Sharing Our Love of God

May the spirit of God infuse my words and carry them forth with God’s purpose.  Amen.

“O Lord, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all; the earth is full of your creatures.”

Last week we I asked you to name some things that are important to you about this church; some things that you love.  Here is what you came up with.

This church is intimate.  Everyone knows everyone else.

This church is a focal point in the community.  With all of the baptisms, weddings and funerals that have taken place here over the years, almost everyone in this community is connected in some way to this church.

This church is a peaceful place.  If you come inside and just sit for a bit, you can feel God’s presence.

I’m sure that over the past week, some of you have thought of some other things that you love about this church.  I would love to add them to the list.

 

“Yonder is the sea, great and wide, creeping things innumerable are there, living things both small and great.  There go the ships, and Leviathan that you formed for to sport in it.  These all look to you to give them food in due season: when you give it to them, they gather it up: when you open your hand, they are filled with good things.”

What I love about this church is that I am spiritually fed by what we do here each Sunday.  When we worship together, when we break the bread and share in the eucharist, I feel the peace that comes from listening to God’s call.

 

“When you hide your face, they are dismayed; when you take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.”

These things that we have listed, these things that we love about this church, the reason that we love them is that they are God’s face revealed to us.  Fellowship, community, peace, worship … these are all things that God calls us to share.  They are important things.  In this place, God’s face is not hidden.  Halleluia!

But what about the rest of the time?  When we go out from here and lock the door after us?  Where is God’s face then?

“When you send forth your spirit, they are created; and you renew the face of the ground.” 

Today is Pentecost.  Today is the day that God sent out his spirit upon the earth in such abundance that people began to speak in tongues.  Today is a special day for celebrating the individual gifts that we have each been given.  We have all been abundantly blessed with gifts of the spirit.

“May the glory of the Lord endure forever; may the Lord rejoice in his works – who looks on the earth and it trembles, who touches the mountains and they smoke.”

God’s gifts have been given to us with a purpose.  We are all here because we hear God’s call.  We are all here because we know that God has a purpose for us and for our gifts. 

But what is our purpose?

“I will sing to the lord as long as I live; I will sing praise to my God while I have being. May my meditation be pleasing to him, for I rejoice in the Lord.”

We are called to be intimate with one another and with those around us.

We are called to be a unifying force in our community.

We are called to share the peace of God with all that we meet, whether here in this place or outside in the rest of creation.

We are called to break bread together and to praise God for the wonderful things that God has done.

These are all things that we know how to do.  We do them very well here in this place.  Now we just need to figure out how to do them better out there.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul, Praise the Lord!

A Mother's Love

I speak to you in the name of the Mother of all creation; the One, True and Living God.  Amen.

“As my Father has loved me, so I love you.  Abide in my love.”

Sounds good, but what does it mean?

How did God show his love for his son, Jesus?  Did God keep Jesus safe?  No.  Did God make sure that Jesus’ life would be easy and productive?  Definitely not.  Did God clear the path for Jesus so that he could reach his goals more easily?  Again … no.

God sent Jesus out into the world to proclaim the good news.  God let Jesus struggle with Satan in the wilderness.  God let Jesus get tired enough that he sought rest in Syrophoenicia.  God did not let him rest there.  God let Jesus trudge from one village to another, often with the authorities mad at him by the time he left.  God let Jesus feel despair on the cross at Calvary.

“As my Father has loved me, so I love you.”

That’s some tough love and that’s what Jesus promised us.  So how is this good news?

Some people believe that God directs every moment of our lives; that we live exactly according to God’s plan.  I don’t believe this.  To me, a god that would do this does not love.  This idea of God makes God into a dictator, not a parent.

I believe that God is much more like a good mother.  God calls to us.  God tries to let us know the best path that we can take.  God does not force us to take that path.  We are free to ignore God’s call.  We are free to turn the wrong way.  When our choices bring us to pain, God does not take them away from us, but God does stay with us while we suffer.  When our choices lead us into danger, God worries about our safety and tries to call us back from the danger.

This is how I understand God’s love.

 

Everyone here who has been a parent knows about this feeling.  We want so much to protect our children, to keep them from all harm.  I would feel much safer seeing Paul and Rosa go to school in the morning wearing elbow and knee pads and hockey helmets.  It would be great if I could keep them away from knives and stoves forever.  But this wouldn’t be good parenting.  This would be putting them in a kind of a prison.  A good parent is a guide, not a ruler.

Just as we have to allow our children to make their own mistakes, God lets us choose our own path.  Just as we cringe when we watch our children trying to cook for the first time, God watches over us as we make our journey through life.  Just as we cry our own tears when our children get hurt, so God feels the pain of our suffering.

This is the love of a mother or a father for their child.  This is God’s love for us.  Whether we have children or not, most of us can understand this love by thinking about our own parents.

“As my Father has loved me, so I love you.  Abide in my love.”

Do you remember what a comfort it is to feel that love?  When you made a bad choice and your mother or father was there waiting for you to come home?  How they told you it was okay, you would know better next time?

Do you remember the smile you got as your parents tried to eat that meal that even you couldn’t choke down?

Do you remember being held as you cried after something went terribly wrong?

This is God’s love for each of us, every day.  This is the love that Jesus told us to abide in.  This is the love that Jesus promises is there for all who look for it.

By the grace of God this love is ours.

Jesus tells us that we have our own part to play in this love.

“This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”

It is our calling as Christians to extend this love to each other.  It is our calling as Christians to try to guide and help each other as we struggle to follow God’s call.  It is our calling as Christians to love one another as we make our mistakes, as we wander into danger, as we cause ourselves and others pain.

It is our calling as Christians to love each person just as if they were our own son or daughter.  No matter what mistakes they make, we are to love them.  No matter how difficult they are to like, we are to love them.  No matter how much pain they cause to themselves or to others, we are to love them.

This does not mean that we have to like what people do.  We all know that some people do awful things.  We have all done awful things ourselves.  But when people accept that what they have done is wrong, we need to be able to accept them back, not as a repentant sinner, but as someone we love.

 

This is a very difficult calling.  To share the same unconditional love that we feel for our children with everyone.  But this is what Jesus is asking for us to do.

I can’t do it.  I try and some days I do better than others, but I’m not there yet.  I think that when we finally get to the point that everyone on earth can feel this love for everyone else, we will finally reached the Kingdom of God.

 

In the meantime, we abide in God’s love.  We can rest assured that at the very least, God, our heavenly mother, loves us this way.  And we can give thanks for the love of our own parents, particularly today for the love we have received from our mothers.

Thanks be to God.

I Am the Vine, You Are the Branches

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

“I am the vine, you are the branches.”

Jesus likes to teach us using pictures.  Some pictures are easier to understand than others.  Almost all of them have a surface meaning which is important and a much deeper meaning which is the heart of his teaching.

Today’s Gospel lesson is one of these picture stories.  Our surface story is about how God cares for us.  We are all part of God’s vineyard.  Jesus is the central vine and we are all of his offshoots.  Our nutrients all come through Jesus and God makes sure that the vine is growing properly so that we all get fed.

Another way to look at this picture would be as a tree.  As long as the branches are attached to the tree they continue to grow and bear fruit.  If they get cut off from the tree they wither and die.

It is the same with our lives.  God loves us and cares for us in his garden.  As long as we remain connected to God through our devotion to Jesus, we are nourished by God’s food and we bear fruit.  When we get separated from Jesus, we also become separated from God.  What happens then?  Our lives become dull and fruitless.  We cut ourselves off of the tree.

Is it possible to come back to the tree once we’ve cut ourselves off?  Yes.  Just as a living branch can be grafted onto a tree, we can be joined back into Christ’s body as long as there is some life in us.

So the surface meaning of our Gospel is that as long as we truly live as Jesus teaches us to live, our lives will be fruitful.  And when we stray, as long as we feel that spark calling us back, we can be joined back in to the body of Christ.  This is an important message.  A message that needs to be heard and lived by, but it is a message that Jesus has told us over and over again in many stories.

So what makes this story special?  What makes it different from all the rest?

I am the vine, you are the branches.

Apart from me, you can do nothing.

Let every one who loves me, love one another.

I am the vine, you are the branches.

This is the chorus from a hymn in our hymnbook.  “Apart from me, you can do nothing?”  It seems to me that lots of people who do not believe in God get lots of stuff done.  But this line comes directly from our Gospel.  “Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it abides in the vine, neither can you unless you abide in me.”  So if our Gospel is truth, if it is good news for us, there must be some deeper meaning. 

I think Jesus is trying to teach us what it means to bear fruit in his name.  It seems obvious to me that this is not about money.  Do you remember what Jesus said about being rich?  “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”  So Jesus message is not supposed to bring us financial wealth.  So let’s look at the word “fruit.”

Matthew and Luke talk about bearing good fruit and bad fruit.  They talk about a tree being known by its fruit.  They relate this good and bad fruit to good and evil deeds.  Other than our Gospel today, John talks very little about fruit.  When he does talk about fruit, he is talking about those things that are worth doing.  Anything not worth doing is not fruitful. 

Jesus is trying to teach us that there is much more to life that money.  Or maybe that money and wealth are not the same thing.  When we live our lives intentionally, when everything we do is because of Jesus’ call, our lives will be much more fulfilling.  We will be wealthy beyond measure.  We will know God’s presence in our lives and we will always have enough to do what we are called to do.

So what does that mean for us today in this community?

“Let every one who loves me, love one another.”

Our community has just been hit with a couple of big blows.  With the cutbacks at the park, there are fewer jobs and those who have jobs will have fewer hours.  On top of this, the prices for lobster and crab are very low this year.  This means that there will be less money brought into our community by fishing.  Our fishermen and women will be hurting this year.  We need to live up to the promise we made when we blessed the fleet.  We need to extend our support to these people.  We need to let them know that we will do what we can to help, no matter how small that help might be.  We need to do the same for those who are employed by the park.  If we truly live in Christ, we can do no less.

In fact, because there will be less money in the community this year because of these issues and because of rising prices, we need to support each other.  We must offer help when we see a need and we must ask for help when we are in need.  This is what it means to be part of the Body of Christ.  This is also what it means to bear good fruit.  “If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.  My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit and become my disciples.”

We are called in to share in the food that Christ provides, to be nourished by the Gospel.  We are sent out to bear good fruit and to share in the abundance of God’s gifts to us.

Thanks be to God.

Being Good Stewards of God's Gift - The Church

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Once upon a time there was a young boy.  This boy grew up in a pretty ordinary family.  He had several brothers and sisters but he was the oldest.  His parents did all the right things.  They made sure that he was taught about God.  They made sure that he learned how to pray.  They regularly took him to worship.  All of their plans for their son were right on track.  And then one day everything changed.

Does this story sound familiar?  Does at least part of it sound familiar?

It should.  This story is told in much more detail in our Gospels.  It is also told over and over again, generation after generation.

Our Gospels tell us that Jesus’ parents made sure that they brought him to the temple to be taught about God.  They made sure that he went through all of the proper rites of passage.  He was circumcised and had his bar-mitzvah.  If Jesus were a Christian today, his parents would have had him baptized and he would have been confirmed on schedule.  And then everything would change.

When the time was right, Jesus stopped and looked at the world around him.  He looked at his worship life.  He looked at the way that people treated each other.  He looked at the needs of his people.  And with wisdom that had nothing to do with his years on this earth, he saw what changes needed to be made and how to make them happen.

Was it easy for him to make these changes?  (No!)  Was it easy to get people to listen to him?  (No!)  In the end, the only way that he could get enough people to listen was to die for them.  So why did he do it?

Because he loved all of God’s creation.  “We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us.”

What do we call this kind of action?

What do we call it when we look at the world around us, try to figure out what isn’t working right, and then do whatever it takes to make it right?

We call it stewardship.

I know we usually talk about stewardship when we talk about money, but that’s not really what stewardship is about.  Stewardship is about taking care of the gifts that God has given us.  I’m not talking about financial stewardship today, or at least not directly.  I’m talking about other gifts that God gives us.

Can anyone name a gift that we have from God?

-         Family

-         The church

-         Friends

-         Money

-         Health

-         Creation

-         Time

And how do we take care of that gift (name it)?  How can we be good stewards?

For a moment, let’s focus on one of God’s gifts.  A gift that brought us all here today.  The Church.  How can we be good stewards of this gift?

“We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us – and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.  How does God’s love abide in anyone who had the world’s goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet refuses to help?  Little children, let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

If we are going to be good stewards of this gift we have been given, we need to look carefully at what we are doing.  We need to discern whether we are serving God or serving ourselves.  We need to see what is working and what is not working.  And we need to make it right.  This is stewardship.

But how do we tell what is right and what isn’t?  There isn’t an easy answer.  But there is something that may help.  This past fall, I mentioned something called the “Five Marks of a Healthy Parish.”  I just mentioned this in passing.  I didn’t list what these marks are.  I’m going to list them and talk a bit about them, but don’t worry, you don’t have to remember what they are.  There are copies of them at the back that you can pick up after church.

So here we go:

The first mark is IDENTITY.  Our congregation knows who they are before God.

The assignment on the back of this month’s schedule is about this.  And I’m hoping that we can explore our identity together over the next little while.

The second mark is VISION.  Our congregation knows what it is called to do.

Lately I’ve been talking a lot about what we are called to do.  I can only say what all Christians are called to do.  You have to discern what this parish is called to do.

The third mark is FINANCIAL STEWARDSHIP.  Our congregation has the resources and leadership necessary to carry out its calling.

Right now this is a struggle.  Usually, once you have the other marks in place, it is no longer a problem.

The fourth mark is WORSHIP.  People experience the power and energy of the Gospel in their worship and life together.

There are two key words here … power and energy.  I know that it is much more comfortable to have worship that is familiar, worship that doesn’t surprise us or make us work too hard, but where has that brought us?

The fifth mark is OUTREACH.  The activities of the congregation make a discernible difference in individual lives and in the world around us.

For me, this is THE key point in stewardship of the church.  We are called to come together in community to support each other and to work for the common good.  If we forget the second part, we stop being church and become a Christian social group.

Bishop Sue has added a sixth mark: CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION.  Our congregation can transform conflict into positive energy for the Gospel.

“Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.”

We come together here because we all have faith.  We believe that God has a purpose for the church here in this community.  “We ought to lay down our lives for one another.”  I pray that we can all open ourselves to God’s call.  I have faith that God will help us figure out what his church is supposed to be doing in this place, and that when we have that figured out, God will make sure that we have the resources to do it.

Witness

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

Our Gospel today starts with a question of faith.  When Jesus appeared to his disciples that day after the resurrection, were they happy to see him?  No, they were terrified.  They thought that he was a spirit.  That he was there, but without any flesh.  They had to actually touch him before they believed that he was real.  In fact even that was not enough.  To prove that he was a living man, he had to eat in their presence.  Why was it so hard for them to believe that Jesus was really there?  These are the same people who had been travelling with Jesus for as many as three years.  They knew him as well as they knew their own families and yet they needed him to prove to them that it was really him and he was really there.

Why was this so hard for them?

Well, let’s see … they had just seen Jesus die on the cross.  They had watched as he stopped breathing and as the soldiers stabbed him in the side with a spear.  They had seen him being buried in a tomb.  Sure, before he died, he told them that he would return to them.  He told them that he would be back in three days.  He also told them that the meek would inherit the earth and they all knew that those in power would never let that happen.  Besides, who understood even half of what Jesus said?  Certainly not the disciples.  Some of them seemed to understand more, but even the best of them were often confused.

These are the people that Jesus sent out to proclaim the good news.  These are the people who suffered through times of worshiping in secret because open worship meant death.  These are the people who struggled to spread this news in a world where their words were not welcome.  These are the people who would not give up and spread the message of salvation, the message that the poorest of the poor were just as deserving of God’s love as those in power, perhaps even more deserving.

Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, “Peace be with you.”

If Jesus were to come into this church and say that to us, would we recognize him?  What proof would we need before we accepted that he was here with us?  What would it take for us to believe that it was Jesus and not some mentally disturbed person in need of some serious help?

For myself, I’m not sure.  I don’t know what Jesus would have to do to make me believe.

 

How about if Jesus were to stand among us in spirit, as the disciples at first believed?  Would we accept that?  Would you?

This is something that we actually talk about fairly regularly.  Every time that we celebrate the Eucharist, each time that we share communion, we talk about Christ being present with us in the bread and the wine.  The blessing that I sing sometimes has the words “See the face of Christ in each person.”  We say that we believe that we can look for and find Christ in those around us.  How often do you try this?  How often, when you are talking with someone, do you try to find something in them that reminds you of the message of the Gospel?  Even more important than that, when you notice something Christlike about someone, how often do you tell them?

 

“Thus it is written, that the Messiah is to suffer and to rise from the dead on the third day, and that repentance and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations, beginning from Jerusalem.  You are witnesses of these things.”

The second part of our Gospel reading this morning is about what it means to witness.  It wasn’t enough for the disciples to see Jesus and believe that it was him.  Witness means much more than this.  Being a witness carries with it an obligation.  If you witness a crime, it is your obligation to report it and if necessary, to testify in court.  Witnessing Christ is no different.  If you or I witness Christ in someone, it is our obligation to testify.  It is our obligation to tell at least that person, or better yet, tell lots of people that we saw Christ.

This kind of witness is the easy one.  We notice something that reminds us of Christ and speak up.  How do we witness the resurrection?  How do we witness the Last Supper?  How do we witness our baptism?  All of these are central to our Anglican identity.  All of these shape our worship and our lives.  I have no doubt that these have meaning to you, but when is the last time you seriously thought about them?  When is the last time you told someone what you believe; what is important to you?  This is what it means to witness: #1 – see and believe, #2 – think and understand, #3 – tell someone about it.

 

Sometime this week you should get your May schedule in the mail.  On the back of the schedule, there will be an assignment for everyone.  I can’t make anyone do the assignment, but I hope you will.  What I’m going to ask you to do is to write one page about why your Christian faith is important to you.  What it is about Christ and his church that call to you and give your life meaning.  You don’t have to turn these in to me, but I will ask that you share it with someone.  Even if you do give it to me, share it with someone else first.  Also, if you do give it to me, let me know if it is okay to share it.  I would like to share some of them on future schedules (starting with my own) as a way of letting others know how our church still has meaning, what it could mean to them.

On that day long ago Jesus said to his disciples “You are witnesses of these things” and then he sent them out.  We say that we are his disciples too.  We too are being sent out.

I pray that God will help us because we need it.

Blessing (of the Fleet)

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of all our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer.  Amen.

Today we are going to bless the fleet.  Why?

Do we bless the fleet because that’s what we’re supposed to do?  Because we do it every year?  Or does it have meaning beyond tradition?  What does it mean when we bless something anyway?  What does it mean when we ask God to bless something?

Now the LORD said to Abram, "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." (Genesis 12:1-3 NRSV)

This reading from Genesis begins to tell us what blessing is about.  On the surface, blessing is the opposite of cursing.  Blessing is as good as cursing is bad.  But blessing is much more than that.  Blessing is about relationship.  It is about being in right relationship with each other.  It is about being in right relationship with God.

How do we know when we are in right relationship with God?  Our Gospel today has some clues to help us.

Jesus said to them again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you."  When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit.  If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained." (John 20:21-23 NRSV)

We can’t be in right relationship with God if we are not in right relationship with each other.  Jesus tells us that we have the power to retain sins … to keep them from being forgiven.  He also tells us that he gives us peace.  I think these two things cannot truly go together.  If we keep someone’s sins how can we truly be at peace?  Our only true choice, if we want to be in right relationship with God, is to forgive.

Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe. (John 20:29 NRSV)

A good relationship with God depends on faith.  We won’t always be able to see God working in our lives.  If we want to be in right relationship with God, we have to trust that God is walking with us.  No matter what happens in our lives, whether it is good or bad, God shares our joy and our pain.

So in a few minutes, when we bless the fleet, we are praying for three things to happen.  First, we are saying that we want to be in right relationship with those who, like Andrew and James, make their livings by fishing in the sea, especially those who fish in our own community.  We promise to support them and pray for them throughout this season.  Second, we pray that they remain in right relationship with God.  That they give thanks for God’s abundance, for whatever catch God provides.  Third, we pray for God to bless them.  We ask God to make his presence known to them as they journey away from these shores.  To help them to know that no matter what happens, they are never alone.

The most important part for us here today is the first part; our part.  We have faith that God will watch over our fleet.  It takes work for us to make sure that we continue to support them, not just today but always.  It takes discipline for us to remember them in our prayers.  Today is just the start.  So if everyone would please take out your leaflet for the blessing of the fleet ….

Easter Vigil - Baptism Revisitted

Eternal God, help us to find the way from darkness into light.  Show us your presence in our lives.  Lead us into the glow of your glory reflected in your creation and in us.  Through Jesus Christ our risen Lord.  Amen.

Tonight we are reborn.  Tonight we surrender to death and are brought into new life.  All through Lent we have been making our way, step by step, in the path of Jesus as he walked his road to Resurrection.  Well, we made it.

Tonight is a happy message.  We are done with the doom and gloom of Golgotha.  Tonight we are renewing our baptismal vows.  Tomorrow morning we will celebrate baptism itself.

But if this is such a joyous event, what is with that reading from Romans.  According to it, we were baptized into Christ’s death.  Tomorrow Jayden will be baptized into Christ’s death.  How is that good.  Aren’t we supposed to be baptized into new life?

 

Well, both are true.  Because Christ died for us and rose again, he defeated the power of death over us.  As Christians we do not live in his crucifixion, we live in his resurrection.  In baptism, we take our part in his death and are raised to new life on the other side.  We are an Easter people.  That is our choice and our calling.

This does not mean that we undertake baptism lightly.  Baptism has serious consequences and the benefits are much less clear.

We don’t need to be baptized to be saved from eternal death.  Christ was quite clear that he died for all, not just for those who follow him.  For the same reason, we don’t have to be baptized to be forgiven our sins, but it helps.

That’s what baptism isn’t.  There are many very different customs and beliefs about what baptism is.  There are a few that most churches agree on.

Baptism is a gift from God.  In baptism the Holy Spirit becomes part of us and is with us for our entire life.

Baptism cleanses us from sin, both past and future.  In baptism we become more aware of the moral implications of what we do.  We become more able to recognize when we need to return to God, when we have strayed.

Baptism is a sign of the Kingdom of God here on earth.  Baptism is part of God’s promise to us of the time when all will acknowledge the One True and Living God.  When justice will reign and the strife will be over.

Baptism is a rite of initiation into the Body of Christ.  When we are baptised we make promises to God and to the other members of the Body of Christ.  These promises are bound to change our lives if we keep them.  None of them are particularly hard to keep but as a whole they define a way of life that takes discipline, practice, and help to maintain.

In baptism we participate in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  We become part of the story of salvation.  We give up our former life.  We surrender to God through Christ and promise to follow his example as we make our journey in the light of our own resurrection.

In just a moment we are going to renew our baptismal vows.  As we make our way through these vows, think carefully about what they mean to you today.  Try to remember what they meant to you in the past and how you have grown in your faith.  As we affirm our own faith in the baptismal covenant, think carefully about what you are promising.  These are promises made to God.

  

We know that God is faithful and will keep his promises to us.  Let’s see if we can help each other keep our promises to God.

Amen.