Advent 1

The Gospel of John speaks of Christ as the true light coming into the world.

In commemoration of that coming, we light candles for the four weeks leading to Christmas and reflect on the coming of Christ.

It is significant that the church has always used that language, the coming of Christ, because it speaks to a deep truth.

Christ is coming.

Christ is always coming, entering a troubled world, a wounded heart.

And so we light the first candle, the candle of hope, and dare to express our longing for peace, for healing and the well-being of all creation.

Shall come to the holy real.

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

Amen.

The Lord be with you.

Let us pray.

Almighty God, give us grace to cast away the works of darkness and put on the armor of light, now and in the time of this mortal life in which your Son Jesus Christ came to visit us in great humility.

That in the last day, when he shall come again in his glorious majesty to judge both the living and the dead, we may rise to the life immortal, through him who lives and reigns with you in the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.

Amen.

Oh, that you would tear open the heavens and come down, so that the mountains would quake at your presence, as when fire kindles brushwood and the fire causes water to boil, to make your name known to your adversaries, so that the nations might tremble at your presence.

When did when you did awesome deeds that we did not expect, you came down, the mountains quaked at your presence.

From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you, who works for those who wait for him.

You meet those who gladly do right, those who remember you in your ways, but you were angry, and we sinned, because you hid yourself we transgressed.

We all became like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a filthy cloth.

We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities like the wind take us away.

There is no one who calls on your name or attempts to take hold of you, for you have hidden your face from us, and have delivered us into the hand of our iniquity.

Yet, O Lord, you are our Father.

We are the clay, and you are our potter.

We are all the work of your hand.

Do not be exceedingly angry, O Lord, and do not remember iniquity forever.

Now consider we are all your people.

The word of the Lord.

Here, O Shepherd of Israel, leading Joseph like a flock.

In the presence of Ephraim, Benjamin, and Manasseh.

Restore us, O God of hosts.

O Lord God of hosts.

You have fed them with the bread of tears.

You have them with holes and tears to drink.

You have made us the derision of our neighbors.

And our enemies allowed us to store.

Restore us, O God of hosts.

Show the light of your countenance, and we shall be saved.

Let your hand be upon the one at your right hand.

And so we will we never turn away from you.

Give us a light that we may call upon your name.

Restore us, O Lord of hosts.

A reading from 1 Corinthians.

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I give thanks to my God always for you, because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus.

For in every way you have been enriched in him, in speech and knowledge of every kind, just as the testimony of Christ has been strengthened among you, so that you are not lacking in any spiritual gift as you wait for the revealing of our Lord Jesus Christ.

He will also strengthen you to the end, so that you may be blameless on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ.

God is faithful.

By him you were called into fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord.

The word of the Lord.

Glory be to you, O Lord.

Jesus said, In those days after that suffering, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will be falling from heaven, and the powers in the heavens will be shaken.

Then they will see the Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.

Then he will send out the angels and gather his elect from the four winds, from the ends of the earth to the ends of heaven.

From the fig tree learn its lesson, as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near.

So also, when you see these things taking place, you know he is near, at the very gates.

Truly I tell you, this generation will not pass away until all these things have taken place.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.

But about the day or hour no one knows, neither the angels in heaven nor the Son, but only the Father.

Beware, keep alert, for you do not know when the time will come.

It is like a man going on a journey.

When he leaves home and puts his slaves in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to be on watch.

Therefore keep awake, for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening or at midnight, or at cockrow at the dawn, or else he may find you asleep when he comes suddenly.

And what I say to you, I say to all.

Keep awake.

The gospel of the Lord.

Please be seated.

Well, many of you have been yearning for 2020 to go away, so the good news is in the church that has happened.

Happy New Year.

We are now in Advent, and hopefully miraculous things will happen in your lives and in our community.

We set aside these four weeks because we know that Christ is coming on Christmas Day.

And so, in order to prepare ourselves, Advent means coming, for that coming anew, and you heard in the liturgy, it's always coming, not remembering that he has come.

We are asked to make room in our lives by cultivating hope and peace, joy and love, so that when Christ does arrive, he'll find a ready welcome.

And good news, we're gonna do this again next year, so you have essentially the rest of your life each year to make more room at your table.

And if you fail to make room, the good news is Christ is still going to show up.

Sometimes in spite of us, but I want to hope it's because of us.

This is a weird reading.

I'm going to tell you.

We're supposed to hear about hope.

And today we get to hear this passage from Mark.

And in order to justify the cost of my seminary education, I get to use fancy words.

This is about the parisia, the coming of Jesus again.

It is eschatological.

It's about the end of the world as we know it.

Here at the beginning of Advent, we're hearing about the end of the world as we know it.

Jesus coming back.

Now, I did grow up as a young boy, and this was actually a lot of the substance of my faith, the paroissea.

We use non-seminary words to talk about it.

Words like rapture and millennial and mark of the beast.

Some of those are biblical, frankly, some of them aren't.

We read books, the best-selling fiction series of all time.

It is not Harry Potter.

It is left behind.

We were sure, like every generation, that Jesus was physically returning in our lifetime, and we were going to be ready.

And so in 1988, because we read the book 88 Reasons Jesus is coming back in 1988, there were some of us who gathered at prayer meetings to celebrate the return of Jesus that evening.

Those meetings became increasingly awkward when he did not show up.

Perhaps he was on a different time zone.

When we didn't come back the next day either, or the next week, it became increasingly awkward, so there was a sequel to that book called 89 Reasons Jesus is coming back in 1989.

The 89th reason.

He didn't come back in 1988.

This is a real book.

People really gathered.

One day people will eventually be right, but to be honest with you, a lot of that came not because we were super excited that Jesus was going to come back as is described in the scriptures.

We got excited because we thought the day of the Lord and the return of Jesus was when God was going to vindicate us.

And for what reason?

Because we had the right opinions about God.

And it became clear to me as I did enter seminary and study about what the prophets warn, the prophets warn us to not look forward to the day of the Lord, because the people who are most excited about it are going to be really disappointed.

The people who are sure that God is all about tit for tat, God is going to even everything, the ones who think that God is going to show up on their behalf have probably not looked at themselves very closely.

Forgive me for saying this, but I had a professor in college who spoke in iambic pentameter.

He had written his dissertation at Aberdeen in Scotland.

He rhymed, he was from Texas.

Here's the clearest take.

He said, the day of the Lord is when God opens up a can of whoop butt on everybody.

And people who think it's just going to be on their enemies have not done a sober examination of their own lives.

The scriptures caution us, the prophets caution us.

Why do you want this thing to happen that is only going to hurt you?

Not that God is coming back to punish us.

I want to suggest we long for God to punish people we don't like.

And of course, if we're thoughtful about ourselves, Jesus isn't in that.

Is not in that.

And it leads to this really scary spirituality in which we constantly might be wondering, boy, the scripture says he's coming at any time.

We'd better be awake.

And what does that mean?

Thinking the right things?

Doing the right works?

Do I always have to be nice?

How do I know I'm awake enough?

Well, I'll just drink more spiritual caffeine.

But that runs out after a while, you know?

Those sorts of drugs lose their effect, and then what?

So I'm going to be honest with you.

I hear this passage this week, and I think I'm not really clear, I want that to happen.

I've made another uh move in my spiritual life.

I have this cognitive belief, actually, that there is nothing that we can do to make us to make God love us anymore, and nothing we can do to make God love us any less.

So, what is this return, this parousia, Jesus coming back on earth?

What's it gonna look like if that's really the case?

And what does that have to do with hope?

And so I want to offer to you two short stories that I hope uh at least bring you to where my heart is this week.

And the first is about staying awake, and it's about how it is that we respond, not out of fear, quite honestly, but we make room in love.

When I was a freshman in college, I realized really quickly a formula that served me really well for at least six years of academic study.

It went like this.

The professor gave a syllabus the first week of class.

Usually that required me to write a major research paper, 15 pages.

So what I did that week was I picked a theme without having gone to any of the classes.

I went to the library because our library was really small, but interlibrary alone is really big, and I requested every single book or article on that topic.

And then I read them all.

And at the end of doing all that reading and note-taking, what I did is I took all the notes other people thought about a passage and I stitched them together, and I turned in a 15-page paper with a five-page bibliography, and of course, I always earned an A because who's going to give less than an A to somebody who's read a hundred sources?

And after all that reading, I hated writing the paper because I wasn't in it anywhere.

I stitched together a lot of other people's ideas and turned that in, and that was that.

Now I've said this in a couple audiences, and one day I woke up.

I woke up to a professor who honestly wasn't particularly charismatic.

He was extremely mature and thoughtful, but he wasn't like, you know, full of zest for living or anything like that and some ostentatious display.

I wrote that paper.

It was 15 pages.

It made me really sad.

I realized at the end of it that I respected the teacher too much to turn it in.

So I did something rather unlike me.

I took a risk and I threw it away with six days left for the major paper.

And I wrote a paper that had two sources in it, neither of which got a footnote.

They just were in the background.

I had never done that before.

It was like creative writing.

The paper I wrote was probably heretical.

I was really excited about the idea.

I turned it in.

I didn't know what was going to happen to my grades, and it was really important that I get an A because I wanted to go to a PhD program in Hebrew Bible.

So I bit my nails.

I don't know if I'd be telling you the story if I earned a C, but when I got the paper back with an A double plus, it sort of helped what I'm trying to say here.

The professor wrote two large paragraphs like fill the whole page with specific criticism that was affirmative, including the line that said something like, you need to change your career plans.

And I didn't do it because I was afraid of the professor.

At some point, my relationship with the professor overcame the fear I had.

And what I found actually was not that I could have fun with an idea.

I started to find for the first time in my academic career my own voice.

And I was lucky someone validated it.

But I found my own voice.

I found a way of thinking and reimagining God in that little semester and in that discarded paper that turned into something new for me that has made me, frankly, who I am today.

So if you don't like me, you can blame Charles Hackett.

But he uh he did this amazing thing.

And he transitioned my hope from being in a grade to honestly being a response to a relationship that I appreciated.

And I can't even tell you exactly why Charles Hackett touched my heart when Luke Timothy Johnson didn't.

But I can tell you that he did.

Once upon a time, I got really hurt by a church, and I went to a little country-style Episcopal parish in Alcahoo, and that's not the nice part of San Diego.

And I sat in the back of the church for about two years, and during the passing of the peace, I left, so I didn't have to shake anybody's hand.

And two years into that, um, the uh the priest asked me if I'd be the senior warden to the vestry, even though I was 35 years younger than anybody else on the vestry.

The priest saw something in me I didn't see in myself.

And boy, I was sure I had no business doing that job.

Things progressed.

I became a candidate for ordination.

And that little church showed up in my ordination in a superior percentage number than the church I was serving.

And they offered me this thing that I'm wearing now.

It's highly unusual that at a priest ordination they're given a chazable.

Stoves are really normal because you can take those with you.

But you know, churches have their own funnels and they're supposed to match.

And they gave me this chasable.

And every advent I get to put it on.

And when I wear it, I'm wearing them.

I'm not afraid I'm going to let them down.

The thing is, they love me so much that I don't think I could let them down.

And it's a thrill to wear them.

And I want to suggest maybe that's what hope is all about.

And that's what eschatology is all about.

The end of the world as we know it.

A lot of times in English we settle for hope being something we wish for.

Like, man, I hope he'll just stop talking so we can listen to the music.

I hope the coronavirus is going to end really soon.

Of course, that's just wishing.

You know, that's what I wish for.

Brene Brown does a little bit better.

She says hope is really about smart goal setting.

It's about a vision of where we want to be and us taking steps of where it is we need to go.

And I appreciate that a lot more, you know, because there's something I can do about that.

It's not just about wish fulfillment, it's about creativity and discipline and getting there.

If I'm really honest with you, I have relationships in which I don't even know what to hope for.

I could have a vision, but it isn't going to happen.

And I know that.

I know there is nothing I can do to make certain people in my life end up where I want them to go.

I know that.

In fact, I have suffered the jagged little pill of false hope more often than I'd like to admit.

I don't think we should prepare room for just another smart goal.

I think instead, actually, we're being invited into a spirituality that doesn't necessarily have a discrete picture of where you're going to end up, but looks a little bit more like wearing somebody's love with full acceptance and respecting somebody too much to turn in anything less than yourself.

This is why I appreciate hearing from Isaiah today.

Isaiah talks about his feelings, which are really real.

He really feels like God is rejecting him, and then Isaiah also knows that even though feelings can be really strong, it doesn't mean that they're the truth.

The truth, Isaiah reminds us, is that God is our parent.

Especially when it doesn't feel that way.

The truth, Isaiah reminds us, is that we are all God's children.

Even when we wish it weren't so.

And that truth, I think, confronts us here at the beginning of Advent.

Where is our hope?

Now I have to say that I grew up the same spirituality that taught me to look for the rapture in which God gets even with wicked people by sending them to hell forever.

That's a really tough one for me because it just doesn't seem particularly loving.

And that spirituality talked about all about my love relationship with Jesus.

And honestly, I could have used like my girlfriend's name instead of Jesus' name and a lot of the hymns, and they still would have made sense, which is really strange, don't you think?

There's nothing really extraordinary about confusing human dating love with the love that God has for us.

In fact, I think that might be even more confusing.

The spirituality, though, I feel like God is drawing in me is really about developing this connection and respect for God such that I can't offer anything less than myself, and I mean my best self.

I don't always find it in the text of hymns.

Often it shows up by surprise and it reminds me to keep awake.

Keep awake, that is to say, don't fall asleep using the same research methods that got you A's, in which you never found yourself.

Wake up.

Keep awake.

Don't go to sleep in subways and when you watch TV to God's presence and people you don't like.

Wake up.

I went to Carlsbed Caverns this summer.

Well, it wasn't this summer, it was in October.

And I've been to caves before, and I like caves, they're pretty neat.

But I was overcome with this really transcendent experience.

It's a really big cave.

I don't know if you've been there.

It occurred to me that caves are like mountains in negative.

You know, they're mountains under the earth in negative space.

The great thing about Carlsbad caverns is they still haven't explored the whole thing.

Like there's parts of it that are unmapped.

And I think part of the wonder for me that I still can't even wrap words around is that I had this sense that I have a Carlsbad cavern inside myself.

There are parts of me that I have never explored.

Some people don't like caves.

They're dark and they're dirty.

And they're really amazing.

You know?

They're really amazing.

To think about how many repetitions of dripping it takes to make a stalag tight so it can make a stalag mite and turn into a column that holds up the roof of the cave.

And it occurred to me oddly enough that many of the people I really don't like have got Carlsbad Caverns inside of them, full of awe and wonder.

And I would never like to go down there because I would rather just put a sign that says, do not enter, keep away.

And going to Carlsbad Caverns made me feel at one, even just for a moment, with the earth, with the unexplored parts of myself, with the universe conspiring for our good.

And I hope I'm right.

Visiting Carl's Bad Caverns and I couldn't have planned it.

It made me unwilling to turn in research.

It made me want to do my best and be myself a little bit more.

You got a week to think about this.

How can you clear out some room for the Lord in your life?

And I want to encourage you that there are things we could take off our table, like being afraid of God.

Go ahead and clear that.

Go ahead and clear that off.

Because Isaiah reminds us, no matter how scared you are, we're God's people.

Clear that off.

Make a little more room for the Lord.

And then if you find yourself in a place of indifference or if you're not sure what to hope for and you don't have smart goals, go ahead and clear that off too.

Because it's just taking up space that the Lord would like to fill in his risen self.

And maybe even start to set a place setting in which you will not only nourish the child Jesus when he arrives, but you will be nourished by him in which you explore and find room for.

Wearing Jesus Christ's love and unconditional affirmation as a garment.

Throwing away what you settled for so that you could bring your best self because you respect God too much to turn anything else in.

If you're like me, I I'm gonna need more than this week to do that.

I'll get to do it again next year.

But don't you see it's not saying that if you fall asleep, you go to hell.

It's just saying that if you wake up, you get to see the light.

And the light is great.

And it might also be saying that if you stay awake, you get to be that light.

I'm hoping that we'll do this because I do believe we can do more together.

But I'm not trying to keep score in the kingdom of God, this advent.

No, I'm trying to make room in my life, and I hope you'll join me, for us to be our best selves.

Because at the end of the day, it isn't about keeping my score versus yours.

No, it's about me learning to love you so I show up with my best self and make the light of God a little brighter.

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

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

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ.

God, life and life, each other after each other.

For us and for our salvation.

Let us pray for the church and for the world.

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

Lord, in your compassion, we pray for all who mourn and hold authority in every nation, for the members of the armed forces throughout the world, and for all who struggle for peace and injustice, that we may act with prudence and vision to plant the seeds of your kingdom everywhere.

Lord, in your compassion, give us all a reverence for the earth as your own creation, that we may use its resources lightly in the service of others, and to your honor and glory.

Lord, in your compassion, bless all whose 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, lead our parish, source of wisdom guide us, source of strength support us, source of love unify us, we pray.

Lord, in your compassion, 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 bears of your grace to all who come through our doors.

Lord, in your compassion, comfort and heal all those who suffer in body, mind, and spirit, give them courage and hope in their troubles, and bring them the joy of your salvation, especially Chris, Jerry, John, Jerome, Susie, Joe, Larry, and Nancy.

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

Lord, in your compassion, we commend to your mercy all those who have died, that your will for them may be fulfilled, and we pray that we may share with all your saints in your eternal kingdom.

Lord, in your compassion.

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

Amen.

Let us humbly confess our sins unto Almighty God.

Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love.

According to your abundant mercy, blot out my transgressions.

Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity and cleanse me from my sin.

For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me.

Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean.

Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Let me hear joy and gladness.

Let the bones that you have broken rejoice.

Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities.

Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew your right spirit within me.

Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit.

The Almighty and Merciful Lord grant you absolution and remission of all your sins, true repentance, amendment of life, and the grace and consolation of the Holy Spirit.

Amen.

The peace of the Lord be always with you.

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

Thomas today.

Sometimes there's things that aren't apparent to us about people who bring their hope to the table.

And I just want to make sure you see.

This is lessons and carols today.

And it's what we can do.

And you may not realize this, but Garmin and our choir have worked hours to produce that recording you just heard.

Hours of individually recording and then editing out, turning pages and fountains and passing cars and overlaying them to present that to us.

And that's what hope is about.

That's what hope is about.

Thank you for bringing your best to us.

And it's just a reminder that sometimes, sometimes there are caverns we don't see.

And when we find them, boy, doesn't it make that all the much more beautiful.

Thank you, choir.

A few other announcements to draw to your attention.

Remember, this is good news in the church because it's 2021 already.

So I hope you will join us in Being Good News this coming Saturday morning from 7.45 till about 10 when we do our fresh food distribution here in the parking lot.

Those are the hours.

You don't have to sign up in order to come.

You can just show up.

Please do not show up with the coronavirus.

But please do come if you're able and this interests you.

It is a great way, again, to bring ourselves on behalf of the world.

Another reminder about 2021 happening early in the church that's great is that December the 20th is our paternal feast.

It is the Feast of St.

Thomas.

And on that Sunday, which is normally the fourth Sunday in Advent, so that's again December 20th, we're going to celebrate having paid off our debt, which uh two years ago was$540,000.

And we're going to celebrate 56 years of full ministry because it will be the 55th full year of our serving the community as a parish that day, the 20th.

And that means that there probably will be one service.

So look forward to this, a live band, and if the weather looks bad, we'll come up with a contingency plan and a socially distanced sanitized lunch so that we can have some separation outdoors, see one another, and celebrate what God is doing.

So I just put that before you to pay attention because we need to stay safe and we need to celebrate what the Lord is doing in our lives and what we're doing with one another.

A few people have asked me directly, hey, we gave us Thanksgiving bags.

Is there anything we can do for children at McWorder for Christmas?

And you'll notice in our e-news that the school is doing a drive for them, and this is the last week they're doing that.

So if you look at your e-news, you'll see there's an opportunity to gift children at McWorder with Christmas gifts.

And I want to also call to your attention that the Advent Alternative Gift is an opportunity where you can make a gift to somebody in your life through the church so that neither you nor they end up on that charity's mailing list.

I used to think that was a weird thing, and I continue to receive mailings from charities I supported like 15 years ago, even though I've moved three times, and I don't know how they found me because I don't know if the CIA can do that, but these charities can.

And so I think this is why we offer that service to you on behalf of Making the World a little more hopeful.

As we enter into this time, and boy, the weather is really going to catch up with us tonight, I guess, right?

We're going to get advent weather all of a sudden.

I just pray that you will make time in your life, whether it's a prayer at dinner or lighting a candle, to make a little bit more room for hope this week.

And I encourage you as always to continue to walk in love.

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

Without a name, as of old by the lake's side.

He came, he came to those men who know him not.

He spoke to us, he speaks the same word.

In the toys the conflict the sufferings with the thrown in his fellowship and as an effort mystery they shall shall shower in their own experience.

All things come of you, O Lord.

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

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

You who have much hope 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 to the Lord our God.

It is right to give God thanks and praise.

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

And 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 in the highest.

We give thanks to you, O God, for the goodness and love which you've made known to us in creation, and the calling of Israel to be your people, and your word spoken to the prophets, and above all in the word made flesh, Jesus your Son.

For in these last days you sent him to be incarnate from the Virgin Mary, to be the Savior and Redeemer of the world.

In him you have delivered us from evil and made us worthy to stand before you.

In him you have brought us out of error into truth, out of sin into righteousness, out of death into life.

On the night before he died for us, our Lord Jesus Christ took bread.

And when he given thanks to you, he broke it, and 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 had 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, according to his command, O Father, we remember his death, we proclaim his resurrection, we await his coming in glory, and we offer our sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving to you, O Lord of all, presenting to you from your creation this bread and this wine.

We pray, you gracious God, to send your Holy Spirit upon these gifts, that they may be the sacrament of the body of Christ and his blood of the new covenant.

Unite us to your Son in his sacrifice, that we may be acceptable through him, being sanctified by the Holy Spirit.

In the fullness of time, put all things in subjection unto your Christ, and bring us to that heavenly country where with Thomas and all your saints we may enter the everlasting heritage of your sons and daughters, through Jesus Christ our Lord, the firstborn of all creation, the head of the church, and the author of our salvation.

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.

Hallelujah, Christ, our Passover is sacrificed for us.

Therefore, these are the gifts of God for you, the family of God.

Feed them in your hearts by faith and receive new hope.

And I invite you to come for bread or a blessing by coming to the aisle immediately to your right, and then returning back around the front of the pew to your seat.

Loving God, we give you thanks for restoring us in your image and nourishing us with spiritual food and the sacrament of Christ's body and blood.

Now send us forth a people, forgiven, healed, renewed, that we may proclaim your love to the world and continue in the risen life of Christ our Savior.

Amen.

May God nourish you with hope that is beyond your understanding, that you might light your life and be a light to the world.

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.