Mark My Words. "Shepherdless Sheep"

Readings: Psalm 89:20-37, 2 Samuel 7:1-14, Ephesians 2:11-22, Mark 6:30-34
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, on July 18 2021

We can get so busy.  There are a hundred things to do and not enough days to do them all.  People’s needs press in on us and we are not sure if we can cope.  We travel through different experiences and do not always have the time to evaluate them or consider how they have affected us.

The Good News is that God recognizes our need for time and space for ourselves, our need to be "far from the madding crowd."  After their Missionary journeys, Jesus invites the disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a lonely place and rest awhile".

The not so good news for the disciples was that this did not happen straight away. Jesus recognized they needed a break. But then the crowds pressed in. Jesus could have sent the crowds away.  Instead, the heart of Jesus is moved with great love towards them. As Mark tells it, (verse 34) "He felt compassion for them because they were like sheep without a shepherd."

The disciples witness two great miracles - the feeding of the 5000 and Jesus coming to them across the water during a storm.  At the time both happened, the disciples were still hoping for a break.  In retrospect, they must have looked back and been glad that they did not get one!

This passage tells us that there are times when compassion drives us to look beyond even our legitimate needs.  It is not that God doesn’t know we need space to be the people of God. But there are people with greater needs than us.  If we look at them through the eyes of Jesus, we might just witness a miracle! Our time for renewal will come, but their time of need may not be able to wait.

The disciples had their lives in the care of the shepherd, but the crowds are described as 'shepherdless sheep.' The need of the crowd was deeper than that of the disciples.  Though weary and exhausted, compassion is the adrenalin that motivates Jesus to teach the crowds of His Father's ways. The sheep needed their shepherd. To be a sheep without a shepherd was to live a precarious existence.  Let me suggest three reasons, why shepherdless sheep are objects of God's compassion.

1. A Shepherdless Sheep easily loses the way.

Sheep are prone to wander.  Sheep are pack animals that will follow any other sheep that appears to be heading somewhere, without questioning where they may end up.  That is why the field a sheep lives in is enclosed by fences.

"All we like sheep have gone astray" laments the prophet Isaiah (53:6). There is an inbuilt tendency in all of us to drift away from God. We spend much of our lives looking for others to guide us, but we do not always take the time to consider where they may be leading us.  Humans, like sheep, are pack animals. We are communal beings who need each other to live contented lives.

Life can be very bewildering. We reach a point of decision and don't know what to decide.  We come to a crossroads and don't know which way to turn.  We wait to see which way everybody else is going and join them, in the presumption that it must be the right way, because everybody else is headed there.

Sometimes we take the time out to consider questions like "Why am I here?" or "Where is my life headed?", but most of the time we don't. And even when we do we don't always have an answer. We can be like the motorist who stopped his car, looked around and said, "I don't know where I am, but wherever it is, it's not where I want to be!"

We need a shepherd to guide us. Jesus offers to be that Shepherd.  His Word offers signposts that guide the Way.  As we learn of the ways people of God before learned to live God's way, so we can walk in those ways for ourselves. As we discover how people of God have made their decisions, so we take confidence that God can also guide our decisions that we make the right choices, even when the crowd is heading off in the opposite direction.

If we allow Jesus to lead us, then we are no longer sheep without a shepherd.

2. A Shepherdless Sheep has a bad diet.

Sheep cannot consume anything they like without suffering the consequences. The professional sheep farmer ensures that the field in which their sheep live is free of plants that could harm them.  The sheep’s diet is supplemented by different feeds that maintain health and help growth. Like humans, sheep are prey to many different diseases and receive inoculations and preventative treatment to avoid them.

Turn on the TV or pick up a magazine and you can be sure, sooner or later, food will get a mention.  When it comes to food, we are a diet conscious people. We want to know not only what tastes good and looks good but also what is good for us. We know that what we put in our stomachs effects the way we live.  If we don't take care, then we suffer for it.

We even have tablets to take when our lifestyle causes us to eat badly - numerous remedies for heartburn, indigestion, constipation, overeating, under eating and so on. Even when we have a bad diet, we take steps to supplement it so that appears to our stomachs to be a good diet!

The tragedy is that though we are so conscious of our physical diet, we can be so indiscriminate in what we feed our hearts, minds, and souls upon. We fail to make the connection between the diet we spiritually consume with the condition of our health.

William Barclay writes in his commentary on Mark, "We need the strength which can keep us going, we need the inspiration which can lift us out of ourselves and above ourselves.  When we seek it elsewhere our minds are still unsatisfied, our hearts are still restless and our souls are still unfed. We can only gain strength for life from Him who is the living Bread!"

There is a lot of mindless junk food to feed upon in the field of this world. If we are indiscriminate in what we feed upon, it will result in spiritual indigestion. Maybe we can take our guidance from the tablets Moses brought down from the mountain. The Ten Commandments certainly offer good boundary fences to surround our lives with.

 Fences are important not just for what they keep in, but also for what they keep out.
 A Shepherdless Sheep has a bad diet, a shepherdless Sheep easily loses its way, and thirdly;

3. A Shepherdless Sheep is defenseless.

A sheep in Jesus time was easy prey for other animals.  As an animal it has little to protect itself with.  Mother nature has not blessed it with the greatest of defense mechanisms. It’s slow and wooly. It doesn’t have viscous teeth or claws. “Baa” is not a war cry!

A fence provides a boundary to enclose the sheep for their protection. In Jesus day the sheep would spend the night in the sheepfold and the shepherd would sleep across the door to prevent anything taking their lives. It was the shepherd’s job to guard the sheep.

It is good practice to build a fence around our own lives. Not literally, but I mean by setting boundaries. We can do that in all sorts of ways. One of the simplest ways is by cultivating good habits that slowly integrate their way into our lives.

Making time in our schedule every day for devotion and prayer, keeps us focused on the God who is always present. Regularly supporting a particular cause or concern keeps us focused on situations outside of ourselves. Regular attendance at church gives our week a focus that we otherwise easily lose.

But there are even simpler things. Like always counting to ten before we respond to a situation that is aggravating us. Like slowing down. Like being more aware of our surroundings. Like allowing God to be the One who makes the judgment calls, rather than setting ourselves up as God's authority. Like listening before we give our opinion. Like practicing simple virtues such as kindness and courtesy and tolerance.

Such simple practices build a fence around our lives in the sense that they nurture us spiritually and help us to see situations in a different light, because we are coming from a safe place, a quiet place, rather than from a place of turmoil and anxiety.

We also need to recall the promises of scripture in such a way as we make them our own. Words of Jesus. 'I will never leave you or forsake you' “I am always with you" 'I am the Good Shepherd who lays His life down for His sheep.' There is no shortage of words and phrases that we can call to mind when we are going through difficult times... or even when we are enjoying the best of times.

We'll be using the 23rd psalm as our affirmation of faith this morning, and one of the features of that wonderful poem is the way it is appropriate for so many different occasions in our lives, from their beginning to their end. I have heard it read at Christenings, at Baptisms, at Weddings, at the bedside of those critically ill, on battlefields, at picnics, at funerals, on occasions of national celebration or mourning, at times of dedication... the list goes on.

The Psalm is an affirmation that we are not shepherdless sheep. We do not walk through this world alone. 

There is One to...

 guide us, 

lead us, 

protect us, 

feed us, 

heal us,

 inspire us, 

move us,

 shake us, 

restore us, 

hold us, 

comfort us, 

clothe us, 

eat with us, 

protect us, 

and surround our lives with 

goodness and mercy and righteousness.

Jesus looks with compassion on all people. Jesus has compassion for us. Jesus wants to be our shepherd.  

Will we let His Word be our Guide?  Will we guard ourselves from feeding on the empty diet of this world and seek to be nourished by His Holy Spirit?  Will we allow God to surround our lives by resting our lives in the palm of God’s hand? None of us need to be shepherdless sheep. We have a Savior in the Lord Jesus Christ.

To God's name be all the glory. Amen.

Affirmation of Faith: 23rd Psalm.

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want; he makes me lie down in green pastures.
 He leads me beside still waters; he restores my soul.
He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I fear no evil; for thou art with me;
thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me.
Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
thou anointest my head with oil, my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
and I shall dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Mark my Words. "Beware The Toxins of Herod"

 

Readings: Psalm 24, 2 Samuel 6:1-5, 12-19, Ephesians 1:3-14, Mark: 6:14-29
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 11 2021

In many Bibles and commentaries, our gospel passage from Mark is given the title 'The death of John the Baptist'. But it is not really about John. It is about King Herod. We may, in our better moments, wish to identify with John. John is the victim. John is the one who has done nothing wrong and makes a stand for what is right. John is the hero and the martyr.

Most of us here today are neither victims or likely to become martyr's. We are the ones with power. Power to choose. Power to decide. Power to create lives that have meaning and influence. If our life situation is to be identified with anybody in the account, it should probably be Herod.

Whilst we may identify with Herod's situation we probably do not want to be identified with his character. Though incredibly powerful he turns out to be weak, compromised, and dangerous. The word 'toxin' when used in chemical terms, describes a substance that is capable of causing injury or death. Hence our sermon title: “Beware the Toxin's of Herod”.

In the life of  Herod we observe a whole trinity of toxins!

•    The danger of toxic relationships
•    The delusive power of toxic environments
•    The dilemma of toxic choices.

The danger of toxic relationships

Pop-singer Britney Spears once had a hit song called 'Toxic' in which she sang of the attraction she had for the wrong sort of guy. With poetry that you only find in dance charts she sings; 'With a taste of your lips, I'm on a ride, You're toxic, I'm slipping under! With a taste of poison paradise, I'm addicted to you, Don't you know that you're toxic?' I was going to invite Thomas to make that an anthem this morning, but... maybe not.

Herod was in a toxic relationship with his wife Herodias. Herodias was his brother’s wife... and that is where all the trouble started.  Because when John the Baptist found that Herod had taken his brother's wife as his own, he spoke out about it. Herodias did not want to hear what John had to say, and through her incessant nagging, she persuaded Herod to have John arrested and put in prison. When it came to John, King Herod was completely paranoid. He was drawn to John's message like a moth to a flame. He knew John was in the right.

Verses 19 and 20 in the Message Bible picture the tensions in the story quite clearly.  “Herodias, smoldering with hate, wanted to kill John, but she didn't dare because Herod was in awe of John. Convinced that he was a holy man, he gave him special treatment. Whenever he listened to him he was miserable with guilt—and yet he couldn't stay away. Something in John kept pulling him back. “

For his birthday Herod throws a party and everybody who is anybody is invited. As she witnesses Herod's behavior, Herodias finds an opportunity to have John silenced for good.

The whole sad story begins with a relationship that never should have been. Herod's relationship with Herodias. The lady is toxic. In church we often talk about reaching out to everybody with the gospel and how all are welcome at our table. We do not always talk about boundaries and the danger that exists when relationships go bad.

Maybe we are not aware of the statistics regarding domestic violence, maybe we naively believe that somehow, we are a strong enough character not to allow toxic people to influence our decisions. But the truth is that certain relationships can be a curse rather than a cause of celebration. 

We must take care that our relationships do not cause us to compromise what we believe. Herod believed John to be in the right. Because of his desire to be in a relationship with Herodias, he did the wrong thing. He ignored his own conscience and went along with her.

We need to be careful who we make our closest friends. We need to get out of relationships that are dragging us down. Relationships that are causing us to compromise on what we know is right. Relationships that are causing harm. Once things start going crazy, it is not just ourselves who are hurt, but conflict spills over into every other relationship that we have in our life, including our relationship with God.

Which leads into a second observation. We need to be aware of...

The delusive power of toxic environments

Singer/Songwriter Randy Newman had a song that was a number 1 hit in 1970 for Three Dog Night 'I've seen so many things, That I ain't never seen before, I don't know what it is, But I don't wanna see no more... Mama told me not to come, Mama told me not to come, She said that ain't no way to have fun, Mama told me not to come.”

I am fairly sure that Randy Newman wasn't writing about this particular passage in Mark, but I tell you, if I was at a party where, following a dancing girls’ performance, they bring out a prophets severed head on a silver plate... I'd be singing along, '.Mama told me not to come.”  It is not enough to just watch who we are knowing. We also need to watch where we are going.

There are parties... and there are parties. I do not believe there is anything wrong with having a dance to celebrate a birthday with friends or a good company and a glass of wine. But there was something more than an innocent celebration going on here. Things were getting out of control.

Whilst the text does not suggest there was anything salacious about the young girls dancing, it appears to have been interpreted that way by Herod. His judgment is impaired by too much drink. He has no idea that he is being manipulated. He starts making promises that he could not possibly fulfill. 'Just dance for me one more time ...  I will give you anything you desire.”

No sooner has he said it than Herodias sweeps down like an eagle on her prey. “Ask for the head of John the Baptist on a silver platter” she goads the daughter.  Herod looks around at his guests.  He is afraid of what people will make of him if he goes back on his word. So, with a wave of the hand, it was done. Executioners are sent to do the dirty deed and return with their gruesome prize. What happened next at the party we do not know. I am not even sure I want to know!  'That ain't no way to have fun, Mama told me not to come.’

Sometimes we find in ourselves in situations where we feel we are out of our depth. We feel pressure from family, friends, or peers to behave in certain ways. We may let our guard down more than we should by relaxing more than we had intended. At such times we should remind ourselves that there are situations when we must walk away. And there is no shame in doing that.

And that does not just apply to parties. In the workplace, in a school or college setting, when people are joking around, even just being out with friends or colleagues, if something in our spirit witnesses that this just is not right, it is OK to walk away. 

It does not mean that we do not care or that we are being judgmental.Events can turn toxic. And when they do, we do not need to be there! Just as there are toxic relationships that we need to avoid so there are toxic situations we need to walk away from.  Or better still avoid getting into in the first place.

We also need to be alert to the simple truth that not everybody has our best interest at heart. I admit it, I can be “Mr. Gullible.” I often presume the best about people. If they spin me a sad tale as to why they need my help, I do not always ask the right questions. And then I have those “DANG” moments when I realize I have been taken for a ride.

Herod thinks he is being generous offering this dancing girl whatever she wanted. He is just being had. He is just being taken advantage of. Never underestimate people’s powers of persuasion. Remember the old adage “If it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is!' And once our guard is down... then we make bad decisions. This account also warns us about...

The dilemma of toxic choices.

One of Herod's failings is that when he is called upon to compromise, he gets his priorities completely messed up. About marrying his brother's wife? No compromise. About locking up John. Total compromise. 

Herod knows he is doing the wrong thing. And then there is the question of his honor. Should he have made a compromise and declared that the death of a good man was more of a wrong than losing face with his guests? Yes. That is what he should have done. But rather than compromise on a drunken promise, he instead has a man executed!

The choices we make can be toxic. Maybe not quite as toxic as Herod's but nevertheless, we are daily faced with choices about what we support, where we shop, what causes we support, how we spend our leisure time... and on and on. Herod is not a puppet.

 Throughout the whole story Herod has choices. As do we. But he is weak. He makes all the wrong decisions. The story starts out with him choosing what he is going to believe about Jesus Christ. People tell us that it does not matter what we believe. That is not true. Because if we get it wrong about Jesus then that decision effects everything else that we do.

Some days after the party King Herod is learning about Jesus. People are expressing their opinions about who Jesus is. 'He's a prophet' 'He's a phenomenal teacher' 'He's a healer' 'He's Elijah”. Herod is fixed on his own idea. Jesus was not any of those things. Jesus was  John the Baptist, raised from dead, and come back to haunt him.  

Herod is riddled with guilt and remorse for his actions. He cannot get John out of his mind. His disturbed mental state means he has no comprehension of the Kingdom Jesus was bringing into being. He is so pre-occupied with his own assumptions that he gets it all wrong about the one who could have been his savior.

The question of who we believe Jesus may be and how we deal with all the conflicting information we hear, is one that each of us must work through. There is always a danger of being blinded by our assumptions or of reflecting too much on our own failures, that we fail to see how God can help us. I personally believe that if we turn honestly and openly towards God, God's Holy Spirit can help us make the right decisions and reveal to us things we may be missing.

So, there we have it! We have covered some ground this morning. Britney Spears, Three Dog night. Dancing girls. Parties. Silver plates. Be-headings and Beliefs. I am not really sure how to conclude other than repeating again my sermon title 'Beware the toxins of Herod!'

• Be alert to the danger of toxic relationships. Get out of them.
• Be aware of the delusive power of toxic environments. Avoid them.
• And be sensitive to the dilemma of toxic choices.
• Put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ. You can't trust Herod, but you can trust in Jesus! Amen.

The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.

Mark my Words. "Not Accepted in the Heartlands" (Communion)

Readings: Psalm 48, Ezekiel 2:1-5, 2 Corinthians 12:2-10, Mark: 6:1-13
Preached at Bridgehampton Presbyterian Church, NY, July 4 2021

Today, is Independence Day. A moment in history when a nation remembers how they have declared their willingness to stand alone and be guided by principles of self-government and freedom. Later in your history you would declare a desire to be “One nation under God.” There is an acknowledgment, in that statement, that true independence can only be found through a reliance upon God’s love and grace.

It is an unusual day for a British guy to be standing in a pulpit in an area where there are still historic signs of the revolutionary war around. Thank-fully it was a long time ago and it appears old animosities have been replaced by a close relationship between the two nations and a recognition of commonalities rather than what separates.  

Of course, for the majority of you this is your homelands, while for myself and Yvonne, most of our extended family remains over the other side of the ocean. But wherever you call home, it is always a strange experience visiting your homelands after you have been away for a while.

Because of COVID, Yvonne and I have not been able to make that journey to our homelands in recent days. We have a family wedding coming up next year and hope that will be an occasion to renew our acquaintance once again. Things is, whenever we do go, we notice changes.

Things are so familiar, yet at the same time so different. Time moves on.  People move on. Things change. There is a new building here.  An old landmark is no longer there. Who we are, is not who we were.

There is the awareness that you have moved onto other things, whilst some of those who stayed where they were, are much the same as they have ever been.  You see them through different eyes, but often they see you as they always did.

I was reading of the Welsh singer Tom Jones, (who had hits like, "It's not unusual" and "The Green, Green, Grass of home"), and how, for him, visiting his home village was a unique experience.  In the eyes of the world, he was perceived as a glitzy Las Vegas nightclub superstar.  In his hometown he was still 'Tom, y’know, Mrs. Jones's boy, who sings a bit and went off to America.'

He found it a liberating thing to walk around his hometown and be treated just the same as everybody else.  There is something in being around folks who knew us when we were growing up that is a great leveler, and which can be very accepting and comfortable.

The reverse side of it is that it can limit people’s expectations of us. It is almost as though the people who think they know you the best, feel a need to set limits on what you should and should not be able to achieve in life.

That seems to be what happened when Jesus went to his hometown after being on His first mission trip. People would not accept Him. “Why, He is just Mary’s boy, the carpenter. We know his brothers and sisters! He’s nobody special.”

It could even be that the townsfolk thought He was dodging His responsibilities. As there is no mention of Mary’s husband Joseph in the account, the presumption is that he had died and left Jesus, as the oldest child, as the head of the household.  To walk out on the family and go on some crazy preaching tour was not the thing to do!

For whatever reasons, be it familiarity or just resistance because of actions He had taken that were socially out of line, Jesus is met with rejection when He returns to His hometown.  The people are offended by His teaching, viewing it as alien to their understanding of what should and should not happen in their locality.

Jesus marvels at their unbelief, quoting them a parable, “A prophet is not without honor, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.” A few receive Him.  A number receive healing, but these are a small number in comparison to the multitudes that were touched elsewhere.

Reflecting on the thought of Jesus not being welcome in His homelands, challenges me to ask a searching question. “How welcome is Jesus in my heartlands? How welcome is the radical message of the gospel in my heart of hearts?” There is no more familiar place to us than the principality of our own lives.  In our own experience we can easily become content with the way things are and not face the challenge of developing in our spirituality.

Whether we have been faithfully attending church in the United Kingdom, or the United States, or any other land… we have heard the gospel message many times. So many times, that it has become familiar to us. Maybe so familiar, that we think we know what it is all about and see no need for change or greater understanding.  We can become so satisfied with the status quo of church life that we lose the expectation of God’s Spirit breaking in on us, renewing us, and changing us.

Jesus could not do the work He wished to do in His homelands because the people were imprisoned by a view of life that allowed no room for the unexpected in the common daily life of their community. They knew the mighty works He had done; they recognized His teaching as having great depth, and they did not deny great things were taking place.

What they had a problem with was fathoming how a man from their little village had been anointed with such great wisdom and power. They found the thought that He had a divine work to do in their midst an offense.  Who was He to tell them how they should be living their lives?  Wasn’t He, after all just a carpenter, just a local boy? Things like that did not happen in their town!

In a similar way in our inner heartlands, in our heart of hearts, we can limit the work of God.  We find the thought that Jesus wants to do some divine work in our midst somehow unbelievable. After all, that is not our daily experience. Of course, we believe Jesus can do great things, and we know He gave great teaching, but does it really penetrate our hearts?

William Barclay, in his commentary on Mark, tells the story of the poet Thomas Campbell, a man of considerable talent.  His father had absolutely no sense of poetry whatsoever. When Thomas achieved his longtime dream of having his poems published, he sent a copy to his father.  The old man looked at it.  

At least he looked at the cover and the picture on it. He never actually opened the pages and read anything. His only comment was “Well, who would have thought our Tommy could have a book made with a nice picture on it?”

“Sometimes” comments William Barclay, “when familiarity should breed a growing respect it breeds an increasing and easy-going familiarity.  Sometimes we are too near people to see their greatness.” I would want to add; “Sometimes we are so familiar with our limitations that we fail to see the possibility of there being anything more.”
 
Yet there were some in Jesus hometown who were not content.  Though the majority reacted with an unbelief that Jesus marveled at, some were healed.  So, there is a way to break beyond our familiarity barriers and expand our horizons! It may not be the way the majority takes, but has not that always been the case with those who desire to walk with God?

Consider Ezekiel, the prophet of our Old Testament reading.  God addresses him as ‘mortal man’ (for that is what he was) yet identifies him as being a person of faith amongst a nation where many disbelieved. (Ezekiel 2:3) “Mortal, I am sending you to the people of Israel, to a nation of rebels who have turned against me.”

Consider how, after His rejection by most of His own folk, Jesus does not despair or change His plans, but rather carries on expanding His work, training His small band of twelve disciples by sending them out two by two to give them their first taste of preaching the Good News of the Kingdom.

Consider how, though initially rejected by His family, His mother Mary was one of the few who stood by Jesus to the end, when the rest of the disciples deserted Him. Consider how His brother James, after the resurrection, came to be regarded as the apostle and the leader of the Jerusalem church.  Though their familiarity was a stumbling block, it was one they eventually overcame.

We have stumbling blocks in our faith journeys.  We have problems that we do not seem to be able to get over. We become content with our unbelief and our unfamiliarity of God’s ways. We give up on ourselves.  We give up on each other.  We give up on our churches.  We let hope pass us by. The familiarity of our heartlands causes us to feel nothing can change or will change. We become so hardened by our familiarity that we reject even the words of those who tell us change is possible.

It does not have to be that way. It was not that way for Ezekiel.  It was not that way for those in Jesus town who found healing that day.  It does not have to be that way for us if we heed Christ’s words that we should seek the things of His Kingdom over and above all the other things we want in life.

This passage challenges us today, that though we are simply mortal women and men, it is in our lives, cluttered as they are with everyday concerns and mixed motives, that God wishes to work in the power of God’s Holy Spirit. It is for us to invite Jesus into our heartland, to see not the limitations that both ourselves and the world around us place upon us, but the vast possibilities that the Grace of God opens up to us.  

Today… Independence Day. Wherever we consider our homelands to be, one thing is clear. Freedom only comes to us within a certain framework. A war of independence took place that allowed this nation to be a place of self-government, rather than a colony under some the reign of some distant king.

The challenge remains that, for a person of faith, spiritual growth takes place, not through independence from a higher power, but through dependance upon the powerful love of God, that we find in Jesus Christ, through the Holy Spirit.

Here, around a table laid with bread and wine is an unparalleled opportunity to lay our lives before God and seek God’s renewal. Let us celebrate the freedom we have to be here. Let us celebrate our history and our unique identity. But let there be no familiarity. Let there be a recognition that we are where we are and who we are by the Grace of God. And let us seek for that grace, always fresh, always new and always amazing, to guide us through days that lay ahead of us.  

And to God be all praise and glory. Amen.

 The Reverend Adrian J. Pratt B.D.