- What turns God on? And God deals with these very quickly, saying, goodness? You think that I get off on goodness? You went through the long slap of history, the long suffering of the innocent? All this history's increment of evil being rewarded with good, and good with evil. You think goodness is my thing? No, I called it off because my one thing is astonishment. And I never found my audience. I got a few (speaks foreign language) from the Jews a few times, a few hallelujahs from the Protestants, a few (speaks foreign language) from the Catholics. But I really never found my audience. For astonishment is that in which I delight. Those who can stand before an everyday event and say this is the Lord's doings. It's marvelous. In my eyes. The way Alice Walker does in her Color Purple, saying, "God loves the very things we love "that used to turn us on, "only they keep on turning Him on. "It isn't that He's vain, "it's just that he wants to share these things with us, "and nothing turns Him off so much as a person who can walk "by a field of purple "and not stand and stare. "So full of care, they can walk by a field of purple, "and have no time to stand and just stare." Look at the wonder deep down in things. Every land a land of Oz. Every place a place where the Lord is, especially in those everyday places. And I've taken this long to just somehow get us into this story of Jacob which will not now take long. For here's a man who has just fleeced his father, flimflammed his brother, he's taking it on the lam until the temp is cool. And the first night out, makes his bed under the sky with nothing around to remind him of anything other than just the world as it is, the plain hard facts. And he lies down, and you'd think he'd have a troubled conscience. But he goes to sleep like a baby cradled in his mother's arms. And you'd think at least then God would get at him in some bad dreams. And instead, he gets a dream that would be worthy of a saint. He sees a ladder coming down from heaven and from the earth back up to heaven, and on it, angels with feet of burnished brass, wings like monarch butterflies. And they are all bringing blessings to him, Jacob, the flimflam artist, the conman. And above the ladder is God Himself saying in unmistakable terms, "I'll give you the land you sleep on. "I will make you a blessing "to all the nations of the earth. "In you, they will find their birthright." And then this codicil to the blessing: "I will bring you back to the land from which you left "and I will be with you wherever you go. "And always I will be there to bless you." My soul, you would have think at least God would have thrown the book at this crook. No wonder when he awoke from the dream it was with fear and trembling. The Lord is in this place. This place. The last place I would ever have expected to find Him. In a way that you couldn't put Him there. You couldn't cheat and get Him there. He was there simply to give what was on the house, what had been on the house all the time. Everything that Jacob had wanted and cheated in order to obtain, it couldn't be had that way because it can't be had that way. It has to be had as a gift. That's what he was saying. Surely this is the gate of heaven. This is the great discovery. The Lord is precisely where I least expected Him. And so he became father of the faith. So the stable, so the star. So the man whose name is called Wonderful. All this awe in the midst of the everyday things. In a world of con artists, of helms and hunts. Of family feuds. Of attempted getaways. Dirty tricks, you name it. Holy, holy, holy, our God Almighty. The earth is the place of Thy glory. That's why this chapel, to remind us of nothing more than just precisely that. Not that He's in chapel, but that all the glory that is here comes from there. Or we would not be here ourselves. How else can you say it? Lick a finger and feel the now. Listen, Jesus says, to the wind. You listen. It's out there. The wind. That's the now. That's the gracious coming of our God who always comes in ways he's least expected, where we least expect to find Him. As in the room full of Jews smelling of fish. They have the upper room. As on the road to Emmaus, you know, where they thought the one thing they now could be saved from was anymore visitation from any more saviors. Always coming to make wherever we are this land of Oz. So C. S. Lewis tells how he, too, as a young boy, 10, was one day standing beside a currant bush when something overtook him. More important than anything that had ever happened in his life up to that time or ever since. He had a memory that went back not a few years but went back centuries it seems to him, to that time when his older brother came and brought on a biscuit tin a miniature garden made up of nothing but moss and a few plants. And suddenly he said, just as a child in the nursery, I found myself filled with the enormous bliss of Eden. Longing for that place where I would be at home, had been at home, would yet become at home again. And the longing I no longer had but it vanished. And I longed for the longing. The only really important thing that has happened in my life. On that biscuit tin, on that moss and in those plants. To see the wonder of God's creation. You're going to say blah, blah to that? It's in all of us. How else will you understand this poem? Lewis wrote it many, many years after. That longing had welled up in him and then quickly vanished. The sky was low, the sounding rain was falling dense and dark, And Noah's sons were standing at the window of the Ark. The beasts were in, but Japheth said, "I see one creature more there "all belated and unmated there come knocking at the door." "Well let him knock," said Ham, "or let him drown or learn to swim. "We're overcrowded as it is; we've got no room for him." "Oh, but how it knocks," said Shem, "How terribly it knocks. "It's feet are hard as hooves. "But oh the air that comes from it, how sweet. "Now you hush," said Ham. "You keep talking you'll wake up Dad "and when he comes to see what's at the door, "All it's going to mean is more work for you and me." Sure enough, Noah's voice came up from the darkness down below, "Boys, boys, some animal is knocking. "Knocking, knocking there at the door." Ham shouted back, savagely he nudging the other two, "That's only Jack knocking the brad-nail in his shoe." "Boys," said Noah, "no, I hear a noise "that's like a horse's hoof." "No, no," said Ham, "it's just the dreadful rain, dad, "coming own on the roof." But Noah tumbled up on deck and out he put his head. Suddenly his face went grey, his knees became loose, he tore his beard and said, "Look, look, it would not wait. "It turns away and takes its flight. "Oh, fine work you've made of it, my sons. "Fine work you've made of it tonight! "Even if I could outrun it now, it would not turn again. "Not now. "Our great discourtesy has earned its high disdain. "I tell you noble, unmated beast, my sons were all unkind. "On such a night as this what stable, "what manger will you find? "And henceforth what furrows shall be plowed "across the hearts of men before you come "to stable or to manger ever, ever again? "And how dark and how crooked all the ways "in which our race shall walk, "all their wondering manhood now like flower broken stalks, "and all the world, my sons, will curse the hour "when you were born because of you "the Ark must sail without the unicorn." Have you seen a unicorn lately? That which cannot be had can only be given in the come and go of everyday life. Can only be had in such things as faith and hope and love. That come to us in our daily walk. And you can say surely the Lord is in this place and I knew it not. For holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, the earth is the place of Thy glory. 

- Let's rise and affirm what we believe. I believe in God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth. And in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried. He descended into hell. The third day he rose again from the dead. He ascended into heaven and sitteth at the right hand of the God the Father Almighty. From thence He shall come again to judge the quick and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and the life everlasting. Amen. (organ music) (congregation sings) The Lord be with you. 

- And also with you. 

- Let us pray. Let it not be, oh God, that wonder and praise should rise to Thee from all places of Thy dominion while we keep silent. Teach us that emotion we are so unskilled in using, gratitude. Thankfulness for all things great and small by which our lives are sustained and our tired spirits are surprised. We pray today for those among us who are burdened not by too little, but by too much. Those who have so much power that they have become indifferent to the needs of the weak. Those who have so much good health that they cannot reckon with the needs of the sick or confront their own mortality. Those who have so much wealth that possessions become more prized than people and they worry into the night about losing what they have. Those who have so much knowledge and erudition that they have grown proud, self-sufficient, and have lost the common touch. Those who have so much virtue that they cannot see their sin and have lost the wonder of your grace. Those who have so much leisure that they have become drifters on the surface of life only lacking any cause larger than themselves to give themselves to. Oh, God, who is able to save us from both the perils of abundance and privation, meet the strong in their strength, take them and what they have into Your service wherein is peace. Through Jesus Christ, our surprising Lord. Amen. As a forgiven and gifted people, let us offer ourselves and our gifts to God. (organ and choral music) (organ music) ♪ Praise God from whom all blessings flow ♪ ♪ Praise Him, all creatures here below ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Praise Him above, ye heavenly host ♪ ♪ Praise Father, Son, and Holy Ghost ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Alleluia ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ 

- Almighty God, all the heavens and yet You have deemed it not an unworthy thing to come among us in the daily things of life, recognizing the giftedness of all creation, we offer ourselves and these gifts in Your service as our appropriate thanksgiving for Your love. Our Father Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen. (organ music) (congregation sings) Now may the grace of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, may His peace and love go forth with you. ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ ♪ Amen ♪ (joyful organ music) (people chatter)