16 Pentecost, Year B

"GREATNESS"
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on Sunday, September 20, 2009
Proper 20 -- Wisdom 1: 16 – 2: 12; Psalm 54; James 3: 16 – 4: 6; Mark 9: 30 – 37

“If any one would be first, he must be last of all and servant of all.”

Ever thought about greatness, being the best, being first?

We live in a world that values greatness.

Take, for example, our love of sports. It’s all about who is the best, isn’t it? It’s all about winning (even in our grade schools and high schools). That’s the point of the World Series, which will be coming up in about a month, after all. The World Series caps off the major league baseball season, and its aim is to determine which team is the greatest. (Now, admittedly, the best team this year might be the Cardinals, though we’re fairly sure it won’t be the Cubs, at least not this year.)

The same could be said of the Superbowl, or of college football’s poll rankings. Their purpose is to determine who’s the greatest.

Entertainment values greatness. Consider the way that the TV show “American Idol” is structured. Even the name of the show, and its use of the word “idol” implies that greatness is a trait that is involved in choosing who is the best contestant.

Our political world treats greatness with careful regard. Many of our politicians, once they are elected, like to cloak themselves with the greatness of being a statesman.

As we look back down the halls of time, we see that many figures of past ages were those who subdued enemies, or who conquered seemingly insurmountable obstacles. They did so, oftentimes, by force of will and by yielding power in some way or another. They are great, in our eyes, because they wound up on top of things.

Even Charles Darwin, in his treatment of his theory of evolution, articulated a view of the natural world in which the strongest would survive, at the expense of the weakest.

The world we live in is in love with greatness, with power, with status.

So, it’s no wonder that we read in our gospel for today that the twelve disciples are walking along the road to Capernaum, discussing among themselves who was the greatest.

This conversation shouldn’t surprise us at all.

In fact, the concern that the twelve disciples lavished on the idea of greatness shows up in a number of places in the gospels. Consider, for example, the account of the mother of James and John (known as the Sons of Thunder – a nickname Jesus gave them), as she came up to Jesus and posed this request: “Command that these two sons of mine may sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom.” Talk about ego!

In another place, the disciples seem to be willing to exercise some divine power by asking Jesus if they should call down fire upon the Samaritans who wouldn’t listen to Jesus? (See Luke 9:54). At work here is the idea of the powerful destroying the weak.

But notice, as we turn back to our text for today, that the talk of greatness stands right next to something that has everything to do with weakness, with submission: Jesus’ death on the cross.

A person can’t be any more of a “nobody” than on a cross. For this form of execution was reserved for slaves, for conquered peoples. This form of death involved shame, the loss of everything the person owned (personal possessions and even clothing!), and the loss of family and friends….those who died on a cross died alone, totally alone. Those crucified lost everything, even their dignity. The cross is the symbol of defeat, of weakness, of submission.

Already, in the first prediction of His coming death, Jesus has alluded to the cross. Heard last week in our gospel reading, He says this, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” (Mark 8: 34)

No wonder that Mark reminds us today that none of the disciples were especially unwilling to ask Jesus about the second mention of His death. They probably knew what happened to anyone who would dare to challenge the power structure of first century Palestine….if the Romans didn’t find a place for such a person on a couple of pieces of wood, then the Jewish authorities would find a way to work with the Romans to make sure that the same end came to that person….Indeed, that’s exactly what happened once Jesus arrived in Jerusalem.

A person back then didn’t need to possess the wisdom of a rocket scientist to figure out the power structure – put another way: who was the greatest – and to know what the outcome of challenges to the positions of greatness and power was likely to be.

So we see today that notions of greatness from the world’s standpoint nudge right up against the power structure of the kingdom of God.

These two concepts of greatness couldn’t be any farther apart:

One values overt power and strength, the other has all the marks of defeat.

One values pomp and circumstance, the other is marked by shame and loss.

But who is the greatest, really?

If we look at Good Friday and at the cross, then it looks as though the world won the battle for greatness.

But if we look at Easter Sunday morning and at the empty tomb, then we see the power of God, as the powers of evil, death, defeat and loss are all conquered. God is the greatest!

Moreover, the victory of Easter Sunday is an enduring one….no army is needed to maintain the fruits of this victory, for this victory is permanent, enduring, and ours.

But, in advance of this final victory, Jesus has to illustrate for His twelve disciples just how much of a nobody everyone of us is called to be in the kingdom: He takes a child up into His arms, and says, “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, and whoever receives me, receives not me but him who sent me.”

We need to unpack the meaning of this action and of Jesus’ statement a little, for our contemporary culture risks losing the meaning of Jesus’ act of taking a child into His arms….

You see, in the ancient world, children were nobodies. They had no legal status, and they were regarded as being non-persons. Even in Roman families, if there were no legal heirs, a person would adopt an adult to be their heir. They wouldn’t adopt a child. Children in ancient times were nobodies.

Jesus seeks to illustrate this reality by the act of taking up a child in His arms.

As the gospel’s reality unfolds, this notion of servanthood is lived out. Surely, it is lived our by Our Lord on the cross. But there are other places, as well, where see this principal of servanthood, of “nobodiness”. Let’s consider a couple of them:

The Last Supper and the washing of feet: (See John 13). By washing the disciples’ feet, Jesus takes on the role of a slave, for the washing of feet following a long journey along dusty roads was the work of a slave.

The Last Supper and Jesus’ pronouncement about greatness: (See Luke 22: 24ff). Here, we read that another dispute arose among the disciples about who was the greatest. But Jesus responds by saying, “The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and those in authority over them are called benefactors. But not so with you, rather let the greatest among you become as the youngest, and the leader as one who serves. For which is the greater, one who sits at table, or one who serves? Is it not the one who sits at table? But I am among you as one who serves.”

The reality of the early Church was that, oftentimes, it was not the greatest, the wisest, the richest, nor the most powerful who became Christians. St. Paul affirms this reality in his first letter to the Christians at Corinth, saying, “For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth; but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong, God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, that no human being might boast in the presence of God.”

We see that the same principle, the principle of the weakness of God overcoming the strength of the world, at work. It’s the same principle that we see in the cross of Christ.

It is the principle that each of us as Christians are called to follow: “Take up our cross and follow the Lord,” is our call.

“Deny yourself,” is the means to discovering our truest self in relation to the God who made us, who loves us, who redeems us.

True greatness, true meaning, true power comes as we cross the threshold of faith that asks us to believe this simple truth, a truth that is contradictory according to the world’s definitions: “The first shall be last, and the last shall be first.”

The reality of the life of faith is expressed very well in this Collect for Fridays from the Daily Office:

“Almighty God, whose most dear Son went not up to joy but first he suffered pain, and entered not into glory before he was crucified: Mercifully grant that we, walking in the way of the cross, may find it none other than the way of life and peace; through the same thy Son Jesus Christ our Lord.”

AMEN.

15 Pentecost, Year B

"DESIGNER MESSIAH"
A sermon by The Rev. Gene R. Tucker, given at Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois, on September 13, 2009
Proper 19 -- Isaiah 50: 4 – 9; Proper 19 Psalm 116: 1 – 8; James 2: 1 – 5, 8 – 10, 14 – 18; Mark 8: 27 – 38

Have you ever thought about the bewildering array of choices we have as consumers in our country today?

For example, I was in the grocery store the other day, picking out food for a reception. I wanted some potato chips, and so, as I wandered up and down the aisle, I saw what must have been literally dozens of types of chips. Even the well-known brand names that have been around for awhile now have a large variety of sorts, all carrying the same brand name.

The same can be said about blue jeans, or dungarees….Many of us remember when blue jeans came in one, basic mode. (And, if you’re as old as I am, you couldn’t wear them to school!).

But now, we have a wide variety of blue jeans: carpenter’s jeans (complete with loops to put your hammer into, just like my Danish grandfather used to do), relaxed fit jeans, full cut jeans, flare bottom jeans (see, the 70s have come back, after all!), and, lest we forget, designer jeans (complete with fancy embroidery and an equally fancy price tag!).

Designer jeans.

How about a “designer Messiah” (or, a “designer Christ”, which means the same thing)?

What would I mean by such a term (which, as far as I can tell, is an original one)?

What I mean is, we could have any sort of a Messiah, the Christ, we wanted….why not have a wide variety of concepts of who the Messiah would be, something to suit everyone’s tastes, expectations and needs?

Makes perfect sense to me!

The problem is: having a “designer Messiah” doesn’t make sense to God.

This problem is not a new one. God’s people at the time that Jesus walked this earth had many concepts of who the Messiah would be, too.

Their concepts often matched their tastes, their expectations, their needs, and their particular concepts of just who that person would be, and what they would do once they arrived. Oftentimes, their concepts of who the Messiah would be were grounded in self-centered desires.

God’s reality and their preconceived notions clash in today’s gospel reading, from Mark, chapter eight.

At the heart of the exchange between Jesus, His disciples, and particularly, Peter, is the issue of a “designer Messiah”.

As I ponder Peter’s response to Jesus’ first, open declaration about what the Messiah came to do, that’s the only conclusion I can draw: that Peter had a completely different concept of who the Messiah, the Christ, would be, and it didn’t include going to Jerusalem to suffer, be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the scribes, and be killed.

Well, then, you may ask, what were some of the concepts of who the Messiah, the Christ, would be that were floating around the Jewish community 2,000 years ago?

Though it’s a little hard to enumerate all of them, we can tell with some clarity what some of the main concepts were that circulated among God’s people way back then. They included:

• A prophet like Moses: Many expected the Christ to be a prophet like Moses, who would be mighty in word and in deed. They may have relied on this passage from Deuteronomy 18: 18, which reads, “I will raise up a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him.” It is perhaps because of this verse that St. John the Baptist is asked, “Are you the Prophet?” (John 1: 21) Notice also that the idea that Jesus was the Prophet is one of the answers the disciples give in response to Jesus’ question.
  
  
• A successor to King David: David ruled the United Kingdom of Judah and Israel for forty years (1000 – 961 BC). His was the glorious time of the greatest extent of economic and military power that God’s people had enjoyed, and his reign was regarded with reverence. Moreover, many looked for the fulfillment of God’s promise that a successor to King David would sit upon the throne forever. (See I Chronicles 17: 24 for an example of this hope.)
  
  
• A military ruler: This concept of the Christ is connected, most likely, to the kingly image which is associated with David. Some in Judaism 2,000 years ago may well have hoped that the Messiah would free God’s people from the oppressive rule of the Romans. Indeed, among Jesus immediate, original disciples there was at least one who belonged to the group that advocated a violent overthrow of Roman rule, Simon the Zealot (the Zealots advocated military means to free the Jewish people from the Romans, and it was they who undertook the beginning of the Jewish-Roman War (66 – 72 AD).
  
  
• The bringer of peace: Isaiah articulates a vision of a time of peace and prosperity. Here is the vision: “A shoot shall come up from the stump of Jesse (who was David’s father); from his roots a Branch shall bear fruit. The Spirit of the Lord will rest upon him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and or power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord…..The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child shall lead them.” (Isaiah 11: 1 – 2, 6). It was a time when God would dwell with His people. Hear again Isaiah’s prophecy, “Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child, and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel (meaning, “God with us”).” Isaiah 7: 14)

So, we can see that people 2,000 years ago had a number of differing ideas about who the Messiah would be, what the Messiah would do.

People today have a similar outlook: Some think that Jesus was just a great man, a great teacher. Others think he came to bring peace. Still others think he was some sort of a miracle-worker. Others think that was the Son of God, “God with us” (Immanuel). These are but some of the possible ways in which Jesus – as the Messiah, the Christ – is regarded today.

And, just as people did 2,000 years ago, people today often base their concepts of Jesus as Messiah on self-centered, self-serving desires….

• Some cannot accept Jesus as “God with us”. Often, those who hold this position cannot understand by rational means that God could actually intervene in human affairs by coming among us in the person of Jesus.
  
  
• Others look primarily to Jesus’ parables as examples of excellent, concise teaching. (Yes, it’s true, Jesus was a master storyteller, for His parables merit continued and repeated study to uncover the many layers of meaning and application.)
  
  
• Many who hold to the position that Jesus was merely human seem to accept without question that He was some sort of a magician who had the ability to make it appear that He was healing people.

Returning to the text then, what can we say about Jesus’ self-description of who He was?

Notice that Jesus says He will be going to Jerusalem, where He would suffer many things, be rejected by the elders, chief priests and scribes, and that He would be killed, and would rise again after three days.

What is the implication of all of these things?

Simply this, I think: God’s great plan is unfolding. Jesus refers to this in His response to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan, for you are not on the side of God, but of men.” In essence, Jesus equates these coming events with God’s plan.

But Jesus also casts these events in the bigger picture of what God has in mind….Hear these words, at the end of chapter eight, “For whoever is ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him will the Son of Man also be ashamed when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

Jesus has eternity in view! He has the end-of-all-things in view! He has the final things of your life, my life, and the world’s existence, in view!

God’s great plan is about to unfold.

God’s great plan carries with it eternal significance for you and for me.

We ought to pause here for a moment and consider all the other possibilities of who the Messiah would be that we enumerated earlier, and realize that all of them – a prophet like Moses, a successor to King David, a military leader, and a bringer of peace – are all temporary, human categories. All are rooted in a particular time in history.

If Jesus were those things, we would be reading about Him in the history books (that is, unless people had forgotten about His work and His teachings). Jesus would share a place in the chronicles of human history with the likes of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Mahatma Gandhi, and others.

But the resurrection changes all that. The resurrection is proof of life after death, just as the crucifixion is proof of the reality – and the finality – of death (nobody got off a Roman cross alive!).

You see, the events that Jesus begins to enunciate today have eternal significance for you and for me.

For, in baptism, we are buried with Christ in His death, and we are raised to new and eternal life in a resurrection like His.

We are marked as Christ’s own forever. Those are the words we say when someone is baptized (see the Book of Common Prayer, 1979, p. 308).

Because of the merits of Christ’s death and resurrection, our sins are washed away, and we become inheritors of the eternal life that Jesus, the Christ, makes a reality with His resurrection. This we accept by faith.

Thanks be to God!

AMEN.

14 Pentecost, Year B

“THAT’S THE WAY IT IS”
A sermon by The Rev. Gene Tucker, written for Trinity Church, Mt. Vernon, Illinois; Sunday, September 6, 2009
Proper 18 -- Isaiah 35: 4 – 7a; Psalm 146: 4 – 9; James 1: 17 – 27; Mark 7: 31 – 37

“And that’s the way it is, Sunday, September 6, 2009.”

With all due credit to the late CBS newscaster Walter Cronkite, this phrase (which he used to close all of his evening newscasts) suits the gospel text before us today very well….

“That’s the way it is.”

This phrase can be taken with two meanings in mind:

• It can be an honest and thorough assessment of the reality of any given situation, as if to say, “OK, here’s what we’re dealing with.”
  
  
• It can signal an acceptance of the status quo, as if to say, “That’s the way it is, this situation will never change!”

Looking at our text for today, we see that Jesus is unwilling to accept the status quo for the man who was unable to hear, and unable to speak. Jesus addresses the reality of this man’s isolation and his exclusion from the body of the faithful people of God (we’ll have more to say about that in just a minute).

Neither are the ones who brought the man to Jesus unwilling to accept the status quo. If they were willing to simply shrug their shoulders and say, “This situation will never change,” they would not have brought the man to the Lord. But, instead, we see that those who did bring the man “besought” Jesus to heal him. The word “besought” suggests an earnestness in their appeal to the Lord. Later translations than the Revised Standard Version (RSV) translate the Greek word as “begged”.

But what about the others who either knew this man, or who witnessed the coming of Jesus to the area where he lived, but who did not bring the man to the Lord? What about them? Were they resigned to the man’s condition as being beyond hope? Did they shrug their shoulders and say, “That’s the way it is?” Maybe so.

But our Lord meets the needs of this man. Mark retells in vivid detail the actions Jesus took to heal the man’s hearing and speech. He put his fingers into his ears, spat and touched the man’s tongue, and looked up to heaven, as He said, “Ephphatha,” an Aramaic word meaning “Be opened.”

Now notice that all of this occurs while the man is away from the crowd. Jesus also tells the man not to say anything about what has happened to him. Why would that be?

In answer, biblical scholars say it is part of Mark’s narrative strategy, something called the “Messianic Secret,” a device found only in Mark’s gospel account. Mark takes great pains to say that Jesus attempted to keep His identity and His purpose secret until the proper time. That time – in Mark’s account – is found in Mark 8:31, where Jesus begins to teach His disciples the true purpose for His coming to earth: To suffer, die and rise again. Moreover, Mark tells us in 8:32, that He “said these things plainly.”

But – in the meantime – until the secret is disclosed by the Lord, the tension grows as Jesus demonstrates that the coming of the Messianic age, the age when “the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf unstopped…” (Isaiah 35: 5) has arrived.

And so, the deaf man’s isolation is ended, and now he is able to hear with his own ears the great deeds that God had done for His people in ages past, and now he is able to tell the great story of the wonderful things that God has done for him, too. In so doing, the man joins countless others of God’s people who have heard the marvelous accounts of God’s mighty works, and have been able to add their stories to the ones they have heard, using their own mouths and their own words.

For, you see, that’s the entire purpose of the Bible’s existence: to recount for us the great things that God has done in ages past, which are the great things that God is doing in our own age. The saving acts of God are the same, then as well as now.

Holy Scripture records the witness of God’s people in ages past to the marvelous works of God. In ancient times, fathers would hand down to sons through the verbal recounting (story-telling) of the great works of God, passing the story from one generation to another. So, too, does the Bible serve as a permanent, written record of God’s healing, saving, and delivering. The Bible serves as the mouth of these ancient writers, while our eyes are opened to see God’s truth as we read the sacred pages of Scripture, and our ears are opened to receive the accounts of God’s people today who have experienced God’s movements of healing and redemption. For God is the same, yesterday, today and forever. God heals, God saves, God redeems His people from their isolation from Him and from each other. God acts today just as He acted ages ago.

But, you may say in response, “But that’s the way it is!”

Yes, I catch the meaning of the phrase. You might be saying, in essence, “Yes, I believe it’s true that God healed, saved and delivered His people ages ago. But I don’t believe those sorts of things happen to us today.”

But right here, in our midst, is proof of God’s healing power. Right here, at Trinity Church, we’ve heard a number of accounts of healing recently (physical, spiritual and emotional) that have come through prayer and the laying-on-of-hands.

I have rejoiced to hear the stories of those who can testify to God’s power to heal. I have heard quite a number of them recently, and some of these healings were a complete surprise to me.

So, I know from these accounts that God still heals.

Sometimes, the healing doesn’t come so dramatically and so suddenly as it did for the man who was healed in today’s passage. Sometimes, the healing comes quietly, and it surprises us when we see its effect. Sometimes, the healing comes through the diligent work of doctors, nurses and medicals staffs – for they are agents of God’s healing, too, as they use the wisdom and the intellectual capacities that are God-given to discover remedies for the illnesses and diseases that afflict us, as they bring healing and wholeness to life. We cannot discount their role in healing.

But, having said that, some of the stories heard recently clearly go beyond merely medical solutions. I am struck by the thought that God must be at work in these events. Yes, the same God who, acting through Jesus Christ, healed the man who could not hear and who could not speak. That very same God!

To that very same God be all power, majesty, glory and praise, for ever and for ever more.

AMEN.

Instructed Eucharist

INSTRUCTED EUCHARIST
(Using Eucharistic Prayer B, BCP p. 367)

LITURGICAL WORSHIP

1. Holistic worship: We human beings are incarnate beings. That is to say, we have bodies, with five senses to guide us in our relationships with others and through life. In liturgical worship, we use all five of our senses to assist us in relating to God: sight, hearing, smell, touch, and taste. Worship cannot simply be a mental activity, nor merely a spiritual one, but it is a physical one, as well.
   
   
2. The “work of the people”: “ Liturgy” comes from the Greek words for “work” and “people”. Therefore, Matthew’s injunction about “two or three being present” (Matthew 18: 20) becomes a key ingredient for worship. There can be no “private Mass”, celebrated by the Priest alone, for liturgical worship to occur.
   “People” must be present, and should take a prominent role in leading worship.

OPENING ACCLAMATION

1. God is at the center of liturgical worship: Right from the beginning, we bless God in our opening word. For God is the audience for all that we do (people are not the audience, nor is worship “entertainment” in any sense).
   
   
2. Collect for Purity: (BCP p. 355) In order to approach God with a proper frame of mind and heart, it’s necessary to ask God to purify our hearts.
   
   
3. Hymn of Praise: (BCP p. 356) We give honor to God with the “Glory to God” (Gloria).

SERVICE OF THE WORD

1. Collect of the Day: The word “Collect” is used to denote the prayer that “collects” the theme or thought for the day (and is often tied to the theme(s) to be found in one or more of the readings which follow.
   
   
2. Readings: Our service has an enormous amount of Scripture in it. Generally, the Old Testament and the Gospel often have a common theme (though not always). In the readings, the Word of God is “offered” to the people
   
   
3. Sermon/homily: The word is “broken open” and is “shared” with everyone present in the words of the sermon or homily. Here, the timeless lessons of Holy Scripture are applied to our lives today.
   
   
4. Nicene Creed: Following the readings and the sermon, we offer our response by affirming the Faith that was once delivered to the Apostles and to the Saints. So doing, we join in a 2,000 year long train of followers of Jesus Christ.
   
   
5. Prayers of the People: Now, we offer our own collective prayers of thanksgiving, of intercession, and of thanks for the lives of the Saints who have gone before us.
   
   
6. Confession of Faith: Closely related to the Collect for Purity at the opening of our worship, now we ask God to forgive our individual transgressions, in preparation for receiving the Sacrament of Christ’s Body and Blood, which will follow shortly.
   
   
7. The Peace: By passing the Peace among each other, we affirm that we “are in love and charity with our neighbors”, even as we affirm in our Confession that we “intend to lead a new life, following the commandments of God.” (Rite I eucharistic liturgy, BCP p. 330)

OFFERTORY SENTENCE

Now, we offer to God the things that He has given us: ourselves, our substance (in the form of wine, bread, money, etc), that He may strengthen us for His service.

THE CANON OF THE MASS

1. Opening blessings: Often, traditional blessings over the bread (host) and the wine are said. The formula “Blessed are you, Lord God of all Creation, etc” is based on traditional Hebrew blessings.
   
   
2. “Lift up your Hearts” (Sursum Corda): (BCP p. 367) The Eucharistic celebration is cause for rejoicing. (The word “eucharist” comes from the Greek for “thanks”.) So, it is cause for rejoicing at God’s work in redeeming us through Christ.
   
   
3. “Holy, Holy, Holy” (Sanctus): (BCP p. 367) Is derived from the Hebrew Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, Adonai ts’vaot (Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Hosts), which is still used in Jewish synagogues today (people bow in synagogue during these words, just as we do at the “Holy, Holy, Holy”.)
   
   
4. “Blessed is He” (Benedictus): The text comes from Psalm 118: 26 (and was quoted by those who greeted Jesus during His Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem – see Mark 11:9).
   
   
5. Recalling God’s redeeming acts (anamnesis): (BCP p. 368) The Greek literally means “not forgetting”….a recalling of God’s saving acts down through history, culminating in the redemption of the world by Jesus’ death and resurrection.
   
   
6. Words of Institution: (BCP p. 368) We repeat the words Jesus used at the Last Supper (see Mark 14: 22 – 25 and I Corinthians 11: 23 – 25) to set aside the bread and the wine for holy purposes.
   
   
7. Memorial Acclamation (“We remember His death”): (BCP p. 368) Here is the heart of our faith, and our Communion together: We are recalling Jesus’ death, His resurrection, and His coming again, even as we celebrate His presence among us in the Sacrament.
   
   
8. The double invocation (“epiclesis”): Here, we ask the Holy Spirit to bless and set apart (sanctify) the elements (bread and wine), and to make us worthy to receive the bread and the wine. Historical note: American Prayer Books have always had invocations on the elements and the people receiving the elements. Most English Prayer Books have just an invocation on the people alone.
   
   
9. Doxology (“By Him and with Him” etc): Just as we began our worship together by blessing God, now we give honor to God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) for His mighty acts in Jesus Christ.
   
   
10. Lord’s Prayer, and Breaking of the Bread (“Fraction”): The Lord’s Prayer is Jesus’ model prayer for us. In breaking the bread, a similar action to that of the sermon is taken, following which, the bread and the wine are offered to all to share. (Note the silences which the rubrics direct.)

POSTCOMMUNION PRAYER, BLESSING & DISMISSAL

1. Postcommunion Prayer (“Eternal God, heavenly Father”): (BCP p. 365) We now give thanks to God for providing us with heavenly food. We also ask God to send us out into the world to do the work He has given us to do, making it clear that the Eucharist is not for our benefit primarily or alone, but to assist us with God’s work in the world.
   
   
2. Blessing: It is traditional for the Bishop (or the Priest, in the absence of the Bishop) to offer God’s blessing on those assembled. (Historical note: The blessing is an integral part of the Rite I Eucharistic liturgy, but is optional in Rite II (see the rubrics at the middle of page 366).)
   
   
3. Dismissal (“Let us bless the Lord”, etc): (BCP p. 366) Here, we are sent out into the world, carrying God’s blessings and sustenance with us for the work He has given us to do.