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<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Here is a draft of my
sermon on John 15:9-17 for May 17.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>God willing, a final version will be posted at our church web site under
the Worship-Sermon Archives tab by early next week at <A
href="http://sjnj.org/">http://sjnj.org</A><?xml:namespace prefix = o ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Peace and Easter
blessings,<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Joe
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; TEXT-ALIGN: center"
align=center><B style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">St. John's Episcopal
Church<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: left"
align=left><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">61 Broad Street<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">Elizabeth,
New Jersey 07201<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The Sixth Sunday of
Easter (B)<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">May 17,
2009 - DRAFT<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">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><o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><B
style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">The Holy
Gospel according to<o:p></o:p></SPAN></B></P>
<H2 style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt; LINE-HEIGHT: normal; TEXT-ALIGN: left"
align=left><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt">John 15:9-17<o:p></o:p></SPAN></H2>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You have shown us your
love, Dear Lord, so we may show it to our neighbor.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><o:p> </o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>H. King Oemig, a
senior writer for the Sewanee, Tennessee-based Synthesis publication, notes that
“a child learns through affection, through love, through patience, through
understanding, through belonging, through doing and through
being.”<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are all learners in
God’s Kingdom.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>None of us “has it
down pat.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are all becoming like
God, learning to do as God does, behaving as God would, and seeing others as God
sees them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is a life-long
learning experience.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We don’t have
a Love University that has courses on How to Love Better, How to Be Patient I
Mean Now, How to Forgive, How to Be a Loving Example.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These life long courses are what life is
all about.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Our first tendency is
to be suspicious.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We don’t know
what that person ‘over there’ is thinking.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We often do some prejudgment based on what they are wearing, where they
are looking, how they seem to behave, how they talk, and so on.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But as any one will generally admit,
these presumptuous summaries about another person are usually far off base.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We cannot really understand another
until we have gotten to know them for quite some time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But knowing a person seems to be a first
step to loving that person.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Few
times do we experience spiritual love on sight.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It takes time.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We are not to ‘fall in love’ as in the
physical sense, but we are to ‘fall in love’ in the spiritual sense.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to see how much God has invested
in getting that person to our presence, in getting us to that other person’s
presence, in simply allowing the two of us to meet.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Each encounter is a divine one, I
believe, so how we learn from it what God is trying to tell us is as important
as life and death.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps we are
the only one who will let that person know they are loved.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Maybe we will be the only person who
will be compassionate to them.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Or,
just suppose, we may be the last person they will speak to, ever.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What will we say?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What should we say?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>What can we say to let them know we love
them?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The language of love
is complex, yet so simple.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We try
to engage another in some way that will let them know how much we value them,
how important they are to us.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have always been
impressed by our Bishop’s complete attention to another person as he is talking
with them, as though no other or nothing else can get in the way of their
dialogue.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He seems never to be
looking around for someone else to speak to, or something else to do.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He focuses directly on the person at
hand, and gives them his full attention.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is actually remarkable to see.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>And by this single-minded behavior, he communicates to that person how
important they are to him, the first stage of love.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If someone is not important to us, then
our tendency is to ignore them, put them down, or do something even more
rude.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>This is oftentimes the rule
of the road and highway, when we are constantly making decisions about another
driver in front of us, behind us, or beside us.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We have to gage their speed, their
intent, their direction, and now with cell phones, we have to make some judgment
call about how attentive they are to what they may be doing.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That even is true of walkers
nowadays.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We see so many walking
down the street in somewhat of a daze, fidgeting with their cell phone, texting
someone, talking to someone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They
are really not present to themselves but they, and we who do the same thing, are
in a ‘world of our own’.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The
message we give out though is that none other beside or in front of them or us
matters in the least.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>All these
others are merely objects to avoid, especially avoid eye contact with.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have seen people in
great rages talking loudly on pay phones, and sometimes on cell phones, and the
atmosphere is charged with anger.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It is a fearsome sight to behold.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>One wonders sometimes if they are really speaking to a human being on the
other line!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>How many
times have you answered a phone call from a telemarketer?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Until I learned that one needed to say
“No” at least three times, clearly, in order to facilitate ending the call, it
became very tense to decide how to be respectful of the person, and to try to
separate out their desperate attempt to sell me something so they can feed
themselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I doubt that most
telemarketers make much money.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And
some have pleaded with me to buy this or that so they would not be sacked,
fired.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The sales pressure they are
under is immense, if they are surviving by getting one “Yes” out of maybe twenty
to thirty phone calls.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Probably
most people just hang up abruptly.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>I love Caller ID!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That way,
if I don’t know the person, usually it is by simply seeing an 800 or 866 number
on the Caller ID, then I don’t even answer the phone.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But it can still be tricky!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And once you have engaged in a telephone
conversation, the caller is desperately trying to keep you on the phone until
you say “Yes” once, or “No” three times.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Anonymity is a sign of
our times!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We can encounter so many
more people in a day now, by email, telephone call, or mail solicitations.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>It is often stimulus overload!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And we have more opportunities to be
superficially engaged with others through Twitter, or Facebook, or a variety of
other techy means, or should I even say, tacky!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Does the world need to
know what I though about the game, the news, President Obama, who or
whatever?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The answer seems to be,
“Yes”, you do need to know what I think about most anything, because by giving
me your attention, I feel like a person again, at least a little bit.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>These newest devices and systems seem to
be expressing how disconnected we all are, and how little attention we can give
to anyone.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So the focus is on
ourselves, preserving our thoughts, and even elevating our thoughts over those
of others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thus, in a way, these
modes of communication seem to be a bit of competition between ourselves and
others.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And the question, “Would
Jesus twitter?” just might be important for us to think about.
<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'">But can a “tweet” be a
way the Holy Spirit may be working?<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Are we reaching out for companionship, for recognition that we matter,
and to say that what we are doing and thinking matters.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So many are not that “important” out of
the 6 billion or so of us on Planet Earth now, at least that would be what the
broadcast and written media seem to be droning into our heads.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Only about a couple hundred or thousand
people matter, if one gages who is quoted, whose life is talked about, whose
opinion seems to matter more than ours or anyone else’s.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>But is that the real reality of life,
that only two or three thousand people matter?<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Surely not!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I tend to think the
world is simply pushing us more and more into superficiality.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Perhaps that is a product of there being
so many people that we can encounter in day’s time now, more perhaps that at any
other time in human history.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>One of my
sisters-in-law says she gets over a thousand emails daily—she is in the written
communication business.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I get up to
three hundred myself.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>To protect
oneself from stimulus overload, we direct many messages automatically into this
or that electronic file, and at some point in the hundreds of messages per day
range, one directs most messages simply into what is referred to as the “Spam
Folder”, the electronic version of a garbage can.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am one of those
persons who write my duly elected officials at the state and federal level quite
frequently, as that is my response to messages from this or that environmental
or social services or human compassion group.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And these types of letters must happen
so often that the legislator/governor/president has an email system that simply
sends me/us back a stock reply, by email.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Then, oftentimes, there may be follow up by a snail mail letter also of
stock reply.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I am amazed at how
wrong these follow up letters can be—it seems no matter what I may have sent
them, I will get back some political reply about how they are so happy to agree
with me about an entirely unrelated issue!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>So much for stock replies!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Down goes another tree!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>For
naught!<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>So is that where love
has led us, or is it something else?<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I have had enough
training in “power analysis” that I can recite the phrase, “organized power and
organized money” are what make changes in society.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is how President Barak Obama was
elected, as you probably already know.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>It was the ‘new’ community action at its best, or perhaps, depending on
your point of view, at its worst!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>But it seems the only way the folks at the bottom of the food chain can
reach those at the top of the food chain.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>If enough of us ‘little people’ work together, then we may be able to
negotiate a ‘better deal’ for ourselves, for our congregations, for our
communities.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is actually what
happened to make the City of Elizabeth the only “Green City” in the State of New
Jersey.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Many of us here, especially
clergy, got together with others to see that planned environmental disasters
were not perpetrated on Elizabeth.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>We stopped the building of the largest sewage sludge incinerator in the
world here.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We stopped the building
of the largest hazardous medical waste treatment plant in America here.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We stopped the paving of all the
roadways in New Jersey and New York with heavy metal containing incinerator ash,
to name a few successes.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Jersey
City, on the other hand, has had so many environmental waste excesses in its
city limits over the years that it will take decades if not centuries to
remediate.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And similarly for many
parts of the Meadowlands, which probably have more discarded mercury and PCBs
per square foot that any other place on Planet Earth.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Bishop George
Browning, an Australian bishop who heads the Anglican Environmental Network,
links almost all of the world’s problems, from poverty to disease to hunger to
homelessness directly to environmental excesses all over the world.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And I would have to agree with him.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The poor get dumped on.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And they will keep getting dumped on
until there is a worldwide recognition that we have to handle our waste
properly, generate much less garbage, use our limited resources more wisely, and
develop better means of generating clean energy that is both efficient and
cheap, oftentimes mutually exclusive goals!<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And we need to share our riches with
those who have nothing or next to nothing instead of just throwing “stuff”
away.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>The antidote, in other
words, to world poverty is to love others, really love them, care about their
needs, their health, their social necessities.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>We need to treat others as though they
really do matter.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>They, we all, are
children of the Most High God.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And
anonymity is not a part of that equation.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>God loves us equally.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God
sees each of us as the precious creation we all are.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God loved us so much that he sent his
right hand to live with us, to die for us, to rise for us, and to ascend to God
to speak for us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God practiced what
God preached!<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>God simply loves
us.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And when we learn we too must
love all others, we may begin to see the inbreaking of a new world order, a new
day, a new revelation, that Christ did not come here for his pleasure, but to
tell us frankly that we need to mimic what his Father did, love us.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Thus, we are to love others as much as
we love ourselves.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>If we get that
basic concept, then we have come into God’s eternal fold.<o:p></o:p></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Amen.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN></SPAN></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 6pt 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 14pt; FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'"><SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"></SPAN><o:p></o:p></SPAN> </P></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>