Father, we confess before you that unless your Holy Spirit moves in our minds and hearts and wills,
the very depths of our soul, unless you, Father, move in us, we cannot understand your word correctly.
So we ask, Father, that your Holy Spirit would gently but deeply fall upon us,
fall upon our bodies, fall upon our minds, fall upon our hearts and our wills.
Father, may your Holy Spirit fall upon us and fan into flame within us
that we might use the best of our mind and the best of our heart and the best of our will
to seek to understand your word, but we know that that is never sufficient.
So we ask, Father, that you would lead us ever more deeply into your word,
that your word might go ever more deeply into us,
and that we may bear much fruit for your glory in our day-to-day lives.
And this we ask in the name of Jesus, your Son and our Savior. Amen.
Please be seated.
Last week I didn't have a stopwatch.
I have no idea how long I preach for, so that can be a bit of a dangerous thing.
I'm going to do a couple of very un-Canadian things this morning.
I'm going to maybe cause a little bit of stress in the room,
and I'm sort of, I think, compelled to cause a little bit of stress in the room
because of the nature of the biblical text that we're going to look at,
and because, like, I'm going to mention creation and evolution and Christmas.
And that, as soon as I mention creation and evolution and Christmas,
in many Canadian contexts, it causes a little bit of stress.
And you might wonder why on earth I'm going to do that.
Andrew, could you put up the first slide, please?
Could you, we don't have to say the verse thing.
Could you read this with me, please?
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
So we're going to look at today.
And the thing about this text is that it draws a...
Actually, when I...
You know, at first, when I was wanting to talk about this text,
I wanted to say that it sort of drew a line in the sand,
and then I realized after I'd been actually, you know, talking about it for a while,
so in my own head, I talk about it in my head,
that when I say drawing a line in the sand,
drawing a line in the sand is a very, very arbitrary thing.
You know, it's as if you have all this sand,
you're just not going to retreat anymore,
you're not going to give up anymore,
you're going to draw this arbitrary line right here,
and on the other side, but you're going to take your stand.
And the fact of the matter is,
is that this isn't drawing a line in the sand.
This text is pointing out a grand canyon
between what the Bible teaches and what a lot of...
and basically everything else.
And that causes a bit of stress for people
when we realize that it's sort of pointing out a big grand canyon
between what this text is claiming
and to which is generally believed in our country
and throughout the world.
Because this text is making a very, very bold claim
that, you know, look at the last sort of two and a half lines.
All things were made through him,
and without him was not anything made that was made.
And the word made is a perfectly good word,
but in the original language,
it just says something...
It goes sort of beyond the English word.
It'd be awkward to translate the original language into English,
but it actually...
The word that we use here is made,
actually in the original language,
says cause to exist.
Causes to exist.
And so this text is making a very, very, very big claim
that all things were caused to exist through him,
and without him was not anything that was caused to exist
that came into existence.
That's what the text is saying.
And it sort of flies in the face of what we learn
or students learn.
If you go to university, if you go to high school,
go to elementary school in this country,
where we're taught something very, very different.
And I'm not going to solve all of that.
I'm just trying to draw it out.
But I want to say a couple of things about that.
The first thing is that...
I'm going to be very un-Canadian.
Remember I mentioned at the beginning
I was going to be very un-Canadian.
Hopefully you'll extend me a little bit of grace.
Here's the first thing about what this statement is
and our culture.
You're cutting me some slack, okay?
Just for a moment.
I'm actually a nice guy,
even though I'm going to say something
which is a very rude thing to say in Canada.
And if you're here and you believe
what I'm about to sort of make a comment about,
I hope, you know, rather than being offended,
like I'll buy you coffee sometime this week.
I'll buy you lunch, okay?
Like I'm actually a nice guy.
But there's many people in our country
who are, you know, who are Buddhists and Hindus
and who believe in things like native spirituality.
But who here really honestly for a second
actually believes that any of the accounts
of these things is actually a real account of anything?
Like it's very un-Canadian to say
that native spirituality can't be possibly true,
but nobody believes that the world came to be
because ravens dropping seeds
or things are carried on the back of turtles
or like nobody believes that.
Nobody believes that that's the way things came to be, right?
Like nobody does.
Like if a person had a PhD in biochemistry
and said that he'd like to teach a class in biochemistry
and said that he was going to teach these things
as part of his lecture at the university,
he or she would be fired, right?
I mean, it would be beyond mockery.
In fact, if that was to happen at the Ottawa U or Carleton,
it would be on everything.
It would be on Letterman.
It would be on the late night.
It would be on all the comics
and everybody would be making fun.
And in fact, actually, in our culture,
there's a dominant story
about how all things have come into existence.
But practically speaking, in our culture,
there's not, you know, the, in a sense,
I'll call it the atheistic option
because that's actually what it is,
the atheistic option and the Christian option
and the Buddhist option and the Hindu option
and the Cree option and the Algonquin option
and the Navajo option.
And that's, in fact, not the case, right?
There's really only three options
that people think about.
And one of them, actually,
scientists basically always will tell you
that it's completely and utterly misleading.
The misleading one is this idea
that evolution is somehow making things
better and better and better
and that evolution causes things
and that we're moving in this particular type of direction.
And that's actually all it is
is just a romantic type of pious,
unfounded hope that science would have to say
it's actually not scientifically true,
that everything that happens
is just a result of time and chance,
that that's what evolution is.
It's purely and utterly chance.
There's no purpose.
There's no such thing as better.
There's really only next.
And, obviously, it's a very, very uncomfortable belief
and that's why people tend to quickly try to bring in
other types of things of purpose.
But it's actually, from a scientific level,
all you can say is before,
now, next.
And what governs these changes
is always just complete and utter chance,
really.
and then the only other option
I mean and it's usually just mocked
is the Christian option
because I mean that would also get you fired
maybe at Ottawa or Carleton
but at least our culture makes fun of it
like it's recognized that there is
at least some type of a credibility
or threat from it
and I want to say that
actually let's say this text again
could you say it with me
in the beginning was the word
and the word was with God
and the word was God
he was in the beginning with God
all things were made through him
and without him was not anything made
that was made
that's a serious philosophical and scientific claim
and it's that serious philosophical and scientific
claim
that
that actually helped to cause the birth of all science
and is the partially historically
the basis by which scientists seek order
in the world
because there's a sense that there's a knowable God
a creator and a plan and design
and that you can seek after the outline of the plan
and the outline of the design
and it's a serious option
be a whole other topic
a little bit about how it is
that we can reconcile this with science
I think it's easily done
I know that Christians can have
on one side of the Grand Canyon
the biblical side
that Christians can differ over the age of the earth
and a couple of other things
but those are arguments on one side of the Grand Canyon
it's different on the other side of the Grand Canyon
and it's a serious claim
I don't know how many of you have heard of the name of Thomas Nagel
he's a serious atheistic philosopher
often the more popular people who write books
aren't necessarily considered to be serious philosophers
but he is beyond any doubt
a very serious philosopher
and a long time atheist
and he just I think about a year and a half ago
caused a minor storm
because he wrote a book
showing why it is that evolution is not true
and he's an atheist
by the way at the beginning of the book
and the end of the book
he's still an atheist
he just basically wanted to point out
that while God obviously doesn't exist
and therefore everything that came to be
has to come to be by some means
that in fact evolution can't account for it
and that the sooner
that scholars recognize that it can't account for it
the proper account
that will continue to show that there is no God
will be found
and that's a
I mean he's one of a small group
of serious atheist thinkers
over the last five to ten years
who've started to express doubts
in academic journals and in books
as to whether in fact Darwinistic evolution
in fact can actually account
for the existence of all things
and every one of them who've written these books
still continue to believe that God does not exist
but they're merely pointing out
the fact that the theory doesn't work
that it can't account for important things
I believe that if you study it
we can't go into it right now in the sermon
but it's very very interesting
that John who's going to talk
and this is one of the two classic texts
as we go on to verse 14
that John that gives one of the most classic accounts
of the birth of Jesus
begins it with where we as Canadian Christians
are afraid to go
which is to publicly claim
that there is a God that does exist
who is the one who's created all things
and sustains all things
that in fact
if we were to watch a science fiction movie
and in the science fiction movie
going to unexplored places
they come across
an obviously very very ancient
and spaceship with no creatures there
and it's maybe the power source
is no longer functioning
and this ship of ours comes and discovers it
and if that happened in a movie
the very very obvious thing
especially if it happened early on in the movie
obviously it'd be the case
that for the rest of the movie
the movie is going to be consumed
with trying to figure out
who it was that used that ship at one time
who is this ancient race
and we would all know
that if one of the people
on the ship
our spaceship
if they were to say
no that ship did not
that just happened by an explosion
it purely happened by chance
there's nothing to seek
but that wouldn't be treated seriously
in the movie
because it would be very obvious
that if you saw something as intricate
as a spaceship
even with no people
that it was something built and designed
and that's at the heart
the simple Christian claim
that what we see around us
and that the universe
I mean just a cell
a human cell
just DNA is more complex
than that spaceship
and on one hand
that's why I was just talking
to a barista just a couple of weeks ago
and who's definitely not a Christian
and she said on one hand
okay I know that there has to be something
that created all things
because that can only account for it
but you're wrong
which was very refreshing to hear
it didn't bother me
or threaten me at all
and there are many people
in our culture
who are caught between this idea
that the order
and the complexity
and the beauty
that we see
has to be accounted for some way
and when science
and atheists
you know
when they push
to the idea
that in fact
everything just came to be
as completely
and utterly
as well as a chance
that there's this
conflict
in the soul
and the mind
and the heart
of many people
in our culture
which is why
in our culture
it's far more common
to slip in
ideas of purpose
and destiny
and design
in the theory of evolution
that
it's easy
to slip it in
it's easy
you know
evolutionary psychology
slips in
this idea
of things
being in us
because of some type
of design
and moral imperatives
and it gets slipped
into it
but it doesn't actually
the theory of evolution
cannot support that
it all crumples
if you think
if you think about it
very deeply
but let's read this
again together
in the beginning
was the word
and the word
was with God
and the word
was God
he was in the beginning
with God
all things were made
through him
and without him
was not anything
made
that was made
you know
not only
does this text
I'm going to do another
very un-Canadian thing
for a moment
and once again
I hope you're going to
give me some grace
if you're deeply offended
I'll
about this
I'll try to deal
with it
later on
because
I don't mean to be mean
but
there's a lot of fear
in Canada
right now
I think it's
you know
been made worse
by what happened
just a few blocks
from here
just a few weeks ago
and
I think it's made worse
by
ISIS
or ISIL
or whatever
however
we're supposed
to refer to them
and
you know
it just
these beheadings
and the terrible
terrible
things that are
being done
it causes
people to wonder
about their
safety
and people
wonder about
why
like
why
can't
these
people
and that's
the type
of language
that we use
okay I'm not
pardoning it
I'm just
I'm trying to
echo it
like why
don't these
people just
have this
sense of
our common
humanity
like why
are they
so
inhumane
like why
are they
so cruel
like why
why don't
they understand
that on one
level we're
sort of all
the same
and that we
should need
to get
together
just as I
think that
the sort of
the governing
story of our
elite institutions
of media
and culture
and academia
I don't think
they can really
account for the
complexity of the
world and the
beauty of the
world
I also don't
think they can
really account
for this whole
problem of
inhumanity
because you
see the idea
that there's
like one
human race
and that we're
to treat each
other humanely
is not a
scientific truth
it's not a
biological truth
it's a
theological
truth
that comes
from the
understanding
that there is
one creator
of one
humanity
and while
obviously it
is biologically
true
that human
beings by
definition are
human beings
and scientists
can prove
whether or not
something is
human
the fact
of science
doesn't create
within human
beings
any sense
of being
one united
humanity
that flows
from the idea
of there being
but one
God
who has
created
all things
it's a
theological
truth
it's not a
scientific and
biological truth
say this text
again with me
notice the
beginning of the
text
in the beginning
was the
word
and the
word
was with
God
and the
word
was
God
he was
in the
beginning
with
God
all things
were made
through him
and without
him was not
anything made
that was made
you know here
it says in the
beginning
it's obviously
echoing those
of you who
know your
bible a little
bit
it's echoing
genesis
chapter 1
it's saying
that before
there was
anything
there was
the word
before there
was anything
it's in a
sense before
there was
time
before the
big bang
before there
was anything
there was
the word
and in the
original language
next phrase
and the word
was with
God
in the
original
language
in English
there's only
one word
for was
but in the
original
language
there's three
words
for was
so that
in
sorry not
was
with
in the
original
language
there's
three
different
words
for with
and so
if I was
to say
that I'm
with my
dog
or I'm with my car and I'm with my wife,
the first two withs might or might not be one of the two different words,
but there'd be no mistaking that in the third case,
there's a word for with that's only used when a person is with a person
in the original language.
And in the original language, when it says,
in the beginning was the word,
talking about the word and that before all time,
before there's anything, there is the word.
And then the second phrase when it says,
and the word was with God,
that with is the word that's only used of a person with a person.
And so it's saying the word's a person
and this person is with God who's also a person.
And the word who's before all things
and is a person who's with God is also God.
And the word was God.
And it's saying here that there's two persons,
but it's also saying very clearly that there's only one God.
It's a deep mystery.
He was in the beginning with God.
It emphasizes it.
Augustine, who lived about 1,700 years ago,
when he was commenting about this,
he said that those words should be written in gold
in the most beautiful script in every church that exists.
That's what he said.
It should be there in gold because it's so central.
In the beginning was the word,
and the word was with God,
and the word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
And there's this very, very clear teaching
that there is one God in two persons.
The deity of the Holy Spirit will be developed later on
in the Gospel of John and in other parts of the New Testament.
But here is the introduction of the book.
It's trying to communicate to us that there's only one God,
and this one God has made all things,
brought into existence all things.
And we human beings are things.
And human beings are made as a body and as a soul,
in fleshed souls or embodied spirits.
There are different ways to put it.
We're both soul and body, but we're just one thing.
We're not two things.
And God made both of those parts that make us us.
And because there is but one God,
and that one God has not only created all things,
this is also the basis whereby you should not rape the environment.
And it's going to be the basis.
If you read the Old Testament in Genesis 1,
it talks about how God has made all things.
And later on, there will be laws about the proper treatment of animals
and the proper treatment of people.
And it's all because of this understanding
that God is not part of his creation.
He's made all things.
All things are properly, fully his.
And because of that, all things are to be cared for.
And in particular, human beings that are made in the image and likeness of God.
Every human being is not just biologically a human being,
but what makes a human being a human being is not just biology,
but that every human being is made in the image and likeness of God.
And there is one humanity and one God.
That one humanity and one God is proven by biology and proven by science.
And philosophers like Thomas Nagel, who are serious philosophers and serious atheists,
said that the atheistic account of origins does not, in fact, hold intellectual water
and can't, in fact, account for all of the things that we see,
nor all of the experiences that we experience.
That the idea that all things come about as a result of time and chance
does not account for the fact that we see order.
And the fact that we have things like love and that we sense things like beauty
and we sense things like music as being glorious.
And that we can watch dance and think that there's something majestic
about a well-choreographed human being's dancing in beautiful choreography,
that there's something glorious and uplifting about that.
That the dance accounts for things better than chance accounts for things.
Dance accounts for things better than chance accounts for things.
And so, you know, our culture, on one hand, we have this sense that being human matters.
That in cultures where the human person has absolutely no value,
if you have a caste system, if you have a slave system,
if you have a totalitarian system, that being a person matters.
And that there should be this common sense of personhood
whether or not it is recognized.
That is, in fact, a theological truth that goes back to the book of Genesis
and the book of John and the entire scriptures.
And in fact, I would ultimately say that no other system of thought
properly grounds that fundamental experience and insight we have as human beings.
That Hinduism and Buddhism and science and atheistic science
cannot account for these things and ground them in a way which is both intellectually respectable
and scientifically examinable.
And it's just compellingly true.
Join with me in saying this again.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
Those of you who come to the church are probably wondering,
why doesn't George have any points?
I kept struggling to have points.
And God said, George, how are you going to improve on John 1, 1 to 3?
Like, how am I going to improve on that?
And I was thinking, well, I guess I can't.
So that's why we're going to keep saying it over and over again.
You get nothing else out of this, but you've started to memorize John 1, 1 to 3,
then angels are happy, God is happy, and I'm happy.
In fact, let's say it again.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
So some of you might say, here's my last very un-Canadian moment, okay?
So some of you might say, George, okay, that's very, very interesting that you say that it's a theological truth
that if you have one God and one humanity, that there's this common, there's this sense of the dignity of persons,
and that there's a, you know, when you talk about treating human beings in a certain type of way,
that it, because human beings are all human beings, that that's a theological, that's a very interesting thing.
But ISIS believes all that too, don't they?
So that's the last un-Canadian moment.
I'm coming to a conclusion with it.
And so, George, what do you say about that?
It can't obviously be true.
And I would say, you're right, it's not sufficient.
It's not enough.
Because, you see, you could come to the conclusion that there's one God and one humanity,
but God is, in fact, very, very distant, doesn't care anything about humanity at all.
You could believe there's one God who's created all things, and therefore all human beings are sort of the same.
But actually, fundamentally, God views all human beings as slaves, as fodder, as being completely and utterly irrelevant,
and one doesn't want to really deal with them.
And, in fact, actually, when God is going to try to deal with these pesky little human beings that he has no particular regard for,
he'll pick a few that he likes, and the rest he doesn't really care about.
And when he even deals with them, he deals with them through intermediaries.
He doesn't actually deal with them directly, but through intermediaries.
You see, and I don't mean to cast dispersions, in the Koran, even the Koran is not God dealing with human beings directly,
but through intermediaries.
And, in fact, it's not clear from the Koran of the dignity and value of human beings.
It's not clear, in fact, whether human beings are but slaves that can justify slavery and all sorts of things.
Not directly.
I'm not saying that that's what the Koran does, but there's a missing piece.
Let's say this again, and then, Andrew, after we've said this again, if you could put up the next slide.
Join with me in saying this again.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not anything made that was made.
11 verses later.
And say it with me.
The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
And the Word became flesh.
John wants us to understand that every word we are going to go, if you go back and decide that between now and the next couple of weeks, you're going to read all of the Gospel of John.
You want to hear about Jesus as John bears witness to Jesus.
And John wants us to know at the very beginning that Jesus is not a great man.
And I am not insulting him when I say that.
Jesus is not a great man.
Jesus is God.
Jesus is God who has taken, set aside his glory, and brought into himself our human nature in its completion, and walks amongst us.
And that is who we are reading about.
And this brings us to the final thing, which I can only touch on very briefly.
It brings on an unbelievable coherence.
You see, one of the things which is so challenging and embracing, if you try to read a philosopher like Thomas Nagel,
is that he doesn't believe you go to a better place when you die.
Die, you die.
Fertilizer.
And God didn't create us.
It's probably going to have to be by chance in some way.
We just have to figure out a better scientific mechanism and description than evolution has given us.
And we live our lives, and, you know, we live our lives according to whatever things about how to try to get along,
and, you know, basically utilitarian type of ethics, and you sort of get along,
and it's sort of best if you do certain types of things,
and there's a great consistency and coherence in it.
But notice here, the Bible is telling us that the same one who brought all things into existence
is the same one who comes and takes into himself our human nature and walks amongst us,
is the same one when you read John's Gospel who is going to teach us how to live,
is the same one who is going to die upon the cross to be the power of God for salvation for all who believes in him,
is the same one who will rise and defeat sin and death and all hostile spiritual powers.
He's the same one who will ascend into heaven,
and he is the same one who will return and will bring in the new heaven and the new earth.
And it's not that you have one type of account of creation,
another account of how to live,
another account of what is going to fix things,
and another account of what happens after you die.
It's not like the average Canadian, and I don't mean to insult anybody who's here,
who on one hand believes that, yes, everything that came to be came about as a result of time and chance.
That's evolution.
And yes, when I die, I'm going to go to a better place.
And yes, when I live my life, I'm going to live my life according to these types of moral rules.
And they never ask themselves,
one moment, if I'm going to go to a better place,
maybe that should affect the way that I live.
In one moment, if I'm just a complete result of time and chance,
how on earth am I going to go to a better place?
How on earth is that going to happen?
And it's only not viewed as incoherent,
because that's what everybody believes.
But it's not, I do not mean to offend,
it's not coherent.
Brave souls like Thomas Nagel recognizes that it's not incoherent,
incoherent, and lives his life in an attempt to be intellectually consistent.
But we see here that not only does the Christian faith,
not only does the Bible offer us this profound account
that everything, that the thing which is the most basic,
the beginning of all things is God,
that he's the one who brings all things into existence.
And that because he brings all things into existence,
we can have this sense that there's,
that's why there's order,
that's why there's beauty,
that's why there's joy,
that's why there's love,
that's why there's truth.
And that's why there's these things.
That's why we can recognize,
that's why we can discover,
that's why we can figure out how things work,
that's how we can dig and learn and dig and learn,
and we can be engineers and physicists and chemists and biologists
and moms and dads and dancers and poets
and artists and carpenters
and have families,
and we can do all these things,
and there's this coherence there.
And the same one who's created all things
and we recognize that there is this fundamental problem
and it's not a problem with Islam.
It's not a problem with atheism.
It's not a problem with totalitarianism.
It's not a problem with Buddhism or Hinduism or Christianity.
That the fact of the matter is that every day in the newspaper
it convinces us that there's something fundamentally wrong with human beings
that human beings cannot fix for themselves.
I just watched on DVD The Giver.
And as soon as you see a perfect society in any Hollywood movie,
what do we all know?
There's evil.
It's evil masquerading is good.
Everybody knows that.
Except when we take psychology and spirituality and then we forget it.
But the Bible never forgets it and it goes after the heart
and it's saying that the same God who creates all things
is the God who comes and is amongst us in lowliness
and he comes to die.
And by telling us that, the Bible is telling us
that the problem of human beings is vastly worse
than we can possibly imagine and believe.
But the worth of human beings is vastly greater.
that God, the Son of God, would die upon a cross
so that we could be reconciled to him.
One of the most famous verses in the Bible,
John 3.16,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son
that whoever believes in him should not perish
but have eternal life.
Spoken by God, the Creator, who walks amongst us,
who died upon the cross to redeem us,
to reconcile us to him.
Andrew, if you could put up the final slide.
I'm going to invite,
this will be up on the webpage later,
I'm going to invite you that this is a great prayer.
It's a prayer to begin the Christian walk.
It's a prayer to live the Christian walk.
Dear God, please grow in me
a humble, trusting, walking knowledge
of the greatness, glory, and grace
of Jesus, the crucified Messiah.
At whose birth we celebrate,
Jesus the Messiah.
And it's to be a humble,
to grow in us a humble trusting
of the greatness, glory, and grace
of Jesus, the crucified Messiah.
Humble trust.
Walking means that it makes a difference
about how we live.
You know, the mission statement of this church
is making disciples gripped by the gospel,
living for his glory.
That as the gospel grips us,
it will change how we live our 24-7 lives.
And I try to capture that in the word walking.
If the Holy Spirit has it all pressed upon you,
would you join me in praying that?
Could you stand?
Please?
And we'll just allow a moment of silence.
And you don't have to pray it out loud,
but if the Holy Spirit is pressed upon your heart at all,
the glory and the greatness of Jesus,
God, the Son of God,
the Word,
who was with the Father before all eternity,
who became flesh,
to die upon the cross,
so that all who believe and trust in him
will not perish,
but have eternal life
with the Father who has created all things
and will make the new heaven
and the new earth for us to dwell in.
And not just to know and trust Jesus,
but to know and trust Jesus
is to enter into a relationship
where we walk with him.
He guides us.
He'll change how we live our lives.
The prayer to enter the Christian walk
is the prayer to continue and grow
and deepen in the Christian walk.
So those for whom the Holy Spirit is pressed upon you,
please join with me in praying.
Dear God,
please grow in me
a humble, trusting, walking knowledge
of the greatness, glory, and grace
of Jesus, the crucified Messiah.
Father, pour out your Holy Spirit upon us.
Bring us to Jesus.
Help us to trust, Father,
that all truth is your truth.
Help us, Father,
to press in to know more of Jesus
and to know more of the truth
and to know more of you
and to know more of your word
and have your word play a deeper role in us.
And all this we ask in the name of Jesus,
your Son and our Savior.
Amen.