Scripture Before Your Pocket

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[0:00] Well, now is our first of six sermons on our book study and six weeks of discussion afterwards. And I'll say it later, but I'll say it now. These book studies are dangerous things because they might get us to do stuff. Last year, we studied a book about disability justice and somehow along the line, we committed ourselves to $300,000 worth of repairs to our restrooms to make them handicap accessible. Praise God, that'll be done in two weeks. Let's give that a hand. So, you know, books are powerful, or they can be depending on the book, right? So maybe God has something in store for us this year with this book. All the books, this is our fifth book study that we've done, fifth annual book study together, we do it together. And you should also know that there's three books in the Narthex, you can still get one. And this book is being read by our entire denomination. They actually started it in the fall, so we're a little behind, but the whole denomination is reading this book together. And I think that's really important. It's really neat for a whole denomination of some 800,000 people. Theoretically, not all of them, obviously, but they're all, we're trying to all read the same book at the same time. And I think that's kind of powerful too.

[1:06] So who knows what our denomination will do after reading dangerous books like this one. So this is week one. It's on, the topic of this book is called Welcoming the Stranger. The topic is the immigration challenges that our nation is facing. And little did we know when we planned to read this book in the fall, that we would start right at a time when there's flashpoints all around our country about this. So I think it is very timely. And I, like I said, I used to live in the Twin Cities and it's roiling with unrest. And we're seeing enforcement of immigration laws in a way that makes a lot of people uncomfortable, obviously, and yet there are also a fair number of people watching that and approving of it. And so we kind of have to think about what's going on in our nation. Why do we have so many different views of this subject? And we have to ask ourselves, what do we make of this? What do we make of the problem? And what do we make of how do we approach it? And I want to start by thinking, have sort of thinking out loud that we, before we formulate a Christian response to a thing, any social topic in this world, anything that's going on in our country, we need to raise our awareness of our own biases. Sometimes I tell you that we all bring things with us

[2:24] into church in our pockets. You kind of bring the outside world with you. We're here for about an hour and a half. That means the other 154 and a half hours, 164 and a half hours of the week, you're looking at other things, you're doing other things, you're around other people. And so today I just have, you know, I always try to figure out what's in my pocket to show you. It's my to-do list. And this is lists of things that I'm going to start doing when I go on sabbatical. And I have to buy a battery for my truck because it's got 60,000 miles on it. And I got 60,000 miles out of a battery, but it's time. So like, this is my list. This is what I brought with me. These could be our cares or our concerns, or these could be our preconceived notions. We bring them into the church and we think they're normal or normative for our life or for our understanding of things that are going on in the world. So you may have brought something with you into the church that kind of represents your viewpoint on the immigration debate in our country right now. And I think that's OK. We want to hear that. But at the same time, as Christians, we're committed to understanding what God thinks of things like this. And so we point to a higher authority than even

[3:26] our own culture. And that's the scripture itself. Scripture will inform us. But the great thing about scripture is it's sometimes short on specifics, isn't it? It doesn't tell you exactly how to vote. It doesn't tell you. It gives you general principles for how to live your life. It gives you the mind of God, how he engages with the world in general. And so then there's, I suppose, or not just suppose, I do believe there's room for reasonable people to come to different conclusions even after reading the same scripture. And that's OK. But as long as they do it scripturally, as long as they do it thoughtfully, and as it says in Romans 12, that's why that was our first reading today, as long as it comes out of a transformed mind that's using sober judgment, then I think any person who uses a sound, renewed mind with sober judgment and is bathed in scripture, I will respect whatever conclusions they come to if they're consistent and logical. OK? So I'm not here to tell you that there's one thing you have to believe about the immigration debate in our country today. What I am telling you, though, is that we're going to look at scripture, and scripture has some words on it. And those words should be more important than the things you brought in with your pocket today.

[4:38] OK? And if you disagree with me, that's fine. You can disagree with me even on that. That's quite all right. So one thing we need to do, and I think this is where the book is really going to excel, is we also, if we're going to talk about a thing, we have to understand the thing itself. So there's a word that is used on the news. It's immigration. But what is that? What is immigration? It's not one thing. Did you know that? I mean, you'll know that the book is going to break it down for you in really a great way, because immigration is this giant topic, and it's a buzzword that is kind of right-coded or left-coded. But if you were to break apart immigration, you have inside that framework, you have legal immigration, people who become naturalized citizens in a legal way, like my mother did. My mother did when she married my father. My mother grew up in Norway, and she met my dad. He visited Norway. It's kind of a cute love story. She knit him a Norwegian sweater and sent it to him. And then he's like, ah, I think she's trying to tell me something. So then he went back and he proposed. And then she came to America, and she became a citizen. She was an immigrant, always was an immigrant. And she never became a citizen, actually.

[5:48] She had a green card all her life, because she was too proud of her Norwegian citizenship. She didn't want to give it up. So yes, who's clapping over there? Yes, Norway. So all I'm saying is there's legal immigration.

[6:02] You have refugees seeking asylum from countries where it's dangerous for them to be alive. That's a form of immigration, and that's part of where the debate is. You have families who are trying to reunite with each other. That's part of immigration. And you have people who enter the country illegally. They sneak in without showing their passport. They don't come in through a port, or an airport, or a border crossing. They come in some other way. And that is actually illegal. And they are here illegally.

[6:33] And it's OK to say that. We have to also speak in realities of things. But the question is, what is our response to that? What is the government's response to that? Can we inform how the government responds to that? So we need to pull that apart and acknowledge the complexity of it before we can make a coherent plan. So that's what this book is really going to help us start off with, is, what is immigration? What are the different kinds of immigration? There's different policies for different kinds of immigration. There's different amounts of waiting time. And there's different procedures for adjudicating your claim as an immigrant who wants to become a naturalized citizen or a permanent resident. So I'm not going to go over that today. That would be more of a lecture. That's, if you read the book, you're going to get that. And in the discussion groups, you can probably look at that, too. But we're going to really, what we need to do is look to the source that we've agreed is higher than the other sources to guide us. And it's not in specifics, like I said, but it's general about our personal understanding of things and about our civic advocacy. And of course, I'm speaking about scripture. So let's go to the scriptures.

[7:36] And today, we're going to read from Leviticus 19, 30 through 37. I hope it's there. There it is. OK, so this is Leviticus, Lot of Law in Leviticus. And so here is a section. And this is by no means the entire section. This is just a subset. This is just a subset of a lot of commandments that God is giving to his people. So this is what God says. I'll start reading, verse 30.

[8:01] Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord. Do not turn to mediums or seek out spiritists, for you will be defiled by them. I am the Lord your God. Rise in the presence of the aged. Show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord.

[8:25] When an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native born. Love him as yourself, for you are aliens in Egypt. I am the Lord your God.

[8:42] Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length, weight, or quantity. Use honest scales and honest weights and honest ephah and an honest hymn. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the Lord.

[9:06] Let's pray. Father, thank you for your word, the command, the law, in this case. Thank you for it. And we ask for your blessing to be added to it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, I'm going to. This is a list. So this is list one. I'm going to juxtapose two lists for us. The list two is coming at the end. So just kind of hold on to this idea that we're kind of going around two lists here. And the first list is this list of commandments from the scripture. The second is a list of principles articulated by what's called the Evangelical Immigration Table in 2012 and is found on page 228. You don't have to look at it now. It's just so you know where it is for later. But we're going to start with this list in scripture. And I expanded it sort of around this one section that had to do with what we call the. The alien or the stranger in the land, or sometimes it's called the sojourner. This is a person we could often really relate to somebody who's an immigrant in their country. They're not in their homeland. They're outside their homeland. They're in your homeland. They're not at home. They're sojourning. They're traveling.

[10:09] And as such, they're a vulnerable person. They don't have access to all the sources of stability and networks that they have in their home country. So they're in a vulnerable place. And God says, you need to take care of them. You have to treat them as actually like your neighbor. You have to treat them like one of your own. And you have to love them.

[10:31] But that's juxtaposed. Or that's set in the midst of a long list of other what may seem like sort of random sort of laundry list sort of things. It's kind of like this list here. I have to get a battery. I have to call the bank. So here's all these sort of seemingly unrelated other lists of command. Yeah. Commandments. Keep the Sabbath, et cetera. What does that tell us? Just putting it in its context. That this commandment is like the others. It's in the same list as the others. It's as important as the others. That may mean it's also not more important than the others. It's with all the others. There it is. So I'm actually going to look at each of these lists because each thing on this list. And we'll put them back up there again if you're willing to, Nathan, starting with verse 30. And we'll just talk about them because I think they all kind of, even though it's a sort of a random list, disparate list, they all kind of work together. There's some method in the madness, if you want to say. So let's look at verse 30. And you can follow along in your bulletin. This is the New Revised Standard Version. Observe my Sabbaths and have reverence for my sanctuary. I am the Lord. And I think this is something that we actually

[11:43] break the most. If there were any commandments on this list, we might break it the most. We don't keep Sabbath very well. We're not good at that. A day of worship. A day of rest is not just for your body. It's for your spirit. And that day of rest for your body and spirit makes you open to what God has for you. God can speak to you in that silence if you're able to disconnect all the other sources of information coming at you. And so you should take this and just drop it in the garbage can or at least for a while. Put it in like the bag with the mesh around it. Then it can't get any signals. Observe the Sabbath and have reverence for my sanctuary. So we need to properly orient ourselves to God. And I think that's something that we can do together in this season. Why don't we take time and space not only to be open to God, but open to what God has for us here? So you could call that a late New Year's resolution or an early Lenten discipline if you want. But cultivate a time of rest for your spirit and your body so that you can hear what God is saying.

[12:44] And also, note how it ends. I am the Lord. All of these ends. Right? Right? Right? Right? talking to the dead, and tarot cards, reading the horoscope. Some people think that that's an opening for an evil spirit to torment you. I think that's actually possible. But whatever you think about that, the other thing you have to realize is it's a total waste of time and money. It's just not. We don't do that. We don't do that. Not just because it's in the Old Testament, but because we are people called to trust God for each day. Jesus says, don't worry about tomorrow. Today has enough trouble for itself. And I would say the problems of today, the problems of this moment, are more than we can handle on our own. We don't need to talk to the dead about the future. It won't work anyways, but we should be focused on what's in front of us. Verse 32. Rise in the presence of the aged. Show respect for the elderly and revere your God. I am the Lord. And I like this one more. Every year. Every year I'm like, yeah, I've got to get that plaque of this one. Rise in the presence of the aged.

[14:23] Only one of my children is here. George is homesick. But I think that would be every time I walk in the room if they just were to get up and say, yes, sir. That will never happen. All right. But that's a good practice. All good cultures revere their elders and treat them well and treat them as sources of wisdom, for they are. Now I'm going to skip ahead to 35.

[14:46] Do not use dishonest standards when measuring length. Weight or quantity used on a scales and honest weights. I am the Lord your God who brought you out of Egypt. And this is the basis for justice and commerce and even in society. You know, the idea that things should be fair, that we should not enrich ourselves by deceiving other people. I don't need to say much more than that. That's just that's the basis for a well-functioning society and economy is if we can trust people and we don't lie to each other. We don't take advantage of each other. OK, now let's go back to verse 33, the one that we were talking about. That's kind of the center of it all. When an alien or sojourner or foreigner in the land, when an alien lives with you in your land, do not mistreat him. Don't take advantage of him. The alien living with you must be treated as one of your native born. Isn't that fascinating?

[15:38] Love him as yourself. Where have you heard that one before? That's so interesting. Love him as yourself for you. We're aliens once in Egypt. I am the Lord your God. Keep all my decrees and all my laws and follow them. I am the Lord. And so we care about this one in the present moment. And we'll talk more about maybe in the discussion times what the word alien means. I guess I've already done that. It's somebody who's traveling who had to leave their country because they had need or any other reason. They're not connected to their safety network and their social security. They're not connected to their social system. They're vulnerable. They're in the land. They don't have necessarily all the resources you do. And this thing says, this verse says, don't mistreat them. Don't exploit them. Don't don't treat them poorly. Treat them as if they were the neighbor that you have known all your life, who's lived next to you for as long as you can remember. Treat them like that or and or love them as yourself.

[16:44] And so they're not guests. According to the Scripture, they're not guests. They're like you. And that makes sense because that's how God sees us. We're all his children. We're all. Now, that doesn't mean that we just, oh, so we solved it. Okay, we're done.

[17:00] There's more to it than that because everything, once you get into the details, is more challenging. So we're going to have to get into the details, not today in this sermon, but in your sessions. So that's quite the thought. But there's two reasons given for why we should do this, right? And the first is, we should do this. And the first, I love it, is that the Israelites were themselves sojourners once. They were aliens. So they should know what it was like to be in a foreign land and be mistreated. And he's just saying, remember what it was like for you, how you were treated. If you were treated badly, don't treat other people like that if they're in the same situation you were in back then. So that memory is what's going to keep you, help you keep this law. But the second one is a reminder that each of these commands have, right? It says, I am the Lord your God. Right?

[18:01] Right? Right? Right? Right? Because your teeth will fall out if you don't brush your teeth. I don't care. I don't need teeth. Well, it'll cost you a lot of money to get dentures someday. Well, that's OK. I'll be rich then. I'll have plenty of money for dentures.

[18:24] Well, you still have to brush your teeth. Why? What's the next one? What's the next answer from the parent? Because I said so close. Try again. I'm your dad. I'm your mommy. I'm the mommy. I'm not going to sit here all day and give you 500 reasons why you should brush your teeth. In the end, it's finally because I love you, and I'm your parent, and I know more than you. And you need to brush your teeth, or you're going to lose all your teeth.

[18:57] So that's what God says. Did you hear it? God's saying, I'm your mommy. I am the Lord. I am the Lord your God. I am the Lord your God that brought you out of Egypt. You shall not be lubricated by the lubrication of lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication lubrication with you. My part is all the God stuff. I'm going to protect you. I'm going to redeem you. I'm going to give you a harvest. I'm going to bless you and give you all sorts of things that you need to have a flourishing life. And your part is to pursue a just society and to welcome the stranger as one of your own and to not use bad measures and weights and to come to my temple and worship and pray and make time in your life to be open to what I have to say to you, right? That's the relationship. When he says, I am God, that's all packed in there because I'm the mommy, because I'm the authority in this relationship. And so I think sometimes when we hear that, we sometimes respond the same way a child does who doesn't want to brush their teeth. We're like, why? Why? Give me a good reason. And then eventually, finally, God just says, because I'm God. Because I'm God is why, right? So we can drag our feet. We can say we're not convinced. We can

[20:37] grumble about it. But in the end, this is command. Now, something to think about here. As we read the book, I want to take at least one of these problems out of the mix. And I, because I think one thing the book will do is the book will lay out for us why it's good to brush our teeth. Like this book is really going to help us. If we are saying why, should we care about immigration? Why is this important? Why should we change what we're thinking about? I think the book is going to do a good job of help of opening our minds and our hearts to that. So we can set that aside. Then we're going to be left with the question is, are we convinced or do we want to do anything about it? And I leave that to each and every person in this room to decide that for themselves. Okay. But the book is going to lay out why it's good to be engaged in the question of the immigration debate in our country. We want to know why that. We'll make, we'll understand why. And I think the news in the last few weeks has told us why. It's roiling the nation. It is. It's in the news all the time. Every night, I've been watching CBS Evening News for the last two weeks, and it leads off every night. It's higher on the list than Iran right now. Every night, it's higher than Iran. Okay.

[21:51] That tells you something. Just whoever the people are who make a list of what order to do the news in, they make it based on what they think most people in America want to hear about or what they, or what they think most people in America want to hear about. I don't really know if there's a difference. So, all that's going to be in the book, hopefully unpacking the complexity of the different kinds of immigration. I think that's going to be good. And then I think we may want to make our language more precise, and the book is going to ask us to do that so we can make better decisions and get away from left-coded and right-coded concepts and towards what I would call scripture-coded and God-coded concepts. Welcoming the stranger is a God-coded concept.

[22:37] Right? Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. Right. of us to say no, we're still not sure why we need to brush our teeth, we're still not sure why we need to welcome the stranger, we might need more information, or this book doesn't make the case, that's okay. It's okay if you come to that conclusion. There's no censure for anyone who doesn't agree with this book. That's quite all right. So the other thing is we have to approach this book and books like it and this concept in the spirit that Paul suggests. This is a result of our transformation, as Adele read, the transformation of our minds, the renewal of our minds, where we're able to use sound and sober judgment, which means what? It means being thoughtful and mindful and logical and fair when we evaluate any kind of concept at all and set aside the biases that we've brought with us and look at a thing as it actually is and look at it through the mind and the eyes of God, if that's a positive thing, then I would say that would be the best thing possible for us and I think it is if we set aside time and space to hear what God has to say about it. Do you see how it's all kind of linked together? I love it.

[24:07] So I think it's something we can pray for more of, that's the sober judgment. In fact, I'm going to take a tiny break here to ask God for more sober judgment. Is that okay with you? Can you, however you pray, close your eyes, bow your head, just a real quick prayer, Lord. Lord, open our hearts and our minds to this topic. Give us sober judgment. that come out of a renewed mind that you give us. And can we hear an amen? Amen. That's what we're going to pray for. So we're almost done now. So the second list from the book, page 228, and that's calling for a national immigration policy. I'm skipping to the end, but they refer to this. This is what thoughtful evangelicals have put together that balances the needs of a lot of sort of movements and motions inside this debate.

[24:59] Theologically and thoughtfully. And so this is calling for a national immigration policy that we as Christians should try to bring about by civic engagement. And we may get on board with this, we may not, but I think we should lay out what they want, where they're driving us to, okay? So we can be aware of it, all right? So there's one, two, three, four, five, six things, okay? And I don't like lists more than three because you're going to tune out. So try your best not to tune out, okay?

[25:28] College try. If you're not in college, then you don't have to try. So the national immigration policy that, one, respects the God-given dignity of every person. Everybody can agree on that one. Two, protects the unity of the immediate family. So there's this sense of close families being held together somehow.

[25:48] Three, respects the rule of law. Wow, interesting. Okay, there is a legal aspect to this. Four, guarantees secure national borders. Some people are going, yeah. You know? Five, ensures fairness to taxpayers. It's in there. This is their list. Ensures fairness to taxpayers.

[26:09] Six, establishes a path toward legal status and or citizenship for those who qualify and who wish to become permanent residents. Okay, so this is like, you know the buffet, and your eyes are kind of big, and you're like, oh, I want this. You know, I'm going to go to the buffet when you're hungry. Also, don't go shopping to the grocery store when you're hungry. You'll end up with more food than you really. It's true. They've figured this out. But if you go to the store when you're full, you won't buy anything. So try to figure it out. You know, go at 3 p.m. I don't know. But at the buffet, you're like, oh, cottage cheese. I'm the only person in my family that loves cottage cheese. Cottage cheese, beans, steak.

[26:49] So now we got this plate, and you get back, and you're like, this all looks so good, but I can't eat it all. I feel that way a little bit about this list. There's a lot on this list. I'm not sure. Anyone. Anyone can eat all of it. But who am I to say that we can't? With God, all things are possible. I think it's possible. But they're really swinging for the fences here, okay? And if it can happen, I would praise God so much, you know.

[27:14] But that's where we're going. And it's really interesting because it's a mix of what some people on the far right want. Let's secure the border. It's what some people on the far left want, which is let's make it open to anybody and everybody as much as we can, you know.

[27:31] And so, we're not going to explore what each of these means or why there's a scriptural basis for them, but I think that can come. And I'm not in charge of the rest of the preaching schedule, so I'm not sure this list is going to guide the preaching schedule. But this list is where this book is headed, okay? So that's something you want to pay attention to. And I think right now, like I said, this list looks impossible. I don't see it happening tomorrow.

[27:59] I don't see it happening in eight weeks. But I think God could make a movement happen so that this could happen within a decade or longer. Some things take time. Change takes time. None of us changes overnight. Countries don't change overnight unless it's just like this sort of flashpoint.

[28:20] So we're in this for the long haul, and we always have been. When we're talking about Christian faith and our engagement with the world, I keep saying it's kind of like the people who built the, the cathedrals in Europe. Some of them took 150, 200 years to build. The stone masons that were cutting blocks knew that they were just putting a block in the wall, and that their children or their children's children would put the capstone in. So this might be a generational thing. I hope it doesn't take that long, but it might be because this is a, this is a thorny topic. We can leave that in God's hands. Our job is to bring sober judgment to this topic, to converse with each other, and listen to what the scriptures have to say about it. And then make our own decisions. Okay? So, um, I'm actually a little bummed to be missing this study with you. I'm going away for eight weeks. I'll be back. I'm very interested to hear how it goes. Like I said, books are dangerous. So when I come back, and I've told our leadership, you can make decisions when I'm gone. The only thing you can't choose to do is hire another pastor while I'm gone. It's in the Constitution. I have to be consulted for any staff hiring. It's just, it's in the Constitution.

[29:27] So you better follow it. But any, I said, any other decision you want to make, you can make without me, because the church is the decision-making body. The pastor isn't. Okay? So if I come back, and you guys have made a big decision based on this book, like we did with the last book, and redoing our bathrooms, I will praise God, whatever it is. And I'll go along with it, because you guys are my boss. Did you know that? Okay. Well, you are. Okay.

[29:53] So anyways, I'm wondering what will happen after this book. Books are more powerful. And people think sometimes. Praise God for that. So let's end with a prayer for God to reveal himself to our open minds. Once again, to give us good judgment. And once again, to remind us that he is God, and we are not. Let's pray.

[30:15] Father, thank you. Thank you for the opening of this study. We pray a blessing on the study. We pray on all. A blessing on all who participate and lead that we will seek your mind. We will seek your mind. We pray that you will lead us in the sober judgment.

[30:31] That you will transform us and shape us by what we learn. And that we live in this great peace that you are God, and we are not. And you will bring about the change in this world. And you will direct us in how to be part of that. So Lord, we commit this book and its study into your hands for the next six weeks. In Jesus' name. Amen.

[30:55] All right. Well, let's stand for the doxology. And thank you, God, from whom all blessings flow. And the offering plate will come forward. Please remain standing as we sing our last two songs. So as we reflect on being grounded in God and also the transformative nature of Him, let's reflect on that as we sing these last two songs.

[32:16] Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Are You Hurting? Isn't he wonderful? Sing alleluia. Christ is risen. Bow down before him. For he is Lord of all.

[35:52] Sing alleluia. Christ is risen. Sing alleluia. O come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ. O come to the altar. The Father's arms are open wide. Forgiveness was bought with the precious blood of Jesus Christ.

[36:43] O come to the altar. O come to the altar. Righteous Son of Man. Righteous Son of Man. Righteous Son of Man. Righteous Son of Man. Righteous Son of Man. Righteous Son of Man. I searched the world But it could have filled me A man's empty praise And treasures that fade Are never enough Then you came along And put me back together And every desire Is now satisfied Here in your love Oh, there's nothing Better than you Oh, there's nothing Better than you Lord, there's nothing Nothing is better than you And I'm not afraid Of you To show you my weakness My failures and flaws Lord, you've seen them all You still call me friend Cause the God of the mountain Is the God of the valley And there's not a place Your mercy Is in my heart And grace Won't find me again No, there's nothing Better than you Lord, there's nothing Better than you Lord, there's nothing Nothing is better than you Right here in my heart Right here in my heart Right here in my heart Right here in my heart Right here in my heart into armies. You turn seas into highways. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. You're the only one who can. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. One more time. Oh, there's nothing.

[41:06] Better than you. Oh, there's nothing better than you. Oh, there's nothing. Nothing is better than you. Well, before the benediction, a few quick announcements. Go on out to the, through there into the fireside room for treats and coffee afterwards. Always a great time. If you need some usher greeter training, and I hope you do, come straight up here afterwards because it won't take long, three, four minutes, and I'll show you the ropes. And then the first book study starts at 1215. You don't have to sign up for it. Just show up. It's going to be right over there in the fireside room at 1215. That's the discussion group. For chapters one and two. And if you haven't read the book, that's fine. You'll get a background on it. So there's still a lot happening today. But let's go out with the benediction from Romans 15. May the God of all hope fill you all with all joy and peace as you trust in him so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. Now go in peace and serve the Lord. Thanks be to God.