Common Council - Regular Meeting

It's just another day for you You and me in paradise Oh, think twice. Just another day for you and me in paradise. Oh, think twice. It's just another day for you, you and me in paradise.

Good morning, Christ Church. It's good to be here together. In so many ways, something like a paradise within church and outside. The temperatures feel more along the lines of what I think of as paradise. A little bit for y'all or no? I put some garden things in yesterday. That was the first of it. God is caring for our seasons. Let's share a few announcements about good ministry that's coming up. And I wanted to look and see, is David here yet? David is here. We timed it perfect, didn't we? So I want to invite David Lockwood to share and Rowan Stimson. Come on up, Rowan, so you'll be ready after David.

Well, we're a couple weeks away from starting a men's Bible study on the life of David. It starts on the last Sunday of... uh... june at uh... starts at ten o'clock the doors will be open uh... the door that would be by the office uh... will be open at uh... quarter of ten and we're gonna go from ten until about five of eleven david's an interesting character lived three thousand years ago he had his ups and downs he was a hero meteoric rise and success and then had some difficulties along the way that are very instructive for us who are men and how we deal with things and how God can be in our lives. So we have eight folks signed up, and if you have thought about it and are interested in it, please see me about it. We're not gathering, let me put it this way, that each Sunday will be kind of a discreet study. You don't have to come to all of them. If you have a commitment and you can't make one or two, that's fine. But I think we're going to have a good time with this. And see me after the service.

Great.

Rowan.

Thank you, David. And we welcome Rowan back because Rowan spent this past school year at Emanuel College in Boston. So welcome her back.

Hi, everybody. I just wanted to say thank you to all the donations we received for the diabetes walk. We raised about $2,000, which is very exciting. The walk was very high, I just have to say that, but it was very rewarding to see everybody and be a part of it, and I just wanted to give the warmest thank you to everybody who shared it and made donations. Thank you very much.

Thanks, Rowan. Thank you for helping us do that. All right. Today is the Pride Festival. It is happening as we speak in City Park. And knowing I've got a gig at 11 o'clock on Sundays hanging out with you, I will get there a little bit late. I'm wearing my Abide No Hatred t-shirt. That's one of the kind of rainbowy things I like to wear for festivals like that or gatherings, in which we United Methodists can now say, as of two years ago, We're a more inclusive church than we were two-plus years ago. We made an official decision to include folks who can be pastors, regardless of, or you might even say because of, sexuality, as long as people meet the standards anyone else would meet. Much like women were welcomed 70 years ago in May to be ordained, and we had had centuries of women leading in the church, but not having the authority that ordination would give them. And I personally give thanks, being a family member of any number of LGBTQ folks, a friend to many, a colleague of many, who could not publicly acknowledge who they were in our United Methodist system, and who were not publicly welcomed and blessed. So I want to show you a little bit of what we'll be doing over there at the Pride Fest. Tons of little packs of Skittles are being handed out. Not just because Skittles are great, but I guess they're great. It says, Happy Pride from Christ Church and Christ Church's website, along with one-third of them that say, Queensborough United Methodist. One-third that say, Hudson Falls United Methodist. Little duckies with rainbows, because I don't know why, but the duckies were popular last year, so we're diversifying those. Some pens with a message of faith, pocket hugs in the form of, a rainbow heart, and a prayer quilt, a small pillow, and you can feel a cross inside of it. These are donations from folks that care deeply about the best we can being blessings to family, friends, neighbors, who have really not, over the years, decades, centuries, received blessings from the church. I want to invite you to be part of the blessing for the Pride Festival. Have you got these, Sarah? Sarah's got some. I wonder, Rowan, you got some? So one of you take half the church, the other take the other half. You don't have to take one of these if you don't want. But a genius idea to bless folks is what we call a take a prayer, leave a prayer rack that's going to be at our booth over there. The Methodist booth is right across the alley from LARAC. And we will cover it in these prayer tags. Write a blessing, write a prayer in relation to someone. Just use first names if it's for a person, please. Or simply a prayer that means a lot to you. And I will take those or we. Raise a hand if you're planning to be over there at Pride for a little bit or more. Yeah, find somebody who's raising their hand, and we'll get those over there. We want to place these on the altar as gifts of love. And I already have prayer tags that have blessings and prayers on them from the Hudson Falls United Methodist Church. Other good ministries that are coming up include the Women's Lunch Out is in the works. So just check your bulletin for more information. I'll highlight Thursday, June 18th, 12 noon. And would it be good, Peg, if folks want to turn around, Peg's going to raise her hand in the back. Find PEG for more information. And since you're looking at PEG all the way in the back now, the medicine bottles. Thank you to everybody who took them and is cleaning them. Now they need to be transported. So PEG's the one to find out from where to go with these if you're able to help with the transporting of the medicine bottles down to Saratoga Springs. Thank you for that. All right, I'm going to ask another person to raise her hand, and this is going to be Emily Lalonde. Emily, we didn't talk about this, but Rainforest Falls is coming up, Vacation Bible Camp. Will you wave? Everybody who has any interest at all, if you've got children, grandchildren who might come, three years old to fifth grade, registration is open, and just use the QR code. Emily or I will help you connect. Thank you. Got the men's Bible study. You'll see celebration Sunday, June 21st for music and graduation. We have good things going in and through and beyond the church. Thanks be to God. Tell me, somebody, if you've ever had an experience or a sense that God was sending you on a journey. It could be a geographical journey from one place to another. You'll hear something like this in the scripture. But it could be a spiritual journey. Could be some other type of journey. Would you share briefly, what's an occasion God sent you on a journey, you think? My first walk to Emmaus, a retreat weekend, spiritual retreat weekend. A mind-blowing spiritual journey. Yeah, thank you. Anybody on a journey? Jim? sending us here to Glens Falls. Anybody else, could anyone else say that? Sending us, God sent me to Glens Falls. I wasn't in charge of that. A bishop and some others, you had something to do with that. What's one other thing? Going with my neighbor to church. Who was born into this church family? Thank you for pointing, I'll turn around in a minute. Who was born into Christ's church? A few of you. The rest of us took a journey here. Interesting. And one back behind me. Oh, a literal walking journey, the pilgrimage, the Camino de Santiago in Spain. Yeah, neat, a pilgrimage, which pilgrims through the centuries have done. So you were walking in those footsteps. Be mindful, the God who called is a God who calls. And you and I are called, we've been called to journeys throughout our lives, whether or not we recognize, whether or not I listen and respond to the call. And God calls us individually, and God calls Christchurch. How might God be calling us to journey? Let's pray. O God, help us this day to do ministry well. We've got a lot going on, a lot of wonderful opportunities. Help us to receive a full measure of your grace this day, to celebrate well at your holy table, that we might be filled with music and prayer and your word and bread and cup and to go forth and bear your love, your grace, your mercy, and your power to a world desperately in need of them. Strengthen us here for the journeys you will set us upon when we go. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Now, if you ever wonder whether God can work with the likes of you, this song is for you. It might be something unexpected is coming. So I invite you to rise, and we'll sing Hymn of Promise.

In the wall there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree. In cocoons a hidden promise, butterflies will soon be free. In the cold and snow of winter, there is a spring that waits for me. Hungry meal until it's season, something God alone can see. silence, speaking word and melody. There's a dawn in every darkness, bringing hope to you and me. From the past will come the future, but it holds a mystery. Unrevealed until it's seasoned, something God alone can see. In our end is our beginning, in our time infinity. In our doubt there is believing, in our life eternity. In our death a resurrection, at the last a victory. Unrevealed until its season, something God alone can speak.

Yes, please be seated. And we are grateful to Lynn Havens for reading the Scripture today. Lynn, are you prepared okay for that? Oh, okay, someone's going to take your place because you happen not to have glasses. I was going to say, I forgot to make an announcement. Come on down. We're really putting somebody to work today. Thanks, Rowan. These are prescription glasses. They're tortoiseshell, so they probably wouldn't do much for you. Somebody left these in the section to my left, kind of back that way. So if anybody's missing glasses, you'll find them down here. Bless you, Rowan. Thanks.

Excuse me if any of these pronunciations are off. I just did a quick read-through, okay? Okay, I'll be reading Genesis chapter 12, verses 1 through 9. Now the Lord said to Abraham, Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great so that you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed. So Abraham went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old when he departed from a hair. Abraham took his wife Sarah and his brother's son Lot in all the possessions that they had gathered together. and the persons whom they had acquired in Haran, and they set forth to go to the land of Canaan. When they had come to the land of Canaan, Abraham passed through the land to the place at Chicom to the oak of Moro, at the time the Canaanites were in the land. Then the Lord appeared to Abraham and said to your offspring, I will give this land. So he built there an altar to the Lord who had appeared to him. From there he moved on to the hill country on the east of Bethlehem and pitched his tent with Bethel on the west and El on the east. And there he built an altar to the Lord and evoked the name of the Lord. And Abraham journeyed on by stages toward... I don't know how to say that. Negev. Praise God. This is the word of God for the people of God.

Amen. Thank you, Rowan. All right. All of you people, unless you're not like me, you know how you'd be feeling if you volunteered for that at the last second, right? Thank you, Rowan. That was a very gracious gift. Let me tell you about a story I just experienced. I got a picture on my phone last night. So I could open my phone and show you the picture. I guess there might have been a way of getting it into the PowerPoint, but I didn't want to try to do that. It was a picture of a church. And now I've got to backtrack to help you know why I got this picture of a church. My dad had called, or texted, I guess, me and my two brothers about a month ago. And he said, I'm going to take a trip. And I just wanted to invite, if any of you want to come, you can come along with me. Where are you going, Dad? I'm going to Fairbury, Nebraska. Anybody ever hear of Fairbury, Nebraska? I hear a lot of no behind me. Somebody in this church did hear of Fairbury, Nebraska because one of you told me you had a connection there and I thought you have got to be kidding me. So you're not here today. So Dad, why are you going to go to Fairbury, Nebraska? Because when I was nine years old in Beaumont, Texas, My parents put me on a train, and I went all the way up from southeast Texas through Oklahoma, through north Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, into southern Nebraska to Fairbury, where grandfather and grandmother Jefferson had their farm. I want to go back. Anybody ever want to feel a tug to go on a journey? Dad got back from his journey Friday. One of the days late this week, and he sent me that picture of the church Saturday, yesterday afternoon. But the church wasn't in Fairbury, Nebraska. I'll tell you all about that some other time. You don't need it in a sermon. And we're going to love Cadley and Curtis back there because we love the sound of little ones in church. Dad on the way up. had noticed in South Central Kansas, before you get way up by the Nebraska border, he passed an exit that said Wellington, Kansas. And in his text yesterday, he said, isn't Wellington where you were an intern pastor when you were in seminary? And I said, not only is that the church, but that's the church when we visited there, or y'all visited me and Kim there. You told me to stand in front of it, almost the same angle, And you took my picture in my first suit with my tie and everything on, First United Methodist Church, Wellington, Kansas, right there. Dad on his way home stopped and saw Wellington, the county seat of Sumner County, Texas, Sumner County, Kansas, the wheat capital of the world. God sent me on a journey from Louisiana as a kid to Dallas, Texas, where I went to seminary. From Dallas, Kim and I were pretty sure we were going to get married the fall of 1992. So we had to have our intern year 1992 into 93. And we just begged the school, send us somewhere where each of us can have a church near the other one. You would think around Dallas, Texas, they'd find two churches. They sent us to southern Kansas. And I got Wellington at 45 minutes away. And again, associate, you know, little learner, learner permit preacher. And Kim was in Arc City. Arc is short for Arkansas. In the state of Kansas, you don't pronounce the state name Arkansas like Arkansas. It's Arkansas. And it's not the state name. It's the name of that river that goes through that state that Kansans would say is mispronounced down there. They loved us into ministry in those towns. I would love to go back to Wellington, Kansas. Another thing that that angle that Dad took the picture from shows is the stoplight. And I'm betting there's more than one stoplight in Wellington, Kansas now. But at the one stoplight, and I think that was it, when we got back from our wedding, we took a honeymoon, got married in Connecticut, honeymooned in New Hampshire, because Kim's dad had a friend with a condo up in New Hampshire. We didn't have to pay for anything other than the flight and incidentals on the trip. We got back, and my senior pastor drove everywhere. He didn't just take us home. Fred, what are you doing? Oh, I just want you to see that the leaves down here are just as pretty as Connecticut in the fall. Driving and driving. He took us downtown Wellington, not where that light was, but further back. And half the town was out banging pots and pans and blowing whistles. The chief of police, a member of the Methodist church, was out there stopping traffic at the intersections that didn't have stoplights. And there was a wheelbarrow in the middle of the intersection with quilts on it for Kim to sit in. And they put on a chivalry. Anyone in this room hear of a chivalry? In those days, that was the early 90s, a party. In the olden days, it was bad. They would do bad things to you when you got married. And I had to wheel my sweetie in a wheelbarrow three blocks to church. Which I did. And that's the one time in my life I got on the cover, Kim and I both, on the cover of the local paper. So that's a long way around to dad took a trip. Dad's 85. Abram, he had yet been named Abraham. That comes later. And his wife Sarai, who hadn't been renamed Sarah yet, they heard the call. The Bible says Abram received it. You know Sarai had something to say about that. And Abram cared what Sarai thought too. And God's call said to do what? Just hang out where you are. Stay in church. Just enjoy it. What did God tell them? Hit the road. Go. Hit the road. Get going. Go to a land that I will show you. So it's not just leave the land of, well, your country and your kindred, a day in which kindred meant everything, and still does in a lot of ways, but not the same. Now when kids grow up and move along, greener pastures or better opportunities in the city or wherever, leave everything you know, leave all who have blessed you to a land that I will show you. Canaan and Canaanites said, You're going to send me where there's foreigners living, God? You're going to have us leave everything we know and go to this place we don't know? That may as well have described Kansas when I went to Kansas. It may as well have described Albany, New York when God sent us to Kim Del Mar, Rich to Albany, and all the moves in between. Glens Falls? I don't know Glens Falls. Well, I kind of know Glens Falls, God. And God's promise in that is, I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you. Listen to all these I wills. Listen. I will bless you. I will make you a great nation. I will make your name great so that you will be a blessing. And I think while that specific promise for that specific journey to that specific land in that specific time was for Abram and for Sarai, the promise is for you and me. If we're open to going where God sends us, to journeying where God would have us go, I do think Dad just wanted to go to Fairbury. He wanted to see what he remembered from an airplane photo. Had to be an early airplane photo when his grandparents were there. Dad was born in 41, so sometime in the 40s, late 40s. Could have been 1950 when he went. And they had farmed there a long time. And he said, there's the big twist in the road, and I know I can find it, and I bet there's not a farmhouse or a barn. Some conglomerate bought the whole thing. and it's corn or wheat or whatever. Something was deep inside Dad to do that. Have you ever felt something deep inside pulling you in a direction? Do you ever have a deep pull to go somewhere other than where you were? Geographic? Gotta move, gotta leave. Did you ever feel led in order to do something somewhere else that you couldn't do where you were? To see someone or some people that you hadn't seen in a long time? Anyone ever feel called just to walk out the doors of church on a Sunday morning and offer a blessing to gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer, name it? Yeah, so we're going to do that in about 30 minutes. We're going to have some bread and cup. Some folks here felt called going on 40 years ago to feed folks once a week back then, wasn't it? The churches, synagogues, temple. And we're going to once a month, and others are doing their own once a month. Go into another place. United Methodist, 70 years ago, decided to go another direction and approve women for ordination. Lord, it took a long time. But we made the journey. Two years and about a week, two years and about two weeks ago, United Methodist decided it was okay to be gay and also a pastor if you met the requirements to be a pastor. About time. You could be married in the church. It's about time. What journey is God calling you and me to take? Some of those will be your journey alone. Some will be mine alone. But you and I, most of you and I both know God is calling Christ Church United Methodist into any number of journeys in these months to come. Don't you? We had lunches and all sorts of conversation in the fellowship hall starting in March. March, April, May. Did anybody in the room get an email, I don't know, a few weeks back, saying we're going to have follow-up in June? It's June. So some of you and I are going to lead some of that to figure out what are these directions, what are these journeys. Honestly, you came up with a lot of it. It's not needing to be invented. We're simply sharing back, here are ideas we have. We have to do some things differently because of our property situation, our money situation, our number of people situation. And we're not gonna get caught in negativity about it, because we've got wonderful ministry happening. We've got a brand new Bible study coming. This is our second year of being a part of Pride. lots of other things going that happen to be announced in a bulletin and not. And while it may not be that the story works out for you and for me, either individually as God sends you where God sends you, me, and altogether as God sends us out into Glens Falls in this region, may not be exactly like it was for Abram and for Sarai, but I do think while we may not turn into a great nation, If we're on the journeys God gives us, we will be made into a great community. We are being made into an amazing grace community. God will bless us. Amen? God has been blessing us and continues to bless us and make our name great. It means folks will say Christ Church. Oh, you know Christ Church. That's the church that will make our name great so that We will be a blessing, just to mention us and who we are and what we do is a blessing. God will bless those who bless us. I'm not quite sure what it means that God will curse those who curse us. There might be some who don't like what we do in following God's path. And in us, all the families of the earth. Let's not, well, maybe, maybe. I want to say, don't set your sights too high, but with God, all things are possible. With the risen Jesus, all things are possible. But can't the members of the neighborhood all be blessed? Couldn't the folks in 12801 zip code all be blessed? And further... And if we journey in the path that God gives us, the path that God gives us, it won't just be a land of promise in Canaan that Abraham and Sarah arrived at, but it'll be your land of promise and mine. It will be Christ's churches. Thanks be to God. Amen. We'll prepare ourselves for journeys by coming to Christ's holy table. We'll share in communion, and our song will lead us in that. So I invite you to rise as we sing.

We come around your table as we listen to

Oh, God, your presence let our hearts and minds be stirred. Nourish us with sacred story till we make it as our own. Teach us through this holy banquet how to make our victory known. Thank you. Thank you. To forgive us who forgave. May we still behold your image. In the world you died to save. Gracious spirit of our summit. Where the young and the well-welcome to heaven last have peace. Amen. Please be seated.

We'll start the service of word and table with Christ's invitation. So it's always important to acknowledge while the table exists within Christ's church, it's not ours. This is Jesus' table, as is every table where this meal is served and from which it is received. So we come at Jesus' invitation, not the invitation of a church or a pastor. So here are the words. Christ our Lord invites to this table all who love him, all who earnestly repent of their sin and seek to live in peace with one another. Therefore, let's confess our sin before God and each other. Let's pray together. Merciful God, we confess that we have not loved you with our whole heart. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not done your will. We have broken your law. We have rebelled against your love. We have not loved our neighbors, and we have not heard the cry of the needy. Forgive us, we pray. Free us for joyful obedience through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. And let's each pray in silence our own prayers of confession. Hear the good news. Christ died for us while we were yet sinners. This proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, you are forgiven. Glory to God. Amen. That's good news, friends. We come offering to God our brokenness, the way we break things. We refuse to do what's right. And God yet invites us, as Jesus yet invited every one of his disciples. even the one who would betray him, even the one who would deny him to share with him at the table. And so then let's offer, this is kind of practice for once we have to do the really hard work outside this church, let's offer signs and words of Christ's peace to our neighbors. So as you need to stand and move to do that, please do. Peace of Christ with you and with you. Peace, peace, peace with you. Peace be with you, Richard. God's peace. Peace be with you.

Let's see if that does it.

That was me. Thank you.

As forgiven and reconciled people, we offer ourselves and our offerings of all sorts to God. You receive the tags, prayer tags, if you wish. When you come for communion, let that be part of your offering today. You can leave those on the altar rails when you come. Thank you, and thank you to our choir for the offering you give.

taste and see the goodness of the Lord. Oh, taste and Goodness of the Lord.

Of the Lord.

I will bless the Lord.

my soul

Taste and see Taste and see The goodness of the Lord Of the Lord

the Lord with me.

Together let us all praise God's name.

I adore

Amen.

Worship the Lord, holy boy. You are lovely if you ask.

Taste and see that the Lord is good in God. All creatures here below.

Alleluia. Alleluia. Praise God, the source of all our gifts.

Praise Jesus Christ, whose power and bliss. Praise the Spirit.

Oh God, for these offerings, these blessings, these prayers, for our lives, we give gratefully to you and to our neighbor. Thank you for all your the manifold blessings and mercies you've shown for us that then lead us to want to give ourselves for you and for others. Thank you, thank you, thank you. In Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. All except for Rowan, who I'll invite to come share with me as we lead the church in the great Thanksgiving. So you come around to this side. If you want to cover the bread, please. Here, we'll do some of this. And we will sing. We will do the great thanksgiving, go through it responsively.

The Lord be with you. And also with you. Lift up your hearts. Let us give thanks to the Lord our God.

Yes, it is a right and a good and joyful thing always and everywhere to give thanks to you, God Almighty, creator of heaven and earth. And so with your people on earth and all the company of heaven, we praise your name and we join the unending hymn.

Holy Lord, God of power and might, heaven and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest. Hosanna in the highest.

Holy are you, and blessed is your Son, Jesus Christ. By the baptism of his suffering, death, and resurrection, you gave birth to your Church. You delivered us from slavery to sin and death, and you made with us a new covenant by water and the Spirit. And would you hold the bread up? Now, the night Jesus gave himself for us, he took bread. He gave thanks to you, O God, and broke the bread and gave it to those who were with him, saying, Take, eat, this is my body given for you. Do this as often as you eat it in remembrance of me. And when the supper was over, he took the cup and gave thanks to you, O God, and gave it to his disciples, saying, Drink from this, all of you. This is my blood of the new covenant poured out for you and for many for the forgiveness of sins. Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me. And so in remembrance of these, your mighty acts in Jesus Christ, we offer ourselves in praise and thanksgiving as a holy and living sacrifice in union with Christ's offering for us as we proclaim the mystery of faith.

Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again. Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna in the highest, Hosanna in the highest.

Pour out your Holy Spirit on us gathered here and on these gifts of bread and cup. Make them be for us the body and blood of Christ, that we may be for the world the body of Christ, redeemed by his blood, By your Spirit, make us one with Christ, one with each other, and one in ministry to all the world until Christ comes in final victory and we feast at Jesus' heavenly banquet. Through your Son, Jesus Christ, with the Holy Spirit, in your holy Church, all honor and glory is yours, Almighty God, now and forever.

oh in the highest

And now with the confidence that comes with knowing deeply by faith we are God's own children, let's pray as Jesus taught us. 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. Amen. Because there is one bread, we who are many are one. Because we all share in the one bread. This bread which we break is a sharing in the body of Christ. And this cup of blessing which we bless is a sharing in the blood of Christ. Bread for the world, love poured out that you and I might be filled to pour ourselves out in serving God and our neighbor. I'll break off a piece of bread. I mean, you're welcome to come. You don't have to come, but you're welcome to. I'll break off a piece of bread and give it to you. The bread is all gluten-free, so if that's a concern, you don't have to be. Rowan will have the cup and she'll hold it for you. Don't eat the bread as soon as you get it, but take it and dip it lightly into the cup and then eat it. We'll start by serving at the aisle to our right, your left. And we invite you to come by that main aisle and then go back to your seat by the outside. And if you wish to remain in prayer or simply thoughtful time at the altar rail, feel free as long as you wish. And after we've served this side and choir, you come first. then we'll shift over to our left, your right, and we'll ask that you come and go the same way. If it's not easy for you to walk forward, we will serve you where you are, but please reach out to someone to get their attention. We do not want to miss you. Come, the table is set.

Let's pray. Let's pray. Thank you. Thank you. . . . Thank you.

Please join your heart with mine as we pray in thanks. Oh God, at times we feel only our lack. I feel as if I'm never enough, as if I'm not worthy, as if there's no way you could use me for your purposes. I feel as if I have all sorts of reasons you would just as soon, that you might just rather use many other people that seem to be a lot more gifted for the journeys you need people to go on. So I pray in grateful thanks, we pray in grateful thanks, that you have invited us to your table. Oh Jesus, you have welcomed us to this sacrament, this change of bread and cup into your body and your blood, that we might take you forth, not just ourselves, that with you in us, the power of your spirit within, around, among, beyond, we will be able to take every journey you call us to go on. And you will gift us in every way we need. Thank you, thank you, thank you. Amen. And watch out when you sing this next song. Be careful, because it might come true. I invite you to rise. We'll sing, Here I Am, Lord.

Thank you. I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold a needle in my heart.

By the Lord of snow and rain, I They turn away I will break their hearts of stone Give their hearts for love alone I will speak my word to them Whom shall I send Here I am Lord Is it I Lord I have heard

I will go, Lord, if you need me. I will hold your people in my heart.

I will go to wind and flame. I will tend the poor and lame. I will set a feast for them. My hand will save. On His bread I will provide. Till their hearts be satisfied. I will give my life to them. Whom shall I send? Here I am. Is it I, Lord, I have heard you calling in my heart?

I will go, Lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart.

Please be seated. And yes, we will do all we can to do just those things that we've sung. Some of us will go and we'll take prayers to put on the take a prayer, leave a prayer. We'll hand out little rubber duckies with rainbows on them to bless in order that we will be a blessing and might be blessed by those we seek to bless. But you don't have to go to a pride festival to go where God sends you. Simply listen. Pay attention at home. in the neighborhood, at work, can be at church, out and about, in quiet and in crowds, and be open, be quiet enough and open enough that maybe you can hear God calling you to a journey. Maybe I will. And maybe when we hear, we can sing in our heart, here I am. Here we are. Here's Christ's church, God. Send us. Go in peace. Amen.

Thank you.