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<DIV><FONT size=5>
<DIV><FONT size=5>
<DIV><FONT size=5>Here is my offering for Sunday, May 10, on John
15:1-8. A final version will be posted early next week, God willing, on
our church web site at <A
href="http://sjnj.org/">http://sjnj.org</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=5>Peace and Easter blessings,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=5>Joe</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5>St. John's
Episcopal Church<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></DIV>
<DIV>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT size=5>61 Broad Street</FONT></SPAN></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"></SPAN><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>Elizabeth, New Jersey 07201</FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5>The Fifth
Sunday of Easter (B)</FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>May 10, 2009</FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN></B><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>DRAFT</FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"></SPAN></B><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5>A Sermon by
the Rev. <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:PersonName w:st="on">Joe
Parrish</st1:PersonName></FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><st1:PersonName
w:st="on"></st1:PersonName></SPAN></B><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>The Holy Gospel according to<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></B></H2>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt"><FONT size=5>John 15:1-8<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></H2><PRE style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT size=5> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></PRE></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Heavenly Father, make
us fruitful, make us productive, and keep us always as the apple of your
eye.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=5> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I just finished
reading an interesting treatise on John of the Cross, a sixteenth century
Spanish saint who was a close compatriot of St. Theresa of Avila. <SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In fact John was the chaplain for several
of Theresa’s monasteries and convents.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5>John of the
Cross paints a wonderful picture of Christ conversing with his Father in
Heaven.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The Father tells the Son
that he is going to create a bride for his Son, a group of people who will adore
him, implore him, and be forever joined to him.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is a very touching image, one I
hadn’t contemplated before, but a very heart warming insight about how Christ
looks upon us, the Church, as his bride.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We are loved in a very intimate and adoring way.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Christ would and did do anything for us,
even to the point of offering his life on earth for us.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Christ gave up his all for us, his
beloved people, his Bride.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No one else would do
such a selfless thing for us, not our parents, not our best friend, no one.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Only Christ is as close to us as our
very breath.</FONT><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Think of
your spouse, if you have or have had one, or maybe a boyfriend or
girlfriend.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Can you imagine the
infatuation you had once with and for that person?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And should you have been so lucky to
have been bonded to them through matrimony or blessing, they became to you the
image of what Christ looks upon us all as being the adored, the loved, the
beloved, the highest exalted one in the eyes of our Lover.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Christ is like that to his believers, we
are his intimately connected Bride.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The gospel
lesson for today puts that image in a more botanical fashion, that believers are
as connected to Christ as a vine is to its branches.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The connection is biological, close,
symbiotic in a way, we depend on the vine, and the vine depends on us to produce
its fruit.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thus in a way we are
simply ‘loved’ by the vine, directly, closely, and intimately.</FONT><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In the movie,
“High Noon”, the wife of the sheriff who was an avowed pacifist, at the last
minute took a gun in her hand and killed an outlaw who was about to ambush her
husband.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She scrapped every ethical
argument she had lived by her whole life to protect her man.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Her love was stronger than her
ethics.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Her love was absolute.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And that is how Christ loves us,
absolutely, without hesitation, completely, as a loving husband loves his wife,
his bride, and a bride her husband.</FONT><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But there is
another side of the equation that we also need to acknowledge in this very
biological relationship between the lover and the beloved.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It can be illustrated by an observation
of the birth of a giraffe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>[“God’s
Little Devotional Book for Graduates”]<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The first thing to emerge at a baby giraffe’s birth is its front hooves
and head.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Minutes later, the
newborn is hurled from its mother’s body, falls ten feet, and lands on its
back.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Within seconds, it rolls to
an upright position with its legs tucked under it body.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>From this position it views the world
for the first time and shakes off any remaining birthing fluid.</FONT>
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“The mother
giraffe lowers her head just long enough to take a quick look at her calf, and
then she does what seems to be a very unreasonable thing: she kicks her baby,
sending it sprawling head over heels.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If it doesn’t get up, she kicks it again and again until the calf finally
stands on its wobbly legs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And then
what does the mother giraffe do?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>She kicks it off its feet!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Why?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She wants [her baby] to
remember how it got up.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Aren’t you glad you’re
not a baby giraffe?!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“In the wild,
baby giraffes must be able to get up as quickly as possible to stay with the
herd and avoid becoming a meal for lions, hyenas, leopards, and wild hunting
dogs.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The best way a mother giraffe
has of ensuring that her calf lives is for her to teach it to ‘get up quickly
and get with it.’”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The point is that the
mother giraffe is engaged in tough love.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>There are certain demands that every parent must make for the welfare of
his or her own child.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>There are
certain rules that must be enforced.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>No loving parent is going to accord a child absolute freedom.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Such freedom could be deadly.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every loving parent has to say “No” from
time to time.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It’s not easy.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Sometimes it really does hurt the parent
more than it does the child.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But
love sometimes says, “No.”<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our bodies do
something peculiar as well.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every
day we shed tens of thousands of dead skin cells to keep our bodies
healthy.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If we didn’t shed those
dead cells, our bodies would become infected and we would die.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And also our lungs need to expectorate
about a pint to a quart of fluid each day or we would suffocate, or we would die
from lung infections and pneumonia.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If we can’t cough, we would readily die.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A comatose or paralyzed patient needs
their lungs cleared mechanically for them, or they will die.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amazing how we are so wonderfully and
marvelously made, isn’t it?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In other words,
pruning is necessary for life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>A
grapevine that is not pruned will die from fungal infections and/or aphid and
other insect infestations.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These
infestations begin the minute the vine comes to life in the spring, and they
will kill the vine soon unless they are pared off at the end of the grape
producing season.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It was always
painful for me as a little boy to see how unmercifully my Dad would prune our
little grape vines in our back yard each fall.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But he was right to do that since the
new grapes would not appear the next year if he didn’t prune the
grapevines.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If you have ever lost
some close friend through death, you will have the feeling I have from time to
time. <SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You will wish they were back
with you, guiding you, comforting you, befriending you, conversing with you,
whatever your friendship meant to you in particular.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But that will never happen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That life is lost to you; you will never
be able to communicate with it again in this life.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is gone.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So how do we react to such a loss?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I know one man who spent all his day
beside his dear wife’s tombstone, he was so lonely and heartbroken.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But we all knew what he needed to do—he
needed to make new friends.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>His
wife wasn’t going to come back; she wasn’t going to speak to him ever
again.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And he needed to fill that
void with other people, other activities, other
life.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is what Jesus is
promising us in this parable of the vine.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Even though he prunes us, he needs to prune us in order to give us life,
new life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We don’t need and should
not dwell on death, or on a dead friend or relative--that is never healthy.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to pick ourselves up and make
new friends, new acquaintances, find new people to share life with and enjoy
life with.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is one thing that
the church does, help folks make ‘connections’, that is, if we are doing what we
are supposed to do.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our little effort here
at St. John’s is to try to get us to know each other’s names now.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>When I came to St. John’s in 1989, I
asked the first two people leaving the service how long they had attended St.
John’s.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One said twenty-five years,
the other said thirty-three years.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>They were both in the Narthex together at that moment, so I asked them if
they knew each other’s names, and they admitted they did not know the other
person’s name.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I would hate
to leave St. John’s in the condition I found it, with total strangers
worshipping side by side or maybe a few rows or seats apart.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Church is a collection of like minded
people, even if we don’t think so.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Some of the same things sort of ‘blew’ us into this room together.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is our human nature to seek a better
life, and part of that better life is new friendships and new friends.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are here to complete the life of
someone else.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are here to
celebrate the joys and disappointments of life with one another.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are here to be
real.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT size=5><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But maybe modern life
has gotten the best of us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It has
been said that people live in cities, the larger the better, in order to
preserve their anonymity, and I do find that to often be the case.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>However, it is against human nature, I
believe.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to share life with
one another, celebrate each other’s birthdays, and wedding anniversaries, and
grand niece’s births and our brother’s new job.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are here to share in all its
complexities with one another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If
we can’t do that with other Christians, whom can we do it
with?<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><FONT size=5><EM><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-STYLE: normal; mso-bidi-font-style: italic"><FONT
size=5> William Sloane Coffin, 20th century pastor of
Riverside Church in upper Manhattan, said, </FONT></SPAN></EM><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>“I think, therefore I am?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Nonsense! I love, therefore I am.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And I believe he had is correctly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We love, therefore we are</FONT>.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></FONT></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Churches
get so segregated from one another internally.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Every time the Clericus of the Diocese
meets, the clergy of the Diocese of New Jersey, we amaze each other with our
common experiences, our common anxieties, our common problems.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And we learn from each other.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yet, once that conference ends, we tend
to go off on our individualistic ways, rarely if ever conversing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have tried from time to time to get
clergy to talk over the internet—we have a clergy listserve on the internet, but
usually the conversations are so trivial it seems we are simply avoiding each
other.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5>But I am a chatterbox, I think I inherited part of that from my Mom who
was always talking, either in person or over the phone every day of her
life.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Even on her last day she had
an entourage of folks in her hospital room and had engaged them in something
even when she couldn’t talk because of her oxygen mask.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She was naturally
gregarious.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But how
many here will talk with someone else here during the week?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Very few.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That needs to change.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to befriend one another better
than that.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The strength of
Christianity is in its friendships.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Staying joined to the vine of Christ means also staying joined to one
another.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Some friendships have to
die, but others need to become fruitful.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let us
with joy and gladness acknowledge our love for one another in some new way this
week.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Let us love one another just
as Christ has loved us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For then
they will know we are Christians by our love.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><FONT
size=5><SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></FONT></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN-TOP: 6pt; tab-stops: right 5.5in"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p><FONT
size=5> </FONT></o:p></SPAN></DIV></FONT></DIV></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>