presiding bishop, Michael.

Let us pray to the Lord.

For our parish and our vestry, that the source of wisdom may guide us, the source of strength may support us, and the source of love may unify us.

Let us pray to the Lord.

For St.

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

Let us pray to the Lord.

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

Let us pray to the Lord.

For this city, for every city and community, and for those who live in them, let us pray to the Lord.

For the good earth which God has given us, for the wisdom and will to conserve it.

Let us pray to the Lord.

For the aged and infirmed, for the widowed and orphans, and for the sick and suffering, especially Chris, Sean, Mark, Jerome, and Leslie.

Let us pray to the Lord.

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

Let us pray to the Lord.

For the poor and the oppressed, for the unemployed and the destitute, for prisoners and captives, and for all who remember and care for them.

Let us pray to the Lord.

For all who have died in the hope of resurrection, and for all the departed, especially Jerry and Melva, let us pray to the Lord.

For deliverance from all danger, violence, oppression, and degradation.

Let us pray to the Lord.

That we may end our lives in faith and hope without suffering and without reproach.

Let us pray to the Lord.

In the communion of St.

Thomas and all the saints, let us commend ourselves and one another and all our life to Christ our God.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

And also good morning and peace.

Thank you for worshiping with us at St.

Thomas today.

A few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Many of these you'll see in the weekly e-news, but some of them you won't.

So, first, celebrating that yesterday we handed out$17,000 worth of food to 540 people in about 90 minutes.

Thank you for sustaining this ministry that supplies fresh food.

I even posted the demographic sheet to our Facebook so you can see where those cars came from.

Most of them from Webster, League City, and Houston is a big place, right?

It includes our own neighborhood.

But you can see those, and it really is making a difference, particularly after the ice apocalypse storm that we just had to be able to offer the service.

I want to remind you that the next time we'll be doing it is Saturday, March the 27th.

We do that from 7.45 in the morning till 10.

You don't have to sign up, you can show up, and again, we're always done by 10.

And on average, we serve about 105 to 120 cars each time we do this in about an hour and a half.

It really is a fantastic service.

So thank you for sponsoring it and opening your hearts and your parking lot to this ministry.

We had an update, you know, last week we put out two urgent all calls from our partners in ministry.

One was St.

Vincent's House in Galveston.

Frankly, families in Galveston were extremely decimated by the freeze, and we got the all call from St.

St.

Vincent's House that families are in desperate need of household items and children's clothes.

And we've already given them something like 40 bags of clothes, but if you know anything about Galveston, the need is really large.

So I want to put before you that if you have used children's clothes or used housewares, we're still collecting them and still bringing them down.

Maybe you don't, but you know what?

Maybe your neighbors do.

And it's a really great way to meet your neighbors by saying, hey, do you have any children's clothes or grandchildren's clothes?

Because I'm involved with a place that's taking them to people in need in Galveston.

And we can do more together.

So I hold that up that they're ongoing need and thank you for your quick response.

The other partner in ministry is Lord of the Streets Episcopal Church down in Houston, which serves current and formerly homeless families.

And again, they've found themselves really hard off this last year with corporate sponsors, and particularly after the ice storm.

So they don't have enough non-perishable food items to give to their own clientele.

So we continue to collect things like peanut butter crackers and canned meat and granola bars and even bottles of water, and we take them twice a week there just to keep them up and going because, of course, the need is really great.

So we collect that Monday through Friday and on Sundays as well, anytime the building is open.

And again, we we take them regularly, at least twice a week, to these places in need.

Maybe you saw when you drove to the property today that our scout troops have built a new shed.

They raise money for that, and I don't want you to be surprised.

It was permitted by the city, and there it is, it's lovely.

So we have three scout troops, and they really have continued to meet throughout the entire pandemic and been really a life-saving youth and family ministry to so many families, keeping people engaged in the outdoors and community.

And that's the building they raised to store their gear in.

So it's there.

Next week, if you come here, you will see that we are starting our reflooring.

So I just want to say in advance, pardon our progress.

It probably is going to last the eight the next eight or nine weeks to remove the carpet and install tile.

This is part of our capital funds drive that you've been contributing to, and the mayhem will be underfoot starting next week.

Two other things, I know there's a lot, but there is a lot going on.

One is that this coming weekend is the St.

Thomas Episcopal School Gala.

Normally, this is an event that is underwritten, it has a really enjoyable party at places like the Lakewood Yacht Club or at South Shore Harbor.

It raises money for financial aid so that students Can attend the school who otherwise wouldn't be able to come.

And this year we're not having that event in person because of COVID, but we are having it online.

Normally the event makes something around$50,000, so you have to understand that's a significant fundraiser to allow families access to the school.

So I do ask your support.

I think the school is really a worthy cause, and you will find the online auction available Friday and Saturday this week online.

You can find links to it on our Facebook page, the school page, and if you can't find it, let me know, and I will connect you with it.

But the work we're doing with our school is the most visible outreach in the community, and it matters.

And so I invite you to consider making a donation and choosing your souvenir.

Do not go looking for deals.

Go looking for a fit souvenir after you make a donation.

That's the best way to approach an auction like this.

Lastly, I just want to make West to you, some of you know him and some of you don't.

The last few years, JB Fox has had some really difficult uh time getting out of the house and moving around.

And he just turned 98.

And I've been talking with a friend of JB's as well, and it would be really lovely if we could conspire to flood him with birthday call cards.

You can call him too if you want to, because he's been largely home bound due to some pain in his knees.

So if you know JB or if you don't, you could spread a little joy by sending him a birthday card.

Um, and I'm really happy to help you with the address if you don't have it.

Continue to walk in love.

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

And praise his holy name from only my sins.

Oh come in the Lord, and praise his holy name.

From only my trusted honour proclaim.

He makes his mercy known.

He preaches to Lord.

And of thine own have we given thee.

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 thou hast prepared for those who love thee.

And 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 of 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 in remembrance of me.

Likewise, after supper, Jesus took the cup of wine, and when he had 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 often 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 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 you 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, and we are the people of God.

I invite you to receive bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle immediately to your right, coming down in six-foot increments and returning to your seat on the far side.

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 be all honor and glory, world without 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 life 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.