Epiphany 4

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

And blessed be God, family, now and forever.

Amen.

Let's pray together.

Almighty God, to you all hearts are open, all desires known, and from you no secrets are hid.

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

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

And also with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty and everlasting God, you govern all things both in heaven and on earth.

Mercifully hear the supplications of your people, and in our time grant us your peace through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, forever and ever.

Amen.

Moses said, The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people.

You shall heed such a prophet.

This is what you requested of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, If I hear the voice of the Lord my God any more, or ever again see this great fire, I will die.

Then the Lord replied to me, They are right in what they have said.

I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their own people.

I will put my words in the mouth of the prophet who shall speak to them everything that I command.

Anyone who does not heed the words of that prophet shall speak in my name.

I myself will hold accountable.

But any prophet who speaks in the name of other gods or presumes to speak in my name, a word that I have not commanded that the prophet to speak, that prophet shall die.

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

Thanks be to God.

We will read responsibly at the half verse.

Hallelujah.

I will give thanks to the Lord with my whole heart.

In the assembly of the upright, in the congregation.

Great are the deeds of the Lord.

And they are studied by all with delight in them.

Full of majesty and splendor is the work of the Lord.

And his righteousness endures forever.

Gracious and full of compassion is the Lord.

Whose marvelous works are to be remembered.

The Lord gives food to the God fearing.

The Lord has shown the chosen people works of power.

In giving them the lands of the nations.

The hands of the Lord work faithfulness and justice.

All the commandments of the Lord are sure.

They stand fast forever and ever.

Because they are done in truth and equity.

Now concerning food sacrificed to idols, we know that all of us possess knowledge.

Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up.

Anyone who claims to know something does not yet have the necessary knowledge, but anyone who loves God is known by him.

Hence, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that no idol in the world really exists, and that there is no God but one.

Indeed, even though there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth, as in fact there are many gods and many lords, yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all from whom are all things, and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all things and through whom we exist.

It is not everyone, however, who has this knowledge.

Since some have become so accustomed to idols until now, they still think of the food they eat as food offered to an idol, and their conscience, being weak, is defiled.

Food will not bring us close to God.

We are no worse off if we do not eat, and no better off if we do.

But take care that this liberty of yours does not somehow become a stumbling block to the weak.

For if others see you who possess knowledge eating in the temple of an idol, might they not, since their conscience is weak, be encouraged to the point of eating food sacrificed to idols?

So by your knowledge, those weak believers for whom Christ died are destroyed.

But when you thus sin against members of your family and wound their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ.

Therefore, if food is a cause of their failing, of their falling, I will never eat meat, so that I may not cause one of them to fall.

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

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

Jesus and his disciples went into Capernaum, and when the Sabbath came, he entered the synagogue and taught.

They were astounded at his teaching, for he taught them as one having authority and not as the scribes.

Just then there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit, and he cried out, What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth?

Have you come to destroy us?

I know who you are, the Holy One of God.

But Jesus rebuked him, saying, Be silent and come out of him.

And the unclean spirit, convulsing him and crying with a loud voice, came out of him.

They were all amazed, and they kept on asking one another, What is this?

A new teaching with authority.

He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey him.

And once his fame began to spread throughout the surrounding region of Galilee.

The gospel of the Lord.

Please be seated.

See, the important word in our story today is unclean spirit.

If you ever heard the word demon, that is a Greek word pronounced usually daemon, also demon, and it literally means unclean spirit.

So the word demon doesn't mean a red thing with horns and a trident.

It means unclean spirit.

Unclean spirit is like a dumping ground category for something that makes us uncomfortable.

We still have unclean spirits, right?

The DSM 5, this is like mental illness, is one of those things where we say there's something not right and we don't know what it is.

It's not just that a diagnosable condition, right?

We have a sense that some of these things we hide pretty well, but we have a sense that there's something not quite working right in an addict or an alcoholic's brain.

We have a sense.

And if you know somebody who is an addict or alcoholic, you get there's something where their own best thinking is not delivering them from something that is literally destroying their lives.

This is what the Bible has in mind with a word like unclean spirit.

Sometimes we hear this passage and we think, oh, it's talking about epilepsy.

Um, this isn't just a dumping ground for medicine they didn't know how to use.

No, this is things like residues.

This is things like, honestly, people who have been incarcerated, we have a fundamental hermeneutic of suspicion about people like this.

We don't know what to do with them.

And the healing is about that.

Notice it happens in public.

And it happens in a place where people gather together, in a synagogue, in a church.

What's really important to hear is that Jesus does these healings publicly because there was so much social stigma attributed to people with whatever unclean spirit people thought they had, that to do it publicly allows them to be part of a community that had basically shunned them.

So I don't want you to think this is about quarantining and mask wearing.

This is about a social kind of quarantining for people we don't know what to do with.

Part of that is there was a fundamental suspicion that somebody with an unclean spirit, quite honestly, could be contagious, could somehow affect the ritual purity or overload the carrying capacity of the community.

So people were sort of left at distance.

A good way to think about this, and for me, this was an innocent experience.

I realize it comes from like a little bit of an insidious past, and the children today no longer play this.

But if you were a child and you played something like with the cooties, there was this idea, right, that somebody could have the cooties and tag you, and then you had the cooties.

And how do you get rid of those?

I actually still don't know.

I know how to get a cooti shot, right, that prevents that.

By the way, children no longer play this.

I I've confirmed that with my child.

Um, but it is something like that.

You didn't want to be touched because this sort of could be could be spread.

So there's a number of people, and I want to put before you again a couple of these categories that makes this somewhat equivalent, I think, of what Jesus is doing here, not just for the person who has the unclean spirit.

I think actually this is something Jesus is doing for the community.

So let's think through a couple of these things.

Again, somebody who has a felony record.

Cognitively, we get, right, that that shouldn't define the rest of their lives.

That it would be great if they're rehabilitated and they seek meaningful employment, but nobody wants to hire them.

Because it seems risky.

So this is Jesus talking to somebody with a rap sheet in the middle of church saying, Look, here's one of God's children.

And I want to suggest to you the residue doesn't leave the forer inmate, it leaves the rest of the congregation.

The goal here is that everybody in the room says, We don't have to treat this person like they're unclean anymore.

They weren't somebody who ever needed shunning, they were somebody who needed a community to gather around them.

The difference Jesus makes is offering somebody who is a social outcast a real community.

And what he's saying is the cooties are gone, you don't have to be afraid to touch this person.

Let's not be naive and think that we have transcended a need for driving out this kind of unclean spirit that divides communities up.

We still have it.

And I wanted to put before you actually that it's a little bit easy to pick on alcoholics, whereas there's another kind of a holism that is socially acceptable, which is workaholism.

But it is an identical way of being that is not at peace with the world as alcohol abuse, as an eating disorder, as drug abuse.

None of those people need our shunning.

They need a community that will support them.

This is true.

The worst thing a family can do with an alcoholic is enable them.

The other worst thing they can do is say don't talk to me till you're clean.

There's some middle ground.

And it looks like not enabling, but supporting.

This is the Sunday I think when Jesus invites us to really consider what does it mean to be all from God?

And what does it mean?

How is it that we're asked to work on evil spirits?

I will tell you, I grew up in a community in which people sometimes would get up and say, I was an alcoholic, I prayed the sinner's prayer, I met Jesus, and I'm not an alcoholic anymore.

And you know what we call that in AA?

It's called denial.

Because it doesn't work like that.

These residues don't leave us like that.

They're part of who we are.

And frankly, we need support and community in order to resist them.

And it's a lifelong process, if you know anything about NAOA or AA.

But I want to tell you, it's not just about those things that are easy to put in front of us.

I think this is about a few other things.

So a long time I've been seeing these bumper stickers, I mean, even from when I was in high school, and I laughed at them then because I just had no capacity for this.

Maybe you've seen them too.

They say coexist.

And each letter is like a religious emblem, right?

So there's like a Jewish star, the star of David, or there's a cross, right?

And then there's the Islamic crescent and the star, right?

Coexist.

It seems sort of nice.

But coexist doesn't mean I have any respect or love for you.

It just means we agree to live in the same world together.

News flash, we're going to live in the same world whether we want to or not.

This gospel, I think, is inviting us to move beyond the minimum of coexistence and approach something like community and affirmation and respect.

I would love to see a bumper sticker that said respect made out of the different emblems, because it's more what I think Jesus has in mind for us here.

The alternative is I can tolerate you.

Toleration means I put up with you, but I don't have to talk to you or go near you.

And ultimately what happens is when we don't have contact with people, we enter the world of stereotyping.

I want to offer you another one, and I know this isn't going to be for everybody.

I've got two kids, one of them's 20 and one of them's eight.

And I want to tell you that, like all parents, well, I I assume all parents do this, I have dreams for my children's future.

Like I start to think about what I want them to do and what lives I want them to have, and they're all really good things.

And if you're a parent, sometimes you can see other kids and you can hold a lot of space, like, oh, I see, they're just like they're being themselves, and it's really hard to do that for your own kids because you raised them, right?

So they should be like you want them to do.

They should go to whatever it is, grad school or college, and this is the kind of daydream you have for your kids.

And I realized early on that while I was okay, this is a good confession, while I was okay with the idea that if my child made certain what I thought life decisions, I could support them, I wasn't actively creating room where I would celebrate them.

For example, if my son, and this is a difference between my two kids, and I'm so sorry for my son, if my son had said, hey dad, guess what?

I'm gay, I could have supported that, but I did not daydream a reality in which I would celebrate it.

That may sound not important.

I think it's extremely important because it's the difference between tolerating and respecting.

So what's the other challenge, right?

You fill in the blank.

Yeah, you know, it would be really hard if my kid was in an interracial relationship.

That is not what this gospel is about.

This gospel is about driving out that unclean spirit that says, I'll tolerate it, I could support it.

No.

The question is, can we celebrate it and gather around it?

And that I want to suggest to you is why Paul talks about this difference, honestly, between knowledge puffing us up and love building us up.

It seems to me that wisdom, which we hear in the Psalm, is really just knowledge encircled by love.

We all understand that knowledge doesn't necessarily build empathy.

You have to have a commitment to other people and to God in order for that to work, right?

One of the reasons I love being an Episcopalian is because we love learning.

And Paul is inviting us, I think, is a reason for us to learn is not so we can keep more people at arm's length, it's so that we can realize that there's a lot more gathering around and supporting we can do than we previously thought possible.

It was absolutely news to me earlier this year to find out that at the DNA level, people in Africa and people in Poland have more in common than people in Poland and people in Italy.

I didn't learn that in school.

That's a helpful teaching for me because I learned, frankly, how to be a compassionate racist.

I felt sorry for those poor people of other races.

That's the kind of unclean spirit that Jesus would like to drive out.

The spirit that divides communities and says, I see you've got this problem, I'll put up with you.

Jesus would like to drive that spirit out so that we can say, I see that you are also from God.

Did you hear that word also?

It means I am from God and you are from God.

And the more I know about that commonality and the resources and gifts and talents we share, the more I can bear you up and hold you up.

And that is why I love this verse.

I'm so glad it came because we've been talking about this on Sunday morning in Christian Ed a little bit.

We hear it in the Psalms.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of all wisdom.

And as I suggested already, wisdom is knowledge plus love and compassion all wrapped around it.

It's knowledge with a purpose of building up God's family on earth.

And this word fear is such an interesting word because, in general, the way I've gravitated to it most in my life is this idea that God is so big and transcendent that you have to be deferential, maybe you have to be self-deprecatory, you know, you're supposed to be humble, and really you're supposed to be afraid at a bottom level.

We've talked about this a lot the last couple of weeks on Sunday, and I love where the grief has stretched.

My own thinking is a good way to hear that word fear is to think about it in words like awe, and even better, I love this word because it's not laden with the baggage of all.

Wonder.

I don't mean like I wonder who would win between a Bengal tiger and a polar bear in a fight.

That's the kind of wondering I did in middle school.

I mean the kind of wonder that is fundamentally wrapped up in awe, and it looks something like those moments maybe you've had.

I usually have them outdoors more than any other time, where the universe feels really big, and I feel really small, and I also feel like an integral part of that really big universe.

Something like connection with this net of energy that underlies everything.

The all of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

I'm convinced that's right.

And I'm convinced what Jesus would like us to continue to do as a church, as a parish, as members that comprise that, is to open ourselves to that awe and wonder in one another.

And those moments in which we don't find awe and wonder, in those moments.

We find ourselves afraid and pushing back and saying, I guess I can put up with you, or we'll just agree to disagree, which is a polite way of saying you're wrong and we both know it.

In those moments, can we drive out the unclean spirits of division, of excommunication, of special seating sections for folks that aren't like us.

I don't know if this is an epiphany for Jesus, but it ought to be an epiphany for the rest of the disciples.

And I've got room to go.

And I want to put before you one of the spiritual disciplines more concisely than I've said it, is to make room in my daydreams to affirm God's gifts and grace and wonder in people that I could only just sort of tolerate.

I don't know if you've ever prayed that way, but reimagining where God is is extremely strong and spiritual and connecting, and you don't even have to use words.

I want to put before us that the reason I think we're called together over and over to hear these stories is because we always have this work to think, not just what I do, but where does my energy go?

And will my energy go to affirm you, especially when it's hard?

Will my knowledge go to wrap around you in love to hold you up, especially when I don't even want to?

These are the kinds of epiphanies that I think we're being asked to continue to reconsider and live into.

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 heaven and earth, of all that he is seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only Son of God, eternally begotten of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one being with the Father.

Through him all things were made.

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

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

For our sake he was crucified under 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 worshipped and glorified.

He has spoken through the prophets.

We believe in one holy Catholic and apostolic church.

We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

We live for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come.

Amen.

Grant, Almighty God, that all who confess your name may be united in your truth, live together in your love, and reveal your glory and the world.

Lord, in your compassion.

We pray 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 seeds of your kingdom everywhere.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources rightly in the service of others, and in your honor and glory, Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Bless all those lives are closely linked with ours, and grant that we may serve Christ in them and love one another as He loves us.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Lead our parish.

Source of wisdom guide us.

The source of strength, support us, the source of love, unify us.

We pray.

Lord, in your compassion, we hear our prayer.

Guide 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, and that we may be bearers of your grace, all who come through our doors.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, and spirit.

Give them courage and hope in their troubles, and give them the joy of your salvation, especially Chris, John, Susie, Joe, and Mark.

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

Lord, in your compassion, we commend to your mercy all who have died, especially Don, Joe, and Ruby, that your will for them may be fulfilled.

And we pray that we may share with all your saints your eternal kingdom.

Lord, in your compassion, hear our prayer.

Compassionate God, make your healing and peaceful presence known to the world.

Comfort those who mourn, strengthen those who are weary, encourage those in despair, and lead us all to fullness of life.

Lord, hear our prayer.

Amen.

Let us confess our sin unto Almighty God.

We acknowledge that we have not always used our gifts, talents, and God given personalities in the service of creation, our neighbors, and ourselves.

We seek change of heart toward a reflection of steadfast love.

May we forgive and be forgiven, resuming our journey through life with renewed intention.

Amen.

God forgives you, forgive all others, forgive yourself.

Amen.

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

Good morning and thank you for worshiping with us at St.

Thomas today.

Welcome to our newcomers and visitors.

I'd like to ask you, please, if you haven't done this before, that there are some cards right out there in the room behind here called the Narthex on those round tables.

Um, and they just allow us to have a record of your visit.

And thank you for worshiping with us today.

But if you fill them out, there's a little basket there.

Promise we won't plague you.

Just grateful to know uh who's visiting and worshiping with us today.

And thank you for joining us.

Uh, just a few announcements I want to call to your attention.

Um, one reminder is that we have uh just uh completed this project of our 55-year history.

You'll find these by the front door.

Huge thanks to Mary Ruth Greenwell and Ellen Cook for helping us compile these stories, and Christopher Alexander donated his time in doing the graphic layout.

It's a fantastic way to hear about the difference the parish has made over the last 55 years in the community.

Again, you'll you'll find them up there by the front door.

Um really happy to say that yesterday was a record-breaking fresh food distribution for us here.

Uh, we saw 120 cars in about just under 90 minutes, representing 539 persons.

Uh, so it was really a blessing to distribute$13,000 worth of food and hygiene items in 90 minutes.

And a reminder, we do this each month.

And the one for February is actually this coming Saturday, February the 6th.

Um, you don't have to sign up.

Uh, we we sort of use all hands that come at from 7:45 in the morning until uh like 10.

Yesterday it might have been 10.15 before we were totally wrapped up.

Again, that's coming up this Saturday, February the 6th, just down here in the parking lot.

Um I want to raise your attention that we're starting a new Sunday morning adult forum next week.

Uh throughout Lent, we'll be uh studying the book of Genesis together.

These are Zoom meetings, so they're completely electronic, although you can do them in the building if you'd like to.

Um we have Wi-Fi here from uh 9 to 10 on Sunday mornings.

Um there'll be some daily blogs coming out in Lent if you are an email email list related to the book of Genesis that we'll be reading through.

And so we'll start our study of Genesis next week with a little bit of pre-study because Lent, we have two more Sundays in Epiphany and then it's Lent.

Which is a reminder.

We have two more Sundays in Epiphany.

Uh it turns out that uh February the 17th is Ash Wednesday, and just so you know, we're intending to offer the normal Ash Wednesday services.

So at 6 30 a.m., we'll have the opportunity to receive Eucharist and imposition of ashes here in the sanctuary.

There'll be a sign-up for that as well.

And we do our drive-through out here in the moon-shaped driveway from 11:30 to 1.30.

Opportunity to receive ashes in your car and also healing prayer and reserve sacrament if you'd like.

And then at 6 p.m., we have another service in here on Ash Wednesday.

I know it's early to hear that, but um, something to look forward to and pass around because a number of people are wondering how is it that they can partake in something really meaningful this year and also stay safe.

And so the driveway, the drive-through, we think is a really great option.

We've done it the last few years as well.

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

Brand and brand may I know you more clearly and for me.

This is the table not of the church, but of God.

It is ready for those who seek relationship with God.

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

You who have tried to follow, and you who have lost your way, come and make this journey.

Not because I invite you, God invites.

It is God's desire that we gather here.

The Lord be with you.

Lift up your hearts.

Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

It is right to be God a chance of Christ.

It is right in a good and joyful thing, always and everywhere, to give thanks to you, Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Because in Jesus Christ our Lord, you've received us as your daughters and sons, made us citizens of your kingdom, and given us the Holy Spirit to guide us into all truth.

Therefore, we praise you, joining our voices with angels and archangels and with all the company of heaven, who forever say this hymn to proclaim the glory of your name.

Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory.

Hosanna in the highest.

Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna and the highest.

Holy and gracious Father, in your infinite love, you made us from yourself.

And when we'd fallen into sin and become subjects to evil and death, you in your mercy sent Jesus Christ, your only and eternal Son, to share our human nature, to live and die as one of us, to reconcile us to you, the God and Father of all.

He stretched out his arms upon the cross and offered himself in obedience to your will, a perfect sacrifice for the whole world.

On the night he was handed over to suffering and death, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.

And when he'd given thanks to you, he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, Take, eat.

This is my body which is given for you.

Do this for the remembrance of me.

After supper, Jesus took the cup of wine.

And when he'd 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 forgiveness of sins.

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

Therefore, we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.

We celebrate the memorial of our redemption, O Father, in this sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving.

Recalling his death, resurrection, and ascension, we offer to you these gifts.

Sanctify them by your Holy Spirit to be for your people the body and blood of your Son, the holy food and drink of new and an ending life in Him.

Sanctify us also, that we may faithfully receive this holy sacrament and serve you in unity, constancy, and peace.

And at the last day bring us with all your saints into the joy of your eternal kingdom.

All this we ask through your Son Jesus Christ, by him and with him and in him, in the unity of the Holy Spirit, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty Father, now and forever.

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.

Be known to us in the breaking of bread.

We who are many are one body, for we all share in the one bread.

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 closest to your right, coming down forward, and then returning to your seat on the far side.

In thy commandments, give it unto me, Lord I beseech thee, for I walk in thy commandments, in thy commandment, with judgment, judgment.

All let my someone.

Before all creation, we acknowledge the mystery of this simple meal.

Let it remind us of our common humanity and our commitment to love one another and all of creation.

Through it may we be strengthened to service.

In it may we find peace.

Amen.

May God guide you into the Sabbath work, rest, and celebration of driving out the unclean spirits of division, derision, and competition.

For love and belonging.

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

Amen.

Thanks be to God.