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The Service For The 13th Sabbath In Ordinary Time
June 30, 2001
[The “+” indicates that the Moderator and the Congregation are to cross themselves, if they should so choose.]
[The men, upon entering, must remove all their clothes and when they have found a proper place to sit, out of respect for the sanctuary of our Lord, must kneel before entering the pew. It is expected that they will furnish and use their own serviettes.]
[The Choir is to sing the antiphon. If there is no Choir the Congregation is to recite it.]
Choir (or Congregation): “All nations, clap your hands. Shout with a voice of joy to God.”
[The Altar man, holding the censer, and the Moderator, in that order, line up for the procession. The rest of the Congregation lines up behind them row by row and proceeds to walk around the church in the procession.]
Choir (or Congregation): “All nations, clap your hands. Shout with a voice of joy to God.”
[After the procession is over, the Congregation takes their seats and the regular service begins.]
Moderator: + “In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, Most Holy and Eternal Trinity.”
Moderator: “Let us all join in a statement of our faith:”
Congregation and Moderator: “We believe that God, through His Holy Word, has made it more than evident as to how He wishes to be worshipped. Man as represented by Adam was created by God in His image. This creation was meant to be in harmony with Nature and the Natural Laws. To this end men were created to be naked and to worship God in that, their natural state. It is only by the shame of having sinned that Adam felt that he had to hide himself behind clothes. We believe that by encasing ourselves in clothes that we are only mimicking Adam in his sin and rebellion against the First Cause. God, in His Holy Wisdom, had given Adam the option of eternal life in his nakedness. But he, in his ignorance, cast away the blessing of nudity that God so fervently wanted him to have. We believe that we, of the Apertarian Church, must return to the First Cause in the way He has called us to worship Him. We offer an open door to any Gay male who would worship with us in the joys and blessings of his God-given nudity. For those who wish not to join us we offer prayers that God will also bless them. When His time is right He will open their eyes that they might see what has been so abundantly revealed to us.”
Moderator: “Amen.”
Old Testament Lesson
Moderator: “The Old Testament lesson for the 13th Sabbath in Ordinary Time is found in:
2 Kings 4: 8-11:
8. And it fell on a day, that Elisha passed to Shunem, where [was] a great woman; and she constrained him to eat bread. And [so] it was, [that] as oft as he passed by, he turned in thither to eat bread.
9. And she said unto her husband, Behold now, I perceive that this [is] an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.
10. Let us make a little chamber, I pray thee, on the wall; and let us set for him there a bed, and a table, and a stool, and a candlestick: and it shall be, when he cometh to us, that he shall turn in thither.
11. And it fell on a day, that he came thither, and he turned into the chamber, and lay there.
Moderator: “This is the word of the Lord.”
Congregation: “Thanks be to God.”
Responsorial Psalm
Response: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
Moderator: “The favors of the Lord I will sing forever; through all generations my mouth shall proclaim Your faithfulness. For You have said, “My kindness is established for ever”; in heaven You have confirmed Your faithfulness.”
Congregation: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
Moderator: “Happy the people who know the joyful shout; in the light of Your countenance, O Lord, they walk. At Your name they rejoice all the day, and through Your justice they are exalted.”
Congregation: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
Moderator: “For You are the splendor of their strength, and by Your favor our horn is exalted. For to the Lord belongs our shield, and to the Holy One of Israel, our king.”
Congregation: “Forever I will sing the goodness of the Lord.”
The New Testament Lesson
Moderator: “The New Testament lesson for the 13th Sabbath in Ordinary Time is found in:
Romans 6: 3-4, 8-11:
3. Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
4. Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Thus endeth the New Testament lesson for today.”
[The Moderator then raises the Bible.]
Moderator: “This is the word of the Lord.”
Congregation: “Thanks be to God.”
The Gospel Lesson
Moderator: “The Gospel lesson for the 13th Sabbath in Ordinary Time is found in:
Matthew 10: 37-42:
37. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.
38. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.
39. He that findeth his life shall lose it: and he that loseth his life for my sake shall find it.
40. He that receiveth you receiveth me, and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me.
41. He that receiveth a prophet in the name of a prophet shall receive a prophet’s reward; and he that receiveth a righteous man in the name of a righteous man shall receive a righteous man’s reward.
42. And whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold [water] only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward.
[The Congregation rises as the altar man rings the bells.]
Congregation: + “In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, Most Holy and Eternal Trinity.”
Moderator: Thus endeth the Gospel for today.”
[The Moderator holds up the Bible]
Moderator: “This is the Word of the Lord.”
Congregation: “Thanks be to God!”
A hymn is sung at this point.
[The Congregation then sits down as the altar man rings the bells.]
The Homily
“Their Portion in This Life.”
Moderator:
Exodus 20: 12:
“Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Honor Thy mother and thy father. It’s the fourth commandment. How many times have we all heard those words, sometimes in loving kindness. But sometimes in vicious rebuke. What do these words actually mean? What do we really mean when we say them?
The dictionary defines honor as: to regard or treat with respect and dignity. Or, in essence, to hold in high esteem. And so, if at all possible, we should. They were the people who gave us life and in some manner tried to help us reach maturity.
This kind of filial devotion is essential in maintaining a heterosexual family structure which is so necessary in preserving a stable society. Without that family structure society would quickly degenerate into ruthless anarchy. Within its structure morals are taught, as well as manners, values, love and so many of the basic human traits of civilization.
But what happens when the Gay person’s mother or father (or both) find out that their son is Gay? How do they react? Have they accepted him as he is? Then, thank God for His blessings. But just as often - and maybe more frequently if the truth were known - the Gay person is rejected by his parents because of his sexual orientation. All too many times the rejection has come bringing with it pain and violence. Has this happened to you? Have your parents, the very people you are supposed to honor, thrown you out of their home? Have they cast you adrift?
What about your brothers and sisters? Have they also abandoned you? Have you been able to keep in some kind of contact with any of them? Or has the rejection been complete, cutting you off totally and forever? Do you set along, sometimes, and wonder why they have done this horrible thing? Do you wonder how they could be so loving one moment and yet so hateful the next? Especially since nothing has really happened except they know you’re Gay?
David has the answer in:
Psalm 17: 14:
“From men which are Thy hand, O Lord, from men of the world, which have their portion in this life, and whose belly thou fillest with thy hide treasure: they are full of children and leave the rest of their substance to their babes.”
Your physical, heterosexual family has its potion in this life. The family, physical and tangible, is all that they have. They have nothing else. They are locked into the monotonous cycle of birth, life, death, birth, life, death, etc. They are happy in that cycle and they expect everyone will be happy in that existence, too. Because, as Mazlo has declared, they are “driven” to reproduce the race, they cannot think in any other terms than that of the material world. This is their total existence: they can conceive no other than this. And so, when they find out you are Gay and not part of their existence, that because you are Gay and live on a totally different plane, they reject you.
Did not the world reject our Gay Savior? Why? Because Jesus, being Gay, was not tied to this world. He thought and lived on a totally different plane and He condemned the materialistic plane the heterosexuals insisted on living on. And they condemned Him for it. They could not abide His presence in their midst and so they crucified Him.
But, as we have seen from our Gospel reading for today, Jesus
said that He must come first. First even before mother or father. Is this
Scriptural? yes. What is the first commandment?
Exodus 20: 1-3:
“And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Thou shalt have no other gods before Me.” Jesus has said that unless the Gay person is willing to leave his family he is not worthy to serve Him. To prove the point did not God call upon Abraham to offer up his only legitimate son, Isaac?
So if your family has rejected you and cast you out because you’re Gay, they have made you ready for Christ. They, themselves, have removed the burden from of off your shoulders that might have become a handicap to your serving Christ. And how should you handle the pain and the rejection? Being a Gay Christian Nudist isn’t easy.
Matthew 5: 11 & 12:
“Blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you, and say all manner of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted the prophets which were before you.”
We should rejoice! We should be exceeding glad! For great is our reward in heaven.
How, or why, should we do this? We are only a minority. We are hardly the majority. Is not salt a minor element in food? Yet look how great an influence it exerts. Well, Jesus compares us to salt in Matthew 5: 13. And what would happen if that salt lost its flavor? As Jesus said it would be good for nothing and cast away.
If the pain and humiliation still linger, listen to St.
Paul:
Romans 8: 28:
“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.”
Isaiah, the Gay prophet who wasn’t Gay, tells us that we will have a very high place in heaven if we
1) keep His Sabbaths,
2) choose the things that please Him and
3) take hold of His covenant.
And we, as Gay Christian Nudists, will be given that place for all eternity.
Yet how wonderful it will be when we enter heaven and see Christ, standing there with His arms wide open , waiting for us. No, being an Apertarian isn’t going to be easy. But oh, such a reward we will receive when we reach heaven. All the pain, the longing, the loneliness and the rejections will all be over. FOREVER! Praise be to God for His wonderful gift!
Thus endeth the homily for today.”
Moderator: + “In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, Most Holy and Eternal Trinity.”
The Offering
Moderator: “Jesus has said that the Lord loves a cheerful giver. We pray that you will open up your heart and give so that we may continue to carry God’s message of nakedness, healing and salvation to all those Gay male Nudists who still are suffering needless pain and rejection.”
[The collection plate is then passed around while a hymn is sung. When the collection is completed the collection plate(s) are brought forward and laid on the altar. The Moderator then prays over the gifts.]
Moderator: “Dear heavenly Father, we know we can do nothing to merit Your eternal love. Yet You did love us before the foundation of the world. Accept our humble gifts for your service and bless the givers also. We pray in Your Son’s name and for Your eternal glory. Amen.”
[The Moderator moves back to the pulpit.]
The Communal Prayer
Moderator: “The Lord be with you.”
Congregation: “And also with you.”
Moderator: + “Let us pray... Oh Lord, we bring before You all of the problems of the day (here list petitions for local problems). Help us to put in proper perspective the trials that You send our way. We ask that You will look down on our efforts and help us to help the Gay male Nudist who still suffers. We ask Your help in particular for N_____ and N_____. We also pray for our leaders who You have put into power. Give them the wisdom to make decisions that reflect Your will. But we always and ever give You thanks and pray that You will work Your will so that one day all men may walk free in their nakedness the way You have created us to be. Let Your Holy Spirit guide us as we pray the way Your Son taught us saying...”
Congregation and Moderator: “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 Thou art the Kingdom and the Glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
Moderator: “Amen.”
The Communion Service
[The Moderator moves behind the altar and faces the people.]
Moderator: “Brothers, we are gathered here today to commemorate the sacrifice of our most Holy Lord Jesus Christ who by His willful offering of His perfect self upon the cross secured for us the promise of heaven in the next life and the blessings of nakedness in this life. Let us each examine our consciences and prepare ourselves for the communion service.”
[Here is observed a moment of silence while the men examine their consciences and silently ask for forgiveness.]
Moderator: “The Lord Jesus the same night in which He was betrayed took bread...”
[At this point the Moderator elevates the bread and displays it to all sides of the Congregation while the bells are rung. The priest then genuflects.]
Moderator: “And when He had given thanks, He broke it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you. This do in remembrance of me.”
[The Moderator then breaks the wafer into three pieces and places it in the chalice of grape juice.]
Congregation: “This, Lord, we will remember, to keep it holy.”
Moderator. “After the same manner also He took the cup, and when He had supped said, “This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.”
[The Moderator then elevates the chalice filled with grape juice and displays it to all sides of the Congregation while the altar man rings the bells. The priest genuflects.]
Congregation: “This, Lord, we will remember, to keep it holy.”
Moderator: “For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till He come.”
[The Congregation then lines up to receive communion. The Moderator dips a wafer in the grape juice and offers it to each communicant. Each may take communion the way he feels is right, i.e., standing or kneeling, in his hand or in his mouth, etc. When all have received communion the Moderator then offers communion to the altar man, if there is one. He then takes communion himself, and drinks ALL OF THE GRAPE JUICE IN THE CHALICE. He carefully washes the chalice and covers it with an altar cloth. He then returns to the pulpit.]
[A hymn is sung.]
Moderator: “Please stand for the final benediction.’
[The Congregation stands.]
Moderator: + “The Lord bless thee, and keep thee: The Lord make His face to shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: The Lord lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace. Go thy way and be at peace in thy nakedness. The service is ended. In the name of the Father, and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, most Holy and Eternal Trinity.”
[At this point a closing hymn may be sung.]
[The Congregation then observes a moment of silence while the Moderator goes to the front door to welcome the men as they exit. When the altar man rings the bells the men are then free to dress and leave the service.]