God Wants Our Help

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ

September 30, 2012

Year B: Proper 21 – The Eighteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10; 9:20-22

Psalm 124

(James 5:13-20)

Mark 9:38-50

God Wants Our Help

            When I was a teacher one of the hardest things to accept was that my students were going to forget just about everything we covered in class.

            And what was true in the classroom is also true in church. We preachers have to accept that people are going to forget most of what we say in our sermons.

            And that includes me, too! I’ve heard and given a lot of sermons and I don’t remember most of them either. But a few have stuck in my memory.

            One is a sermon I heard given by the famous South African archbishop and Nobel Prize-winner Desmond Tutu.

            He was visiting General Seminary while I was studying there and preached at one of the chapel services. No surprise, so many people wanted to be in his presence and to hear him preach that the seminary had to set up overflow seating and closed-circuit TV on the lawn outside the chapel.

            Unfortunately I was one of those who didn’t make it inside, but the distance from the pulpit had no effect on the power of Tutu’s preaching.

            His sermon was deceptively simple.

            He preached that God has a dream for the world – a dream for all of us.

            And he preached that God wants our help to make that dream real.

            He ended his sermon by allowing the voice of God to speak through him. (Now, I wouldn’t try this myself, but you can get away with it when you’re a living saint!)

            Speaking as God, Tutu said, “Help me.” And then he repeated that over and over, “Help me, help me, help me…” His voice grew softer and then finally he stopped and stepped down from the pulpit.

            God’s call, God’s plea – help me – gave me goose bumps – and I’ve never forgotten it.

            God wants our help.

            Considering how often we fail and fall short, this seems like a misguided decision, but God wants our help – God asks for our help to build God’s kingdom here and now.

            God wants our help.

            Today’s gospel lesson picks up right where we left off last week. You may remember we heard Jesus teach his followers about what it means to be a disciple – that true greatness comes through service and sacrifice, especially service to and sacrifice for the people the world considers useless unproductive nobodies.

            Today, we pick up with more Jesus sayings on discipleship. If you look carefully, you’ll see Mark has arranged this little passage based on four keywords – name, stumble, fire and salt.

            I want to focus on the second keyword, stumble.

            Jesus warns his disciples – warns us – of dreadful consequences if we lead others to sin.

            “If you put a stumbling block before one of these little ones who believe in me, it would be better if a great millstone were hung around your neck and thrown into the sea.”           

            What does this have to do with us?

            Most of the time we cause others to stumble in subtle yet very destructive ways.

            Most of the time we cause others to stumble when they see us being hypocrites.

            We cause others to stumble when we stand up in church promising to love our neighbor as our self, to respect the dignity of every human being, to strive for justice and peace – and then we go out through those doors and live pretty much like everybody else: quick to judge and condemn, happy to ridicule people because of their beliefs or their appearance or the kind of car they drive, willing to ignore people the world considers useless unproductive nobodies.

            By living like everybody else, we cause people to look at us and say our faith is fake and meaningless.

            By living like everybody else, we cause people to stumble, and fall away from Christ, to reject Christ.

            God wants our help.

            But, by living like everybody else, we say no to God’s call for help.

            And we choose to live like everybody else because that’s the easier choice. In fact, it’s so easy to live like everybody else – so easy to have the same values as the world – that we might even fool ourselves into thinking that it’s just too hard to say yes when God calls to us. We might even almost fool ourselves into thinking it’s impossible to say yes when God wants our help.

            But, in our hearts we know it is possible to say yes to God.

            The Bible is full of people who said yes to God.

            In today’s Old Testament lesson we heard a snippet from the Book of Esther. Esther is an unusual book – it doesn’t say much of anything directly about God. Instead, it’s really a tragic-comic historical novella set among Jewish exiles in Persia. It’s the story of a Jewish maiden, Esther, and her cousin and adopted father, Mordecai.

            To make a complicated story short, the lovely Esther ends up as the wife of the Persian king, Ahasuerus. As queen, she is able to outwit the evil Persian official named Haman who wants to kill the Jews.

            As we heard today Queen Esther is able to turn her husband the king against Haman, leading to his death and much rejoicing – and revenge – among the Jews. It’s this story that provides the basis for the raucous Jewish holiday of Purim.

            At its heart, the Book of Esther presents a familiar biblical character –someone who refuses to live like everybody else – someone who says yes to God’s call for help.

            God wants our help.

            And, if we look around we see that there are still people in our church, in our community, and around the world who say yes to God’s call for help.

            Recently I read in the newspaper about two people who refused to live like everybody else, who said yes to God’s call for help.           

            The first was Dr. Joseph Dutkowsky, a top orthopedic surgeon who specializes in the care of children disabled by cerebral palsy, spina bifida, Down syndrome and other conditions - people the world considers useless unproductive nobodies.

            There are other doctors who do similar work, of course. But Dr. Dutkowsky is also a committed Christian, bridging the gap between science and faith. Each day as he drives to the hospital, he prays, asking to know God’s will.

            Listen to how he describes his work:

             “This is my ministry. Some people stand next to the ocean to feel the presence of God. I get to see the likeness of God every day. I see children with some amazing deformities. But God doesn’t make mistakes. So they are the image.”

            And then listen to what else he says:

            “We have a culture that’s addicted to perfection. We’re willing to spend thousands of dollars to achieve it. The people I care for are imperfect. And I can’t make them perfect. I only hope that they can sense that I actually care they’re more than skin and bones, that we have a bond.”

            God wants our help. By caring for people the world considers to have little or no value, Dr. Dutkowsky has said yes to God’s call for help.

            And then there was the article that appeared marking the death at age 83 of a Catholic priest named John Flynn.

            Fr. Flynn could have moved up the church ranks and taken cushier assignments, but instead he spent 50 years serving the poorest of the poor in the Bronx – people the world considers useless unproductive nobodies.

            Fr. Flynn said yes to God, starting a campaign called Save a Generation to help high school dropouts. He walked the mean streets of the Bronx offering to exchange guns for crucifixes. He helped people stand up for themselves against landlords and others who were taking advantage of them. He ministered to the drug addicts and the drug dealers.

            Here’s how a Fordham professor summed up Fr. Flynn’s life:

            “Greatness takes many forms. It is not always associated with wealth and power and fame. In the Bronx, it may have reached its highest point in the person of a parish priest who walked the street with the lost boys of the community while bullets were flying. And who those boys learned to love as much as everyone else who knew him.”

            God wants our help. By caring for people the world considers to have little or no value, Fr. Flynn said yes to God’s call for help.

            In today’s gospel lesson, Jesus warns his disciples – warns us – of the dreadful consequences of leading others to sin, of causing others to stumble.

            Most of the time we cause others to stumble in subtle yet very destructive ways.

            We cause others to stumble when we are hypocrites.

            We cause others to stumble when we stand up in church promising to love our neighbor as our self, to respect the dignity of every human being, to strive for justice and peace – and then we go out through those doors and live pretty much like everybody else, saying no to God’s call for help.

            By living like everybody else, we cause people to look at us and say our faith is fake and meaningless.

            By living like everybody else, we cause others to stumble.

            But, still, God wants our help.

            Throughout history people both famous and unknown – people like Queen Esther, Dr. Dutkowsky and Fr. Flynn have said yes to God’s call for help.

            How about us?

            God wants our help.

            God wants our help.

            God wants our help.

           

           

           

                        

What the BIble Is All About

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ

September 16, 2012

Year B: Proper 19 – The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Proverbs 1:20-33

Psalm 19

(James 3:1-12)

Mark 8:27-38

What the Bible Is All About

            Well, the program year is off and running here at Grace Church! We’re back to the normal service schedule and lots of good stuff is underway.

            People keep asking me how my summer was. From what I remember, it was fine. Two highlights for me were the mission trip (which you can hear more about at today’s adult seminar) and that I had the time to read a little more than usual.

            Now that we’re in full swing making time to read is harder, though.

            This time of year, I start a book and then don’t get back to it for days or even sometimes weeks. And when I do get back to it, enough time has passed that I don’t remember what I’ve read and have to flip back to remind myself of who did what when – and even to remind myself what the book is really about.           

            I think for many of us that’s pretty much how we read – or hear – the Bible here in church. Even if we come to church every Sunday, we still only read and hear little excerpts from the Bible. From week to week it’s hard to remember who did what when.  It’s easy to forget what the Bible is all about.

            The Bible was assembled over a very long time by many different people. The Bible contains many different books and many different types of literature. Yet, we proclaim that, as a whole, the Bible is God’s Word.

            I see that divine inspiration most clearly when I look beyond the little excerpts we read and hear in church and focus on what the Bible is all about.

            The Bible tells the story of God’s eternal invitation – the story of God reaching out to us – the story of God reaching out to us over and over again.

            And the Bible tells the story of how people responded to God’s eternal invitation – the story of how people responded when God reached out to us over and over again.

            We heard a little bit of that great invitation / response story in the passage we heard from Proverbs.

            Proverbs is an interesting book, though not one we often hear from on Sundays.           

            Proverbs seems to have been written essentially as a guide for young men preparing to take on adult responsibilities. It offers insights on how to cope with life – especially on how to choose life instead of death.

            In Proverbs, God’s Wisdom is personified as a woman – as a woman prophet. And sure enough, God reaches out to us through this mysterious woman Wisdom.

            Listen again to the opening from today’s reading from Proverbs:

            “Wisdom cries out in the street; in the squares she raises her voice. At the busiest corner she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks…”

            There it is – there’s the first part of what the Bible is all about. There it is: God’s eternal invitation – the story of God reaching out to us – the story of God reaching out to us over and over again.

            But then we hear about the human response to God’s invitation.

            Lady Wisdom says,

            “… I have called and you refused, have stretched out my hand and no one heeded…” And then Wisdom goes on to predict that this refusal of God’s invitation – our refusal of welcoming God when God reaches out to us – will lead to disaster.

            But the story of God’s invitation and our response continued.           

            God continued to extend the eternal invitation – continued to reach out to us over and over again.

            And God’s ultimate invitation – God’s ultimate reaching out to us – is the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

            This was such an amazing invitation – such an unexpected reaching out – that back in the First Century most people – even those closest to Jesus – couldn’t quite figure it out – couldn’t quite figure out Jesus.

            So, in today’s gospel lesson we heard Jesus ask his closest friends, “Who do people say that I am?” And then Jesus asks his closest friends, “But, who do you say that I am?”

            And, maybe surprisingly, it’s Peter who gets it right. “You are the Messiah.”

            But, unfortunately, seeing what happens next in the story, we can only give Peter partial credit. Peter obviously doesn’t understand or accept the cost of responding “yes” to God’s invitation. Peter doesn’t understand or accept the cost for Jesus, for Peter himself, or for us.

            For the first time in the Gospel of Mark, here Jesus explains that responding “yes” to God’s invitation is going to mean sacrifice – sacrifice for Jesus and also sacrifice for all of us who choose to follow Jesus.

            Jesus says, “If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.”

            The Bible tells the story of God’s eternal invitation – the story of God reaching out to us – the story of God reaching out to us over and over again.

            And the Bible tells the story of how human beings responded to God’s eternal invitation – the story of how they responded when God reached out to them over and over again.

            Back in the 4^th Century the Church finally decided on what should be included in the Bible.  Nothing more has been added to the Bible since.

            But that doesn’t mean that God is done with us. The great story continues – God continues to issue the invitation – continues to reach out to us. And we are given the choice of how to respond to God’s invitation.

            As Jesus tells us – as Jesus shows us - responding “yes” to God involves a high cost – involves sacrifice – involves giving away our lives in loving service to God and to one another.

            But when we say “yes” to God, when we accept God’s invitation, we live the kinds of lives God has always wanted us to live - and we help God build the kind of world God has always wanted for us.

            We don’t have to look very far to see that God’s love is released when we sacrifice, when we give away our lives, when we say “yes” to God’s invitation.

            Back in the spring, Bishop Beckwith announced that this year on September 11^th he would be at Newark Penn Station along with a rabbi and an imam, offering witness and prayer to anyone who was passing through the station on that somber day. He encouraged the clergy to do something similar.

            To be honest, I was very reluctant. It’s a hard day. And I find it awkward greeting strangers in my black suit and offering them witness and prayer. I’d much rather have people come to me – stop by church or the office.

            Anyway, as many of you know, I went through with it. Last Tuesday, three parishioners and I were at the Madison train station. In 90 minutes we gave out all of our 200 prayer cards. It was a very somber and powerful experience.

            But the most moving experience for me came early – just a few minutes after 6:00 when I was approached by a man in his early 30s on his way into the station.

            He looked at me and said, “Hey! Hey!” And there were tears in his eyes.

            Suddenly I recognized him as a “kid” I had taught in my first year as a teacher, over twenty years ago. (Any teacher will tell you that they never forget their first classes.)

            He didn’t share details, but started telling me how this was such a hard day for him and his family, and how they had a barbeque on Sunday to distract themselves.

            And then, with tears staining his cheeks, he told me about his kids – and said, with a laugh – that another is on the way.

            Finally, he took one of the cards, said good-bye and made his way up to the platform.

            Responding “yes” to God’s invitation involves sacrifice. Saying “yes” to God’s invitation releases God’s love into the world.

            Just look at what’s been happening here at Grace this past week.

            I’ve been associated with this church for five years – on and off – and I’ve never seen us more excited than we are about raising money by selling homemade dog biscuits so that our young parishioner Jack Harter can have a service dog. If you haven’t heard about this – you will!

            I’m sure it was a sacrifice for Doug and Katie Harter to give up some their privacy – to share their story – their lives - with us and so many other people, friends and strangers. And, I know they wouldn’t think or say it this way, but all of those who buy the ingredients and bake, and bag and sell the biscuits are sacrificing. And all of those who have worked to spread the word are sacrificing. And all of those who are buying biscuits – even if they don’t have a dog – maybe even if they’re cat people – are sacrificing.

            But, look what happens when we respond “yes” to God’s invitation.

            Because we’ve said “yes” to God’s invitation, God’s love, God’s love for Jack and for all of us, has been unleashed – pun intended! - here at Grace Church and in Madison and beyond.           

            So, today’s a good day to remember what the Bible is all about.

            The Bible tells the story of God’s eternal invitation – the story of God reaching out to us – the story of God reaching out to us over and over again.

            And the Bible tells the story of how human beings responded to God’s eternal invitation – the story of how people responded when God reached out to them over and over again.

            The Bible is complete, but today the great story continues, right here and right now.

            God is still extending the invitation, still reaching out, over and over again.             

            How we respond is up to us.

            Amen.

The Goodness and Love Made Known in Creation

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ

September 2, 2012

Year B: Proper 17 – The Fourteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Psalm 45: 1-2, 7-10

(James 1:17-27)

Mark 7:1-8, 14-15, 21-23

The Goodness and Love Made Known in Creation

            Many of you know that I attended – and later taught at – St. Peter’s Prep in Jersey City. It’s an all-boys high school that was founded by the Society of Jesus, a religious order better known as the Jesuits.

            Like members of other Roman Catholic orders – and Episcopal orders, as well – Jesuits make vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. They live in community with fellow Jesuits. They have few of their own possessions and receive only a small stipend to cover their personal expenses.

            Over the years I became good friends with some Jesuits. I remember years ago talking with one of my Jesuit friends and he told me that he had asked his superior for permission to buy his own radio/CD player – what used to be called a boom box.

            He explained that before giving his permission the superior wanted to know how my friend thought this radio would support his ministry – how this radio would bring him closer to God and make him a better priest and a better Christian.

            While he was telling me about all of this I remember thinking that this was just about the craziest thing that I had ever heard. I mean what was the big deal? After all, we were talking about a radio! It’s not like my friend was asking to buy a Mercedes or a vacation house at the Shore.

            It’s just a boom box!

            And, I thought, here’s another example of crazy Christians thinking that the physical, material world – our bodies and our stuff – even just a radio - is somehow bad and evil.

            And, unfortunately, there is a long history of Christians mistakenly thinking that the physical world is bad.

            It probably goes back to misunderstanding St. Paul who liked to contrast flesh and spirit. But, when Paul wrote and taught about the flesh he didn’t mean that our bodies and the physical were bad. God made it all so by definition it’s good. But, Paul insisted that our bodies and the physical world are vulnerable. Our bodies and the physical world can be broken – can be defiled - by the poor choices we make.

            And we don’t have to be bible scholars or theologians to know that Paul was absolutely right.

            And, of course, Paul was simply echoing Jesus as we heard in today’s gospel lesson.

            Today we heard part of a larger debate between Jesus and the Pharisees and scribes. Lauren and I have mentioned before that the Pharisees get a bad rap in the New Testament. We don’t know as much about them as we’d like, but it seems that they were very interested in sanctifying – making holy - everyday life.

            At least in that way, the Pharisees would fit right in today with our emphasis on special spiritual practices like mindfulness meditation or centering prayer or praying with beads – all of which are designed to help make everyday life holy.

            Apparently ritual hand-washing was one of spiritual practices encouraged by the Pharisees.

            Not a problem, unless, of course, the hand-washing - or any other spiritual practice – isn’t matched by what’s going on in our hearts.

            So, Jesus, right in line with many of the Hebrew Prophets, tells the crowd, “Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.”

            Jesus tells the crowd – and tells us – that we need to take care of what’s going on inside our hearts – because it’s what’s inside our hearts that will defile us - and ultimately destroy us.

            At the same time, Jesus is also affirming the goodness of God’s creation – the goodness of our bodies, the goodness of this planet and its creatures and the goodness of the whole universe.

            I love the start of Eucharistic Prayer B, which we’ve been using this summer at the 10:00 service: “We give thanks to you, O God, for the goodness and love which you have made known to us in creation.”

            It’s beautiful, right? “…The goodness and love which you have made known to us in creation…”

            At our best, Jews and Christians have insisted that we can learn a lot about the goodness and love of God just by paying attention to what’s going on around us. That understanding goes right back the creation story when God looks at creation declares it very good.

            Probably no book of the Bible does a better job of describing God’s goodness and love made known to us in creation than the book we heard from in today’s first lesson: the Song of Songs.

            It’s sometimes called the Song of Solomon, though it was probably written in the 3^rd or 4th Century BC, long after the days of King Solomon. It has the distinction of being the only book in the Bible that never mentions God.

            As we heard in today’s excerpt, the Song of Songs is a poem about a man and a woman who are passionately in love with each other.

            So, what’s it doing in the Bible, you ask? Well, Jews have seen this love poem as an allegory of God’s love for Israel while Christians have seen it as an allegory of God’s love for the Church.

            Those are perfectly valid interpretations, but the song’s inclusion in the Bible also reminds us that since God is love we can learn a lot about God through the love that we share with one another.           

            Since God is love we learn a lot about God through the love we share with our husbands and wives, our parents, children, grandchildren and friends.

            The Song of Songs reminds us that we learn a lot about God right here in this physical world when we laugh together, when we hold hands, when we hug, when we kiss.

            “We give thanks to you, O God, for the goodness and love which you have made known to us in creation.”

            The trouble is – as the prophets and as Jesus understood very clearly – that what’s born in our hearts can twist the goodness and love made known to us in creation into ugliness and destruction.

            We don’t have to look far to know that’s true. The greed and selfishness born in our hearts has defiled the good creation into a polluted world where a few have much and most have very little.

            The greed and selfishness born in our hearts has defiled the good creation into a harsh world where people are treated as things  - things used to satisfy our needs and wants.

            The greed and selfishness born in our hearts has defiled the good creation into an uncaring world where many of us are self-centered, stingy with our love, quick to judge or hold a grudge and reluctant to forgive.

            What’s born in our hearts can twist the goodness and love made known to us in creation into ugliness and destruction.

            I thought it was crazy when my Jesuit friend had to ask permission to buy a radio – had to explain how this purchase would bring him closer to God, how it would enhance his ministry, how it would make him a better Christian.

            He could have just bought the radio, but, he had made vows of poverty, chastity and obedience – and was striving to live them out as faithfully as he could.

            And maybe, in our own way, we should make our own vows of poverty, chastity and obedience.

            Poverty. Before we buy something we should vow to ask, will having this thing bring me closer to God? Will making this purchase help me be a better Christian? Will buying this thing help or hurt God’s good creation?

            Chastity. We should vow to keep our sacred promises, to treat other people not as objects for our pleasure or use - not as things - but as having infinite value as beloved children of God.

            Obedience. We should vow to really obey God’s command to give and give and give, to love unreservedly and to forgive infinitely.

            Not easy. But, if we, in our own way, try to keep our own vows of poverty, chastity and obedience we’ll work with God to restore the good creation that’s been defiled by the greed and selfishness born in our hearts.

            If we, in our own way, make our own vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, when we join together at the Lord’s Table we’ll truly give thanks to God for the goodness and love made known to us in creation.

            Amen.           

           

           

           

           

            

The Queen's Duty - and Ours

Grace Episcopal Church, Madison NJ

The Messenger

September 2012

The Queen’s Duty – and Ours

Last month many of us enjoyed watching the Summer Olympics held in London. It’s always amazing to see what these remarkable athletes are able to achieve – how they are able to push the limits of human strength, endurance and grace. Many people noted the contrast between the London games and the extravaganza in Beijing four years ago. While the Chinese clearly wanted to demonstrate that they are now a major world power, the British had less to prove. Their more easygoing and quirky attitude was best seen in the idiosyncratic opening ceremony featuring everything from Mary Poppins to Mr. Bean to a celebration of the National Health Service.

For me, the highlight of the opening ceremony was the short film that featured James Bond (Daniel Craig) arriving at Buckingham Palace to escort Queen Elizabeth to the games. I’m sure many of us were surprised and amused that it really was the Queen – surely the most unexpected “Bond Girl” ever – who turned from her desk and greeted 007 with a perfectly delivered, “Good evening, Mr. Bond.”

The Olympics and the Queen’s film debut capped off the Diamond Jubilee - a landmark year in her life and the life of the British nation. Even people who think it’s silly, wasteful and undemocratic to have a monarchy in the 21^st Century have expressed respect for the way the Queen has carried out her responsibilities since she inherited them 60 years ago – at the age of 25. In reading different commentaries on her long reign, one word repeatedly leaps out: duty.

On her 21^st birthday, then Princess Elizabeth broadcast a speech in which she said, “I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service and the service of our great imperial family to which we all belong.” Addressing Parliament this past March, she renewed her long-ago commitment, saying, “I rededicate myself to the service of our great country and its people now and in the years to come.”

Despite the luxuries of royal life, I’m sure there have been at least some days when she craved a “normal life” – to be freed from the ribbon-cuttings, meetings with politicians, conversations with strangers, and the media’s focus on her family’s frequent foibles.  Yet, over the decades the Queen has faithfully done her duty and shows no sign of giving up her responsibilities.

So, what does the Queen’s dedication to duty have to do with us? Today the word duty is usually associated with military service – but we have clear and important duties as Christians.

When a child is baptized the parents and godparents are asked, “Will you be responsible for seeing that the child you present is brought up in the Christian faith and life?” They answer, “I will with God’s help.” And at every baptism the congregation is asked, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” We answer, “We will.” We may not think of it this way, but we are promising to do our duty to support, educate and encourage the newly baptized.

But, our duty is greater even than that. The Baptismal Covenant is about proclaiming our faith but it’s also about committing – with God’s help – to do our duty. We promise to do our duty in continuing in the life of the Church, in resisting evil, in proclaiming the Good News, in loving our neighbors as ourselves and striving for justice and peace among all people.

Despite the joys of the Christian life, maybe there are days when we crave a “normal” life – to be as materialistic as the rest of society, to look out only for ourselves and those closest to us, to demonize or ridicule those who are different or who simply disagree with us and to hold on to our grudges. It’s very tempting – and I know all too well that I don’t always live up to my duty as a Christian.

Fortunately, the Church offers lots of reminders of our duties – and also absolution when we fall short. The Church also offers many opportunities for us to carry out our duties. One simple, small but significant way to carry out our Christian duty is by remembering to buy food and place it in the Food for Friends barrel in the lobby. In a sermon last month I challenged us – dared us – to fill the barrel to overflowing each and every week. Considering that on average 300 people come to our Sunday services, this should be no problem. We haven’t quite managed that yet, but of course many have been away on vacation.

Now that summer is drawing to close, maybe we can rededicate ourselves to our Christian duty – rededicate ourselves to loving God and loving one another  - rededicate ourselves to giving generously, beginning when we walk into church and share our bounty with the poor and hungry. The reward is the life that God has always hoped for us: a royal life greater than the Queen or any of us can imagine.