It's in the Book!

A sermon preached with the people of St. John’s Episcopal Church in Oakland, California during an intergenerational service as part of the Confirm Not Conform program.

If you look at your bulletin, here on the 4th page. Do you see on the right side it says “BCP p355.” What does “BCP” stands for? That’s right! “Book of Common Prayer.“ Where can we find one of those? That’s right! Everyone who can see one nearby find it and hold it up!

Okay, now, if you can, turn to page 355. See that part “Almighty God, to you all hearts are open” ? We just read that! The bulletin does not lie!

 Most of what we say here on Sunday mornings (and at baptisms and weddings and funerals, and all kinds of gatherings together) can be found in that book. But, it’s a lot easier to have everything printed the way we need it to be in these handy bulletins.

 Okay, now – this seem like an easy one I know, but humor me. What I the name of this church? The full name?? Thaaat’s right: St. John’s … Episcopal Church.

We’re part of a big group of churches that call themselves “Episcopal.” We welcome all people, and we try to make sure everyone gets to decide for themselves what they believe. That’s what Confirm Not Conform (our confirmation group), here with us today, is all about – everyone gets to learn and make their own decisions. The CnC group is going to be talking about the Episcopal Church and the Book of Common Prayer, but I decided it would be fun to loop everyone in on some of that today.

All Episcopal churches use words from this book. It’s really a big part of what you might call our “brand.” This book of rituals and prayers. And the book changes and gets edited over time. This version came out in 1979. And the one before that in 1928. The very first Book of Common Prayer came out in 1549; and even though it’s in old English, you would still notice some of it sounds like what we have said here this morning.

The thing I love about having this book is that it connects us to people from centuries ago and people around the world. If you go to an Episcopal Church in another part of the country, the words, and when you stand and sit, will be really familiar. And the Episcopal Church is part of an even bigger group of churches called the Anglican Communion. And if you go to an Anglican church in England or Mexico, or Argentina, or Hong Kong or Zambia, or New Zealand, you would have a pretty good idea of what’s going on if you’ve been with us here on a Sunday at St. John’s

 Who has had this experience? Where have you gone to an Episcopal Church or an Anglican Church? (many answers!)

So what do we do here on Sundays?  

 (The congregation listed many things, including singing, praying , reading scripture, listening to sermonss, confessing, saying the creed, silence, praying for people we know and don’t know, Eucharist, processing., and greeting each other). 

And Eucharist, along with Baptism (some of you were here with us for a baptism last week) – are called sacraments. Lots of people have lots of different ways of defining a sacrament, but for me, they’re special things we do that help us really feel God’s love. And the idea is that we hope they give us the strength to take that love into the world – to be the kind and brave and the generally awesome people we were made to be every day.  Earlier we heard the story of Jesus eating (in this case fish) with his friends - he’s like, “you got anything in the fridge??” – to show them that he is really here, and that that he loves them. That’s a lot like what we’re doing when we share those little pieces of bread.

Today, as we say the Eucharistic prayer, I’m going to explain a bit about what the different parts are called, and what they mean.. Because while I love the Episcopal Church we just described, I don’t think we always do the best job of remembering to explain things. I need a review once in a while!

But first, after a short period silence, we’re going to share what we call the Prayers of the People – when, as we discussed earlier, we pray together for people near and far. Then we will offer one another Peace (also discussed!). These things are all in the book!