Joys – Simple and Profound

by Liz Young

(Based on Matt 11:2-11; Isa 35:1-10; James 5:7-10)

Taking our lead from our three readings, Isaiah said, “The wilderness and the desert will be glad, and blossom … The way will be made clear … and everlasting joy will be upon their heads.”
James wrote, “Be patient till the coming of the Lord.”
And in the Gospel reading from Matthew, Jesus answered John’s disciples with the words, “Go and tell John what you have heard and seen: ‘the blind receive their sight, the lepers are cleansed and the poor have good news bought to them.'” What joy those miracles brought.

“Desert Flowers” by ex_magician is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Our candlelight theme for today is Joy, and Isaiah’s words always remind me of the joy brought by the wild flowers that bloom in the Australian desert, when it rains, sometimes after ten years of drought. James asks us to be patient, a reminder appropriate for us all at many times in our lives, patience for God to reveal his purposes; and patience will give us time to reflect before reacting, either in speech or action. And, in the Gospel reading, Jesus tells John’s followers to reassure John, that he, Jesus, John’s cousin, has been able to perform all in God’s Name; to tell him of these miracles he, Jesus, has been able to perform, and in doing so to bring joy to the needy and the poor.  Jesus’s first miracle was turning water into wine, an appropriate miracle to remember at this time of celebration! Wine was the disinfectant of that time. (I wonder how many of the local water supplies were safe to drink, unless they were mountain springs. Now, with guaranteed safe drinking water, and as we receive more and more messages of the harm alcohol can do, most of us will be celebrating this season drinking fruit juice or safe water. I wish you joy drinking toasts to each other.)

When I look back at my life, my earliest joyful memory is sitting on a mossy bank at the age of four, just enjoying looking at the grass. The property was a 16th century out reach from Glastonbury Abbey, planted with – among others – a sequoia, a huge bay tree, and a large walnut tree, and gave me a lifelong love of trees. It was a slight shock to come to New Zealand and find I had to learn the names of a hundred new trees.
When my mother died, we were living on a 1¼ acre property, with fifty seventy-year-old apple trees, with a variety of diseases, and as I took over responsibility for looking after the garden, my love of gardening started. Gardening gives many of us hours of joy.
I created a garden from scratch at my next place, with twenty native trees I bought in Wellington, and they now surround and shelter the property.
Our Pat enjoys doing most of the church garden, and our Alison has enjoyed doing the flowers for this morning.

“Gapers Block Book Club: Water for Elephants” by danxoneil is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Another of my joys that I share with friends in Tairua is reading. Did you know there are three very social book clubs in Tairua? I didn’t start reading till I was seven, but once I could, my nose was rarely out of a book. Sharing ideas and interests by reading and talking about books is one of the joys of life for those whose brains are visually dominant. Others love music and enjoy listening, and yet others enjoy making things with their hands. When we were young, we enjoyed playing, running around. As I couldn’t hop or skip, I preferred playing soccer with the boys in their playground. Later, when I went to all-girls’ schools, I played goalie. When I was a child no-one stopped us climbing trees. I was horrified when I heard the story of the tree in my grandson’s playground, which was first pruned and then cut down for ‘health and safety reasons’. No, don’t let caution deny exploration; let children enjoy, and joyfully play. If you are constantly warning children of potential hazards, you get anxious children.             

These days most of us enjoy daily walks, and at this time of year I enjoy swimming, and there are hardy folks here, who enjoy dawn swimming here all the year round. So, as well as daily exercise, try something new regularly, and share enjoyment with others, all the while praising God – silently or aloud – and always giving thanks. 

Lars and Lucas in the operating theatre, by Lars Plougmann, licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

 At Christmas time we celebrate the birth of Christ. I’ve attended about 500 births, as a paediatrician, and each time it was very special. The whole room hums with joyous energy as the baby is born.

And, as we celebrate Christ’s birth, let us spare a moment to think of, and pray for, all those women who are worried about giving birth at this time; those pregnant as a result of rape; those mothers in dire economic circumstances. Pray that someone will step up and help them.

And, having prayed for others, let’s return to thinking about Joy. And the joy of giving … we all enjoy giving pleasure to others. Let’s hope we’ve all chosen well and that our gifts will be enjoyed by their recipients. I hope that our children and grandchildren will have a day of joy and wonder. While remembering we’re celebrating Christ’s birth, we will continue to ask ourselves, what can we do to bring joy into the lives of others.

Amen

Advent Implications

by Pat Lee,
with acknowledgements to Jo Anne Taylor and Michael K Marsh

(Based on Matt 3:1-12; Isa 11:1-10; Rom 15:4-13)

Jo Anne starts by saying that “some folks aren’t even aware there is a season called ‘Advent.’ For them, this season leading up to Christmas is Christmas. We get that message loud and clear everywhere we go, in every store where we shop.”
And sometimes we even get to hear a real Christmas carol.

Advent to many people is putting up decorations and fairy lights, rushing around buying Christmas presents for everyone, filling the tins with goodies, writing Christmas cards or emails, and, of course, the coming of Santa Claus on Christmas Eve to fill up all the stockings of all those who’ve been good. Actually, it is fun to do some or all of those things, but without losing sight of what Christmas is actually all about. It’s not about Santa coming, as the Santa parades and all the shop decorations would have us believe.
I’ve often wondered what the real St Nicholas (where we get Santa Claus from today), a very wealthy man who gave his money to the poor, would think about how the world sees Santa Claus now. I suspect he would feel rather saddened by how it has all turned out.

What is Advent to you? My old Oxford English Dictionary says that Advent is that season before the Nativity; coming of Christ, Incarnation; second coming of Christ; or any important arrival.

Advent is a season of waiting.
What are we waiting for? In eighteen days’ time we will celebrate the birth of Jesus, which was when God sent his Son as a baby into the world to be the “light of the world”, and to bring peace to all the nations.

But that was over 2000 years ago. The Bible tells us that he will come again, but not as a baby, so that is what we are now waiting and preparing for. It doesn’t mean that we can’t celebrate Jesus’s birthday. Of course we can, and do and will. But this time of waiting is the time we need to prepare for the second coming of Christ. That is the message our readings are about today.

It strikes me as odd that today’s readings are not about Jesus’s first coming, but about his second coming. The readings which follow in the next two weeks will be about Jesus’s birth, but today … let’s look at what Isaiah had to say. Isaiah was a prophet who lived over 700 years before Jesus was born.  In chapter 9 he foretells of Jesus’s birth, and then in Ch 11 he adds some more about it, until he gets to verse 6, when he suddenly starts telling us what it will be like when Jesus returns!

What a wonderful picture he paints. Won’t it be amazing to see lions lying with lambs and leopards with kids, instead of eating them for breakfast. And cows grazing with bears and lions eating straw with oxen. It would have been a shock to my father if he had ever found a bear eating grass alongside his precious pedigree Ayrshires. And a child playing over the asp’s hole and none of them being harmed. We don’t have these wild animals here in this country, but we certainly know how they live in their present day environments.

Attribution: Lion and Lamb by Barry Shimmon

Isaiah did not see any of his prophesies fulfilled, but it is an historical fact that Jesus was born more than 2000 years ago. In Ch 65 v25 Isaiah repeats some of these verses but this time it is obvious he is talking about the new creation once Jesus has returned. The picture is of peace and serenity – something we find difficult to imagine with the world as it is today, even although we know that Jesus was born to bring peace.
It’s also a great picture of hope.

Paul, writing in Romans, was aware that Jesus had been born and, in fact, that he had already died, risen and gone back to ‘the Father’. He is using the past to show a way to behave in the present, and also the future, which includes us as Gentiles. In the quote he uses, he repeats the phrase, “The root of Jesse shall come,” linking Jesus back to King David, but adds, “the one who rises to rule the Gentiles; in him the Gentiles shall have hope.” That means us.

In the Gospel reading from Matthew, Isaiah is being quoted again. This time it is about John the Baptist who was sent to exhort everyone to “prepare the way” for Jesus’s ministry. John also knew that Jesus had been born.  They were relatives. He was only about six months older than Jesus.
John is an interesting character. He dressed differently and ate interesting food, which included wild honey and locusts. There is a school of thought that suggests the locusts were the not the insect, but the edible seeds and/or the sweet pulp of the honey locust tree pods, common throughout the Middle East and Israel. I don’t know … although that sounds a lot more palatable to me.

What I do know is that he did not beat about the bush in his language, and yet people flocked to hear him, even including the Pharisees and the Sadducees. I’m sure you’re  glad that I didn’t call you a “brood of vipers” this morning! John told the Pharisees and the Sadducees to “bear fruit worthy of repentance” and not presume to say to themselves that they had Abraham as their ancestor, because God was able to “raise up children to Abraham from the stones”. The axe was “lying at the root of the trees; every tree therefore that did not bear good fruit would be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Harsh words, but are they? Or just blunt. Whatever, we need to take heed.

His message was clear: “I baptise you with water for repentance, … He will baptise you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” The Greek word used here – Matanoia – is often translated as “repent”, but a truer meaning is “to turn”. John is urging his listeners to turn from their wrongdoings. These words also apply to us as we wait and prepare for the second coming.  We need to turn. We need to be ready.

The Gospels are full of Jesus’s parables telling the disciples that they needed to be ready. The parable of the ten bridesmaids is one, where five wise ones went into a banquet with the bridegroom but five foolish bridesmaids were rejected by him. I don’t want to be like those who were rejected, how about you?

So let’s look at the sorts of things we need to turn from: an unkind comment? a little white lie? A nasty thought, wasting time, just simply ignoring someone who is ‘different’ from us? Making judgements about people and what they are doing, or ignoring someone who needs help. These are just a few, but there are heaps more.

I recall an important lesson I learnt as a new mother living in Palmerston North. I was trying to get my pram up about six steps at the Post Office. Many people just walked past ignoring my struggle until out of nowhere this young, scruffy looking man with tattoos and long dreadlocks just came to my aid. I thanked him profusely. I was so grateful and the lesson I learnt: don’t judge a book by its cover. That was nearly sixty years ago.

So let’s turn away from those kinds of things in our lives. You want peace? That’s how you get it.

I’ll finish with a quote from Michael K Marsh. He says, “As difficult as it may be to see and believe Isaiah’s peaceable kingdom, it’s the promise of Advent. Advent always promises that something is coming, something new and unexpected. We don’t know when or where or how it might come. But it comes. And it comes to us as a call, an asking, an insistence that we respond. It asks our participation. That’s our hope for ourselves and for one another.”

Let us pray …
Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Imagine, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with yourself, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with another, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with all creation, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Be at peace with God, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.
Peace be with you today, tomorrow, and always.
Peace be with you.       Amen.

Why Zacchaeus?

by Bishop Ross Bay

(Based on Luke 19:1-10)

It’s quite a coincidence that we read about the encounter which Jesus had with Zacchaeus the tax collector in the week that Labour [New Zealand political party – Ed] have announced their proposal for a new capital gains tax. That of course takes our minds quickly back to the pre-election announcement in 2023 not to introduce either a capital gains tax or a wealth tax. We saw then the obvious lack of clarity across the Labour Party about their taxation policy; hence the decision to leave it alone at that point. Lots of debate this week about it, and I’m sure many more debates still to come.
But that’s all just interesting and the point of the sermon is not going to be the assessment of NZ tax policies. To paraphrase the Pharisee praying in last week’s gospel reading, “I thank God that I am not a tax collector.”

So, no, I don’t pretend to understand the taxation system – apparently you don’t have to understand tax, you just have to make sure you pay it. But I do understand a little about the taxation system of Roman-occupied Palestine in the first century. Essentially the Roman officer in charge of the district would determine the amount that was required to be collected in taxes from that area. They would then seek local people to be their agents to collect those taxes. That gave the tax collector the opportunity to add their own commission on top so that it made their work worth their while.
The Romans were not too bothered by what the tax collectors were taking from people so long as they received the amount they had established. It was a system left wide open to corruption and rapacious behaviour. When John the Baptist was preaching he was approached by some tax collectors who asked him what they should do in response to his call for repentance and kingdom-preparedness. John told them to collect no more than the amount prescribed for them, which would have left them with no income for their efforts. Such was the radical nature of John’s ethics.

And perhaps that was the point. Palestine was under Roman occupation and rule. Those who engaged with its systems like tax collectors, gathering money from a subjugated people in order to support the occupying power, were regarded as collaborators and traitors. They were rich and powerful, but they were hated and were treated as social outcasts by many. So maybe John was saying, don’t be involved at all, but if you must then only collect what your masters demand.
Among this band then was Zacchaeus of Jericho. It was a big town in its day, and a wealthy one. Herod had a palace there and it was a place of trade, about 25 kms from Jerusalem, say a day and a half to walk given the terrain and the heat. We know of it best from the Parable of the Good Samaritan because it was the Jericho road that those various travellers were on.

Zacchaeus is described as being a chief tax collector. It’s a phrase not found elsewhere in Scripture or other literature of the period. It could mean that he oversaw a group of tax collectors, or it could be a way of expressing the quantum available to him by serving in a wealthy town and therefore how rich he himself had become.
The sense of him being a social outcast is seen in the efforts he has to go to in order to see Jesus. No one is going to let this short tax collector get to the front of the crowd for a peek, so Zacchaeus has to run ahead and climb a tree to get his view.
His behaviour rightly can allow us to speculate about why he is so determined. He would have good cause for avoiding Jesus. We might imagine that Jesus comes with a reputation for what he believes and the things he has to say about ethics. He is making his final journey to Jerusalem at the end of three years of itinerant preaching. Surely Zacchaeus had heard that Jesus was tough on rich people. In fact, in an encounter with a rich ruler in the previous chapter, Luke records Jesus as inviting him to sell all he had and give it to the poor. And when the ruler went away sad, not able to face the thought, Jesus commented about how hard it is for a rich person to enter the Kingdom of God, saying it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle.

And yet something compels him. Perhaps a yearning in him for more. Perhaps a tiredness of being shunned by his neighbours. Clearly he is ready for more, because when Jesus calls to him to offer hospitality, he is happy to do so.

Jesus was always looking for the outcast to spend time with. Partly to make a point to those who were a bit too sure of their own holiness and who would never have been seen with sinners, as Jesus often was. But more importantly because Jesus understood that this is where his mission lay – as he said at the end of this encounter, “The Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.”
So, I like to think that as Jesus was making his way through the crowds, people would have started muttering about that dirty tax collector Zacchaeus up in the tree – what does he think he would have to do with such a great rabbi? And Jesus would have thought, “Exactly the kind of person I was looking for to spend some time with.”

Every encounter with Jesus we read about in the Gospels is an expression of God’s grace reaching out to people. How will they respond to this grace? The rich ruler went away sad because he had so much and it carried more power in his life than the grace Jesus extended. But Zacchaeus is ready to respond to God’s grace. His yearning for Jesus is met by the willingness of Jesus to enter his home and eat with him.
Zacchaeus now responds to this expression of grace by demonstrating repentance. He knows the Law, for in Exodus it requires that a thief will give four sheep for a sheep by way of restitution, and Zacchaeus offers to pay back anyone he has defrauded four times what he took from them. In addition he undertakes to give away half of his wealth to the poor. By the end of it all he will no longer be a very rich person.

Jesus declares that salvation has come to this house. Not, I think, because Zacchaeus has fronted up with some big money as if to buy his salvation, but because the grace of God in Jesus for which he has yearned and to which he has responded has brought about true repentance. Zacchaeus offers tangible expression of his response to God’s grace. It is the grace that has saved him. His acts of restitution and alms-giving demonstrate the impact that grace has made in him.

I think that this is one of the great insights we can gain from the encounter with Zacchaeus. Salvation must mean something. The preaching of John the Baptist, who prepared the way for Jesus, had a strong emphasis on human response and lifestyle change. “Bear fruits worthy of repentance,” said John.
Jesus opened his public ministry with the words, “The Kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news.”

The visit Jesus makes to Zacchaeus’s house is no delay in his journey to Jerusalem, it is not a final opportunity to help one person among many desperate to meet him. Rather, it embodies the whole point of Jesus’s mission, and Zacchaeus’s actions provide a text book example of an appropriate human response to that mission.
Grace reaches towards human yearning which responds to that grace in ways that both demonstrate its impact and contribute to the presence and ethics of the emerging kingdom.

For the Son of Man came to seek out and to save the lost.

Prayer Humility

by Barry Pollard

(Based on Luke 18:9-14; Ps 65; 2 Tim 4:6-8,16-18)

Our readings this week come together to remind us where our eyes should be looking, what we should be doing and to whom we need to be grateful. Reading through the readings in preparation, the first verse of Psalm 65 stood out as a summary of what they all cue us into – giving God the glory!

I feel Psalm 65 sets a background for us, against which we can evaluate the other readings, and perhaps make better sense of them. The Psalm shows us God the giver. God, who forgives our sins, hears our prayers, and satisfies us with good things: the abundance of the earth, the order of creation, and the forgiveness of sins are all gifts from God. Our lives rest on God’s mercy and provision, not on our efforts. The Psalm is all about the things God does for us and gives to us.
Our response could be as simple as acknowledging all of these gifts, and whence they come. In doing so, we claim nothing for ourselves but rather give God the glory for all he is and does. “What mighty praise, O God, belongs to You.” These acknowledgements are reminders. They are reminders of the foundations of our faith.

And this is a theme Paul picks up on in his letter to Timothy. This letter is likely the last he ever wrote before his execution in Rome. As such, we tend to pay special attention to the words of a person close to his end. This letter is very personal. Timothy was like a son to Paul, so we can accept that Paul’s words would contain important pieces of wisdom, reflection and advice for Timothy.
Paul’s focus (in the selection from Chapter 4 read today) could be distilled into two parts:

A reflection on his life:

  • I have fought the good fight
  • I have finished the race
  • I have remained faithful
  • The prize awaits me

His relationship with God:

  • The Lord stood with me and gave me strength
  • The Lord rescued and delivered me from every evil attack
  • The Lord will bring me safely into his heavenly Kingdom

Note, the order of his thoughts: self-evaluation and then acknowledging God. It is God’s sustaining power that carried Paul through to the end. And God’s sustaining power can carry us through to our end. Paul, after everything was said and done, was acknowledging that all glory belongs to God.

Which brings us to the Gospel reading:

We are quite familiar with this parable. Luke writes that Jesus is speaking to a group “who had great confidence in their own righteousness and scorned everyone else”.
The Pharisee prays: “I thank you, God, that I am not like other people — cheaters, sinners, adulterers. I’m certainly not like that tax collector!  I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.”

I admit that when I hear this parable I immediately fall into the trap of behaving just like the Pharisee, feeling that his prayer is pompous, self-serving and not at all like mine!

He begins thankful to God. Then outlines what he sees the benchmarks of his faithful life to be. He claims he isn’t a cheat, sinner or adulterer. He fasts twice a week and tithes. Righteous or self-righteous? Where is his compassion for those he deems less than himself? His pursuit of justice? Is he really free of sin? Does any of what he claims as righteous, in fact, have to do with a God-focussed relationship?

I would sum up his prayer as a “See how good I am, God?” one. I don’t see any hint of personal relationship.

On the other hand the tax collector, despised and shunned of society, “stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’”

His prayer I would sum up as a “See how broken I am, Lord; help me” one. It cries out for relationship with God.

Jesus declares the humble sinner “justified”, “for those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” He’s teaching that we are not made right with God by pride or performance, but by humble repentance and trust in his mercy.

So, back to me (and maybe you).
Well, I would like to think I am not like the Pharisee. Reading his prayer though, as I said, I immediately phrased my own in my mind, “Thank you God that I am nothing like that pompous, self-serving Pharisee!” And no sooner had the thought been thought, I realised that I am in fact no better or different. I’m seeing my righteousness as linked to benchmarks, and comparison with others, just like he is. Where was my humility before God?

Which brings me to a wider issue – of prayer.
Prayer is simply communicating with God. It is a good thing. It can be productive and relationship building. We can acknowledge degrees of intensity, even response. But it is dependent ultimately on how we see God.
Scripture reveals for us the nature of God. His attributes are fatherly. Not confined by earthly limits, he is ever-loving and ever-caring. He wants to be in relationship with us. He wants to bring out the best in us. He wants our relationship to be unforced and natural. We are encouraged to be childlike in his presence.
Jesus freed us from the Law. He replaced it with his endless grace. We no longer have to reach benchmarks, and follow rituals to be acceptable. We are now “children of God”.

Understanding wherein our righteousness lies, we need to always remember that he is God Almighty, deserving of our praise and worship, in whose presence we should seek forgiveness for the things we have done and the things we have not done, our sins. These are our acts of humility. And if we are childlike with God, we should deal with the unpleasant before asking him for things. As a parent I was much more disposed to granting favours when my children were doing their best to behave, following the family rules, and so on. How much more so this would be with God. “Those who humble themselves will be exalted,” we are told.

When I first came back to faith, I was immersed in a home group, that taught me many things. Weekly, we engaged in Bible study, group discussions, shared life’s wisdom, and prayed together, all of which combined to open my eyes, and heart, to Jesus again and to ground me in faith. One of the early takeaways from the home group was to moderate prayer in a way that fostered humility. You may be familiar with the ACTS acronym – Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving and Supplication. It means we worship God first, then confess our sins and seek forgiveness, give thanks for all God has done and is doing for us and those in our sphere of concern, and finally we ask for God’s help with the issues on our hearts.

Note, in the acronym the C is definitely for Confession. There is no Comparison in there!

I admit that despite knowing this approach, and trying to follow it, sometimes I cut straight to the asking, missing out on the worship, confession and thanksgiving! The Pharisee in Jesus’s parable, on the other hand, cut straight to the thanksgiving (of sorts). So what, if anything, could be the difference between what I do and what he did?

Boldly I would say, he didn’t actually pray. He couched his ‘thanksgiving’ in comparison. He wasn’t humble. One is left wondering why he was in the temple at all.

Remember the criticisms Jesus levelled at the Pharisees on many occasions. Hypocrites! Vipers! He said the Pharisees prayed to be seen by others, not to connect with God, and that their prayers were hypocritical and performed for public admiration. He condemned their practice of making long prayers for show while harming the vulnerable, and he criticised their desire for public respect and status!

So, I think the differences lie in our hearts. God knows us, intimately. He knows what is motivating us. He knows when we need him urgently. He knows when we are genuine. I’d like to think that, in prayer particularly, I am God-focussed. I try to synch my thoughts with his thoughts, so that the things I ask for are pleasing to him. If I am self-seeking in my prayer I know it is unlikely to be answered.

You will recall that Bishop Bruce [Bruce Gilberd – Ed] often explained that God responds to all of our prayer, but not always in the ways we expect. He will answer with “Yes,” “No,” or “Wait,” and these answers are often aligning us with God’s wisdom, perfect timing, and greater plan. Sometimes “Yes,” may come through miraculous intervention or in a way that was not expected. “No” is often God protecting us from something that would ultimately be harmful to us. And “Wait” is seen as a way to develop our patience, strengthen our faith, and prepare us for the right time.

A good way to keep track of the effectiveness of your prayer life is to document it. Keep a record of what you have prayed about and take time to reflect on how God has responded.

Today then, we have heard that God provides and forgives. We have heard that God justifies the humble and he strengthens and saves his followers. We need to understand that our hope is not in ourselves, but in God’s grace — from beginning to end.

Three life lessons that we could follow:
Be humble in prayer: Like the tax collector, we should approach God honestly, without pretence.
Be grateful in life: Like the psalmist, we should recognise God’s hand in both forgiveness and provision.
Persevere in faith: Like Paul, we should finish the race leaning on God’s strength, not our own.

In a commentary on the readings for today I came across this brilliant conclusion: The Christian life is not a display of our greatness, but of God’s mercy and power. We stand forgiven like the tax collector, sustained like Paul, and blessed like those in Psalm 65.

Closing Prayer

Gracious God,
You are the one who forgives our sins, hears our prayers, and fills our lives with good things.
Keep us from pride like the Pharisee, and teach us to come before you with the humility of the tax collector, trusting only in Your mercy.
Strengthen us, as you strengthened Paul, to fight the good fight and finish the race with our eyes fixed on Jesus.
May our lives be a witness that all glory belongs to you, who saves, sustains, and blesses your people.
Through Christ our Lord,
Amen.