And today, you get to speak for yourselves: 

to affirm your baptismal vows in front of the congregation;

that you want to be active Christians, participating in the life of the church, serving, and helping, and sharing your faith with others in word and deed.

We’re not getting out the soap, 

We’re not going to use a brush and we won’t make a big fuss about cleaning between your toes!

...just like with the leaky, cracked buckets of our hearts,

dipped into the immense ocean of God’s love:

God’s grace embraces from beneath, above, all around.

“At the time of the Sending, we are no longer the same individuals who earlier crossed the threshold of the worship space. 

We are now a community who has encountered the living Christ in this place, and has been empowered for ministry through the sending."

But Martin Luther was clear in his criticism: 

that the Meal is God’s gift to the people and not a sacrifice for the people.

The idea is that each Sunday, we take one of the four parts of worship, 

and reflect on each individual element in that section.

Today is the first service of a 4-part series entitled “Learning about Liturgy”.

The idea is that each Sunday, we take one of the four parts of worship, and take time to reflect on each element, before and after; 

what it means, the history and traditions, 

kind of like taking apart a car and putting it back together again. 

The nature of the gift gives us much information about the giver.

What’s in the present tells us about who gave the present.

God’s gift of Jesus tells us about who God is.

It became clear to me last Wednesday: 

here were people who are lying in a symbolic manger.

According to Sam Weicker, he performed 10,725 ministerial acts at St. Mathews, including 3,745 baptisms, 3,374 confirmations, 1,681 funerals.