Sunday Worship 7 September 2025

September 7, 2025 colind

Off

Today’s service is led by the Revd Andy Braunston

Introduction

We hear today of Jeremiah’s insight that God moulds us like a potter moulds and works clay on a wheel. Spinning and forming us into something wonderful. The Psalmist reminds us that we are fully known and loved; even if we don’t fully know ourselves and Paul tries to make sense of the evil system of slavery by trying to appeal to a slave holder who was also a leader in the Church. As we listen we wonder how we are changed by God’s gentle hands, how we learn to know ourselves and how we can change our world one life at a time. We listen, we wonder, we seek inspiration. My name is Andy Braunston and it’s my pleasure to lead us in worship today. I am the United Reformed Church’s Minister for Digital Worship and live up in Orkney; a place moulded by God’s power of wind and weather. Let’s worship together.

Call To Worship

Where can we go from your Spirit, O Most High?
For You lay your hand upon us.

You search us out, You hem us in, Lord Jesus.
For You lay your hand upon us.

If we ascend to heaven, You are there, Most Holy Spirit;
if we make our beds in Hell, You are there.
For You lay your hand upon us.

And so, we stop running away and come to worship You,
Eternal Trinity, our Source, Guide, and Goal,
Knowing that in word and song, movement and silence,
and in bread and wine, You lay your hand upon us.

Hymn Today I Awake
John L Bell (born 1949) and Graham Maule (1958-2019) © 1989 WGRG, c/o Iona Community, Glasgow, G5 9JP, OneLicence 178345. Reading Phoenix Choir

Today I awake and God is before me
at night, as I dreamt, he summoned the day;
for God never sleeps but patterns the morning
with slithers of gold or glory in grey.

Today I arise and Christ is beside me.
He walked through the dark to scatter new light.
Yes, Christ is alive, and beckons his people
to hope and to heal, resist and invite.

Today I affirm the Spirit within me
at worship and work, in struggle and rest.
The Spirit inspires all life which is changing
from fearing to faith, from broken to blest.

Today I enjoy the Trinity round me,
above and beneath, before and behind;
the Maker, the Son, the Spirit together –
they called me to life and call me their friend.

Prayers of Approach, Confession, and Grace

We come before You, O Holy One,
knowing we are fearfully and wonderfully made,
remembering how You knit us together in our mother’s womb,
giving thanks for the wonders of Your works,
and the bounty of Your provision.

We come before You, Risen Lord Jesus,
aware of our faults and failings;
even as You know us through and through,
we are aware that often don’t know ourselves so well.
We have turned away from Your love,
abused You in creation, turned to lesser gods, and enslaved ourselves
as we live off cheap labour and expensive credit.
Forgive us, good Lord, and give us time to change.

We come before You, Most Holy Spirit,
knowing You both search and test us,
even as You equip us to serve.
Give us the sense to read the signs of our times,
the faith to trust in You,
and the courage to make a difference before it’s too late. Amen

The Holy One, the Source of all mercy,
through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ
has reconciled the world to God’s own self
and sent the Holy Spirit amongst us for the forgiveness of sins.
Through the ministry of the Church
may you receive both pardon and peace;
You are absolved from your sins in the name of God,
Eternal Majesty, Enfleshed Word, and Enlivening Spirit. Amen.

Prayer for Illumination

Speak to us, O God, in ancient and contemporary word,
that through Your Spirit we may hear, understand, respond and obey,
and live ever more faithfully as we follow the Word made flesh,
Jesus Christ, our Lord, Amen.

Reading Jeremiah 18:1-11

The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was working at his wheel. The vessel he was making of clay was spoiled in the potter’s hand, and he reworked it into another vessel, as seemed good to him. Then the word of the LORD came to me: Can I not do with you, O house of Israel, just as this potter has done? says the LORD. Just like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in my hand, O house of Israel. At one moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will pluck up and break down and destroy it, but if that nation, concerning which I have spoken, turns from its evil, I will change my mind about the disaster that I intended to bring on it. And at another moment I may declare concerning a nation or a kingdom that I will build and plant it, but if it does evil in my sight, not listening to my voice, then I will change my mind about the good that I had intended to do to it. Now, therefore, say to the people of Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem: Thus says the LORD: Look, I am a potter shaping evil against you and devising a plan against you. Turn now, all of you, from your evil way, and amend your ways and your doings.

Reading Psalm 139

O Lord, you have searched me and known me.
You know when I sit down and when I rise up;
   you discern my thoughts from far away.
You search out my path and my lying down,
   and are acquainted with all my ways.
Even before a word is on my tongue,
   O Lord, you know it completely.
You hem me in, behind and before,
   and lay your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me;
   it is so high that I cannot attain it.

Where can I go from your spirit?
   Or where can I flee from your presence?
If I ascend to heaven, you are there;
   if I make my bed in Sheol, you are there.
If I take the wings of the morning
   and settle at the farthest limits of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
   and your right hand shall hold me fast.
If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’,
even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.

For it was you who formed my inward parts;
   you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made.
   Wonderful are your works;
that I know very well.
My frame was not hidden from you,
when I was being made in secret,
   intricately woven in the depths of the earth.
Your eyes beheld my unformed substance.
In your book were written
   all the days that were formed for me,
   when none of them as yet existed.
How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God!
   How vast is the sum of them!
I try to count them—they are more than the sand;
   I come to the end—I am still with you.

O that you would kill the wicked, O God,
   and that the bloodthirsty would depart from me—
those who speak of you maliciously,
   and lift themselves up against you for evil!
Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord?
   And do I not loathe those who rise up against you?
I hate them with perfect hatred;
   I count them my enemies.
Search me, O God, and know my heart;
   test me and know my thoughts.
See if there is any wicked way in me,
   and lead me in the way everlasting.

Hymn You are Before Me, Lord, You are Behind (from Psalm 139)
Ian Pitt-Watson (1973, 1989) © 1973 Ian Pitt-Watson Trust Sung by members of New Cumnock Parish Church. OneLicence 178345

You are before me, Lord, You are behind.
And over me You have spread out Your hand;
such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too high to grasp, too great to understand.

If I should take my flight into the dawn,
if I should dwell on ocean’s farthest shore,
Your mighty hand will rest upon me still,
and Your right hand will guard me evermore.

Search me, O God, search me and know my heart;
try me, O God, my mind and spirit try;
keep me from any path that gives You pain,
and lead me in the everlasting way.

Reading Philemon 1:1-21

Paul, a prisoner of Christ Jesus, and Timothy our brother, To our beloved coworker Philemon, to Apphia our sister, to Archippus our fellow soldier, and to the church in your house: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank my God always when I mention you in my prayers, because I hear of your love for all the saints and your faith toward the Lord Jesus. I pray that the partnership of your faith may become effective as you comprehend all the good that we share in Christ. I have indeed received much joy and encouragement from your love, because the hearts of the saints have been refreshed through you, my brother. For this reason, though I am more than bold enough in Christ to command you to do the right thing, yet I would rather appeal to you on the basis of love – and I, Paul, do this as an old man and now also as a prisoner of Christ Jesus. I am appealing to you for my child, Onesimus, whose father I have become during my imprisonment. Formerly he was useless to you, but now he is indeed useful to you and to me. I am sending him, that is, my own heart, back to you. I wanted to keep him with me so that he might minister to me in your place during my imprisonment for the gospel, but I preferred to do nothing without your consent in order that your good deed might be voluntary and not something forced. Perhaps this is the reason he was separated from you for a while, so that you might have him back for the long term, no longer as a slave but more than a slave, a beloved brother–especially to me but how much more to you, both in the flesh and in the Lord. So if you consider me your partner, welcome him as you would welcome me. If he has wronged you in any way or owes you anything, charge that to me. I, Paul, am writing this with my own hand: I will repay it. I say nothing about your owing me even your own self. Yes, brother, let me have this benefit from you in the Lord! Refresh my heart in Christ. Confident of your obedience, I am writing to you, knowing that you will do even more than I ask.

Sermon

Famously, Greek plays, used to have a technique to solve any plot problems and bring things to a neat conclusion – the Latin phrase deus ex machina describes this. A god would be bought on stage by a machine – lowered by a crane or raised through a trap door – to surprise the audience, resolve the plot, and bring things to a nice conclusion. Many religious folk now think something similar will happen with the climate – God will take pity on us and sort it all out! God might do this through inspiring human ingenuity or he might use more miraculous means. To be fair there’s plenty of non-religious folk who believe that science alone will sort out our problems, forgetting that science showed us how to use fossil fuels, create plastic, and despoil the earth in the first place. It’s a comforting idea in so many ways, and an idea found in Biblical times as well, but it’s a false and dangerous idea even as it is comforting.

Our first reading from Jeremiah pits the prophet into countering this dangerous idea. At the time there were two dominant, and contrasting, theologies believed by the Jewish people. A “temple theology” held that that bad things could not, and would not, happen to the Jewish people as they had been elected by God of all the peoples of the world. God protected both His people and His Temple. Whereas the Covenant theology, espoused by Jeremiah, held that God gives rewards for obedience and punishment for disobedience. The elite believed and trusted in God’s promises and the idea He would protect His people no matter what; the prophets taught that a covenant took two parties and the promises of one were dependent on the promises of the other. The people had broken their promises so why should God keep faithful?

To make matters even more difficult Jeremiah ministered in Jerusalem in the lead up to the invasion and defeat at the hands of Babylon 600 years or so before Jesus. Reluctant to accept a call to ministry, his life was plagued by opposition, imprisonment, and struggle. Fated to foretell the coming divine judgement on the Jewish nation of Judah, he was not popular with the elite. He saw the invasion of Jerusalem, the destruction of the Temple, and the exile of the political and religious elite to Babylon. Jeremiah taught that the Babylonian assault on, and destruction of, Jerusalem was because God wished to punish an unfaithful people who worshipped pagan gods – even giving their children as burnt offerings to Baal. The nation had turned its back on God, so God withdrew divine blessings. God would not save the day. God would not be lifted onto life’s stage to put everything right. The people had to answer for their sins.

The analogy of the potter who throws away the spoilt clay highlights Jeremiah’s point. God could allow the destruction of the people, the Temple, and the Nation in order to reform it; just as the potter reforms clay when the work is not what is wanted. Ultimately God plans for the good but for now there is danger, disaster, and damnation. The everyday occurrence of a potter working clay is turned, by Jeremiah, into a prophetic warning about the signs of the times – repent or perish. There is hope, the people (the clay) can be refashioned and moulded into something wonderful but if they choose not to then there’s only pain and destruction.

In the UK, unlike many other nations, we’re not facing an imminent threat of invasion, but the signs of the environmental crisis are everywhere. As I write this, in July, we’re heading into drought, heat wave records are already broken and we’ve another couple of months of summer left, day and nighttime temperatures rise meaning days are unpleasant and nights not as restful as they could be; and we’re in northern Europe, temperatures around the Mediterranean and further east are dreadful and dangerous. No more than in Jeremiah’s time we need to listen to the prophets who clearly tell us what is going on and what is going to happen.

In our contemporary world, however, we don’t know ourselves as well as we should. The ancient poet who wrote Psalm 139 which we sung today has moving and familiar verses. It is comforting to know that God searches and knows us and discerns our thoughts from afar, that God fully knew us even as we were formed in our mothers’ wombs. However, the mood changes in verses 19-24 when, in maybe a lack of self-awareness, the poet longs that God would kill the wicked and banish the blood thirsty from the poet’s presence. Perhaps our ancient poet didn’t see the wickedness within herself; perhaps the poet was in danger and beset by enemies determined to do harm. There’s despair at how well the wicked who hate God do – shades here of Jeremiah’s preaching against the elite in Jerusalem who’ve done very well but have turned away from God – and the poet declares he loathes those who loathe God. This isn’t the stuff Sunday services in the URC are made of! But then, maybe in response, the poem ends with a desire for the writer to be searched and led away from wickedness to everlasting paths.

We are left with this ancient poem which touches heaven with its words of assurance in God, and which touches hell with a desire for the wicked to perish. The writer is nearer the former than the latter and there’s a little self-awareness at the end. In our contemporary world we may not know ourselves very well at all. As a society we’ve lost touch with God and the transcendent and worship ourselves as the summit of creation. We ignore creation’s groaning and pain as we continue to pollute, pillage and despoil the earth trusting in our flawed technologies hoping they’ll come to the rescue despite much evidence to the contrary. We fool ourselves and destroy the earth.

Perhaps Paul realised Roman society was living on a false dream and fooling itself its empire would never fall. Maybe all empires fool themselves until it’s too late. Paul, like all Jews, had to live and navigate an empire built on the abhorrent system of slavery. In the ancient world anyone could be enslaved; slavery was not a concept based on race as it was in later European and American history. Instead, people could be enslaved through defeat in battle, as a punishment for crime, or for debts. Between 35% and 40% of the population of the Roman empire was enslaved; their economy depended on it. Slaves were seen as tools and could be bought and sold at a master’s whim – just as we might buy and sell items on Facebook Market Place. Slaves could be used and abused both physically and sexually and could be given their freedom when they were old and sick – thus freeing the master of having to care for them in old age and infirmity. Masters had the absolute power of life and death over slaves; particularly if they ran away. So when we turn to our reading from the letter to Philemon we’re catapulted into a world we can’t really understand. Philemon is the shortest of Paul’s letters preserved in the New Testament; it is certainly his most troubling one. The letter is troubling because Paul is begging Onesimus’ master to accept him back; Onesimus was a runaway slave.

The fate of slaves who ran away explains the urgency of Paul’s admonitions to Philemon who is listed, along with others, as a leader in the church. We recoil at the idea of Christians, let alone Church leaders, holding slaves; Paul’s teaching, in Galatians, that all are one in Christ meaning there is no differentiation between male and female, old or young, slave nor free is in stark contrast to slave holding. Yet Paul makes a plea based on emotion and rhetoric not on the evilness of a universal institution. Onesimus was useless to Philemon but has been useful to Paul, he has been close to Paul “my own heart” yet Paul is moved to return him to his master, he had hoped to keep Onesimus to minister to him in Philemon’s place, but, appealing in love (not commanding) Paul didn’t want to do anything without Philemon’s permission. The mighty Apostle seeks permission from a mere local church leader! Then, having set the scene showing that Onesimus too is a Christian, Paul hopes that he may be accepted back as a “beloved brother” and “more than a slave”. Paul will pay any debts and asks that Onesimus be received with the same love and honour as if he, himself, returned. The last line “confident in your obedience” underscores the authority Paul has but with a light touch

There is much wrong in this passage; slavery is abhorrent, the lives of slaves could be miserable; even highly esteemed, educated, slaves were still subject to the whims of their masters. Yet Paul could not overturn the economic and social order of the ancient world. Instead, like a potter gently moulding the moving clay on the wheel, Paul seeks to mould Philemon. With flattery, authority, and references to their mutuality in Christ he entrusts Onesimus to Philemon’s care with, perhaps, a hint in that line about brothers about setting Onesimus free.

There’s much in our world we can’t change; we see the lending of money with interest as normal – many of us have or have had mortgages – yet the Old Testament prohibitions on this are clear (and followed now only by Muslims). We live in a world fuelled by debt; if everyone was able to pay off their credit our financial markets would collapse. Yet we seek to mitigate the worst excesses of our economic models through giving to charity, through urging governments to write off the debts of developing countries (who’ve repaid the original amount many times over), and through political pressure to act on interest rates. We live with economic models that destroy the earth; our gadgets use rare earth metals; even those of us who drive electric vehicles don’t have clean hands if we charge them with electricity produced from fossil fuels and if we change them frequently adding to the waste in society. Like Paul we’re not able to overturn a social order but, also like him, we can seek to try and mitigate it.

So we’re back where we started. Do we think we’re immune from the trials and tribulations of the world? Do we think, like Jeremiah’s contemporaries, that God won’t let bad things happen to us? Do we think that God will step in, like a god in a Greek play, to sort out our environmental mess? If so, Jeremiah’s words won’t make easy reading. We can, with the Psalmist, assure ourselves that God knows us through and through but that means God also knows our weaknesses and foibles; even the times when we wish those who are evil were dead! We must see the world as it is; we must see our society as it is. Many of us live in a fool’s paradise hoping that there are technological solutions to the climate emergency; of course much technological change will help and the move to electric cars, for example, is remarkable. Yet sea levels continue to rise, weather patterns continue to change, populations continue to move, and species continue to go extinct. These are not signs of God’s displeasure but signs of what we’ve done to nature.

Jeremiah called his people to repent; we need to change our lives around in both simple and complex ways to mitigate against much of what is to come. Paul could not change the world overnight; as a good Jew, and as someone who understood the bonds that unite Christians, he would have abhorred slavery yet could not end it. However, his letter to Philemon tried to mitigate against its excesses in just one case. Jeremiah preached to a people, the Psalmist spoke just to God (and maybe to him or herself), Paul just to one person. Each tried to bring about change. What can we do and who can we speak to – after we’ve spoken to ourselves of course!

Let’s pray

Eternal God, You send your prophets to warn of destruction to come,
help us to listen.
Risen Lord, You know and love us, help us to know ourselves.
Most Holy Spirit, You inspire and lead us;
help us to change, one life at a time. Amen.

Hymn Lord of Creation to You Be All Praise
Jack C Winslow (1882-1974) © Mrs J Tyrrell OneLicence 178345. Sung by Garth Moore of the Isle of Man Methodist Church and used with his kind permission.

Lord of creation, to you be all praise!
Most mighty your working, most wondrous your ways!
Your glory and might are beyond us to tell,
and yet in the heart of the humble you dwell.

Lord of all power, I give you my will,
in joyful obedience your tasks to fulfil.
Your bondage is freedom, your service is song;
and, held in your keeping, my weakness is strong.

Lord of all wisdom, I give you my mind,
rich truth that surpasses my knowledge to find;
what eye has not seen and what ear has not heard
is taught by your Spirit and shines from your word.

Lord of all bounty, I give you my heart;
I praise and adore you for all you impart,
your love to inspire me, your counsel to guide,
your presence to shield me, whatever betide.

Lord of all being, I give you my all;
if I ever disown you, I stumble and fall;
but, led in your service your word to obey,
I’ll walk in your freedom to the end of the way.

Affirmation of Faith

We believe in God, the Most High,
creator of all that is, seen and unseen,
who sustains Creation even as humanity despoils and destroys it.

We believe in God-made-flesh, Jesus Christ,
who calls us to know ourselves
and read Creation’s warning signs,
even as we prefer to ignore them.

We believe in God the Holy Spirit,
who calls us to be free, to cherish Creation,
and who changes the world, one life at a time. Amen

Intercessions

Where can we go from your Spirit, O God?
You hem us in, behind and before,
and lay your hands upon us.
And so, as a people surrounded by Your loving kindness,
we bring our prayers to You.

First, we pray for freedom for our world,
held captive by economic systems which exploit and oppress the poor,
and pillage the earth, our fragile home;
we ask for Your strength to spoke the wheels of evil’s engines,
that Your people, and the very earth itself, might be free.

You hem us in O God, behind and before,
and lay your hands upon us.

We pray for our nations, longing for change,
that the hungry be fed,
the homeless housed,
the jobless employed,
the disabled treated with dignity,
the old given security,
that we may live in peace with our neighbours.

You hem us in O God, behind and before,
and lay your hands upon us.

We pray for the Church,
that we do not fall into the trap of believing
You will do what we command,
but that, instead, we remain faithful to Your covenant,
by seeking to love You and our neighbours as ourselves.
Reform us, O God, as a potter reforms the clay,
keep us pliable to Your will, useful in Your service,
and humble as we serve.

You hem us in O God, behind and before,
and lay your hands upon us.

We pray for those we love and worry about…

We pray for ourselves and our own needs….

You hem us in O God, behind and before,
and lay your hands upon us.

We join all our prayers together as we pray as Jesus taught…Our Father…

Offertory

Giving changes us, just as the potter’s hands mould and form the clay. In giving we learn to be less selfish, less attached to our material possessions, and more aware of the needs which surround us. As we give we become more aware of our interdependence and both the need to support, and be supported by, others. We give of our time, our talents, and our treasure and so we give thanks for all that is given in this congregation.

O Most High, we ask You to bless all that is given here;
gifts of time, gifts of skill and talents, and gifts of treasure,
whether given in the plate, direct to the bank,
or to a range of charities and good causes.
As we give mould us with Your powerful love,
that You form us into the image of Jesus, Your Son.
All this we ask in the power of the Holy Spirit, Amen.

Holy Communion

Come to this table, all who hunger for justice.
Come to this table, all who desire to know themselves better.
Come to this table, all who desire change.
Come and be fed by God’s own hand through Creation’s gifts.

God be with you! And also with you!
Lift up your hearts! We lift them up to God.
Let us give God our thanks and praise! It is right and fitting so to do.

O Most High,
We bring You our thanks and praise for You, O God, are holy and one.
Before the ages You called the worlds into being,
causing the stars to shine, the planets to spin, and all life to start.
From the depths to the heights, You hold all Creation in love.
From the sea to the earth,
through gentle wind and refining fire You tend all created things.
You called humanity into being,
commanding us to care for, and live in harmony with, Creation.
Yet we rejected Your instructions
preferring pillage to nurture, destruction to dignity.
From the nations of the earth, You called a people to be Your own,
to them You gave precious law, called forth judges to protect the weak,
and charged prophets to speak Your warnings.

In the fullness of time, You became one with them, one with us,
and took on our flesh and frailty in Jesus the Anointed One.
Jesus taught the crowds, healed the sick,
freed the captives and lifted the downtrodden.
For speaking truth to power, he was condemned by lies.
For showing love to the outcast, he was driven out by hatred.
For healing the sick, he was broken.
For showing how to live the heights of abundant life,
he was laid low and killed.
But You did not leave him amongst the dead,
tricking the ancient enemy,
You raised Jesus as the first victor over sin and death.
For all these things we praise You
and with all of Creation we sing of Your holiness and glory:

O holy, most holy, the God of Creation,
for ever exalted in pow’r and great might.
The earth and the heavens are full of your glory.
Hosanna, hosanna, and praise in the height!
How blessed is He who is sent to redeem us,
who puts ev’ry fear and injustice to flight;
who comes in the name of the Lord as our Saviour.
Hosanna, hosanna, and praise in the height.
And now we remember the night before Jesus was given over to evil,
when he shared in the simplicity of a meal with his friends,
and during the meal he took bread, blessed it, broke it
and gave it to his friends saying:

Take this all of you, and eat it, for this is my body, broken for you.
Do this in memory of me.

Then, after the meal he took a cup of wine, said the blessing,
and gave it to his friends saying:

Take this all of you, and drink from it, for this is the cup of my blood,
shed for you. Do this in memory of me.

Let us remember Jesus now as we proclaim the central mystery of our faith:

Christ has died! Christ is risen! Christ will come again!

Come now, O Holy Spirit,
set apart these earthly gifts for heavenly use,
that they may be, for us, the body and blood of our Saviour Jesus Christ.

Come now, O Holy Spirit,
set us apart for heavenly use here on earth,
that we may be, for you, Christ’s body,
healing, loving, and serving that Creation might be made whole,
slaves might be freed,
and that we might know ourselves as fully as You know us.
Gather us, with Your saints of old, into the coming Kingdom,
where you live, with Jesus Christ,
to the glory the Most High, forever and ever, Amen.

Music for Communion Jesus Invites His Saints
sung by Lythan and Phil Nevard and used with their kind permission

Post Communion Prayer

Gracious God,
You have fed us, as a mother feeds her children, with Creation’s fullness.
You have blessed us to be blessings to others;
You have filled us that we may feed the hungry;
You have loved us that we may love the loveless.
Send us out as signs of love and wholeness
in a broken hurting world. Amen.

Sent by the Lord am I; my hands are ready now
to make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes.
Sent by the Lord am I; my hands are ready now
to make the earth the place in which the kingdom comes.

The angels cannot change a world of hurt and pain
into a world of love, of justice and of peace,
the task is mine to do, to set it really free.
Oh, help me to obey; help me to do your will.

Blessing

May the One who tells you to read the warning signs of the times,
the One who frees you from all that drags you down, and
the One who knows you through and through,
enable you understand what’s going on,
give you the grace to free others,
and enable you to know yourselves,
that you may change the world, one life at a time,
and the blessing of Almighty God,
the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit be with you all, evermore, Amen.

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