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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black"><b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">Hospitality</font></b><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><br>
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Kathleen Norris was a guest at a Catholic monastery during the week in
1997 when the members of the “Heaven’s Gate” cult all committed suicide
based on their strange belief about events connected with the appearance
Hale–Bopp comet. Norris heard the news in the monastery and noted that
the members of that cult had referred to themselves as “monks.” But she
later wrote that the Heaven’s Gate devotees didn’t seem much like the
monks she knew, for she found the monasteries to be hospitable places,
welcoming to guests, whereas the cult did not tolerate outsiders. Norris
noted that St. Benedict said, “A monastery is never without guests,”
and added, “What Benedict says might be seen as a way to define a
monastery – if it regularly exercises enough hospitality so as to
attract guests, it is a monastery. If it doesn’t, it is not” (Kathleen
Norris, <em>Amazing Grace</em> [New York: Riverhead Books, 1998],
262–263). And a similar definition could be used as part of what it
means to be a church. If it regularly exercises enough hospitality to
make newcomers and regular attendees feel welcome, it is a church. If it
doesn’t, it is not.</font><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><br>
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<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600"><tbody><tr><td colspan="2" height="88" align="center" width="600"><table width="95%"><tbody><tr><td class="proclaimsermon_body leftpad5" style="border: solid 1px #000000;" height="61" align="left" width="100%"><b>11/20/2011<br>
Reading: Matthew 25:
31 - 46
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<b>RCL: </b><i>Christ the King</i> <b>LFM: </b><i>Christ the King</i> <b>BCP: </b><i>Proper 29 (Christ the King)</i> <b>LL: </b><i>Last Sunday (Christ The King)</i>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:3px" class="proclaimsermon_1"><i>Summary</i></div>
<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_body"><i>The
king is the one asking the questions here, and the questions have very
little to do with faith and a whole lot to do with works.</i></div>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_title" align="center">What King Is This?</div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>There’s
nothing ordinary about the end of ordinary time. This day, this Sunday,
is New Year’s Eve in the Christian calendar. We’re about to start the
wonderfully off-kilter church calendar, as the anticipation of Advent
gives way to the birth of the Christ child. And before it all begins, on
Christ the King Sunday, we recognize who’s in charge — yes, it’s Jesus,
of course. But it’s Jesus the way we see him in Daniel 7, and
Revelation 1, and most of all, in Matthew 25. This is the Sunday when
Christ is recognized as King.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>This is not the shortest day of the year, but it sure seems awfully dark, and it stays dark an awfully long time. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>This
is the time of the year that started to scare the ancients. Those
people who believed in gods that might be immortal but weren’t all
powerful, gods who seemed powerless against fate and chance, and
especially the primeval forces of chaos, these people got a little
worried this time of year.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>The
onset of winter brought on a lot of fear — what if it never ended? What
if this was the winter where the days got shorter and shorter and
shorter — and never hit rock bottom, to start getting longer and longer
again? What if this was the year chaos won? </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>That’s
why there was so much merry making when the tide turned and the days
finally got longer. That’s why, even when there were plenty of cold days
ahead, people still celebrated, exchanged gifts, and hung the holly.
They’d dodged another bullet. For another year.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The Lord God</span></b></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>By
contrast, God’s people knew God is not only immortal, but also all
powerful. The stars? Fate? Chance? No problem. It was God who set the
stars in the heavens. Chaos? It was God who brooded over the face of the
deeps in the first chapter of Genesis, dispatching the monsters of
chaos without even having to look at them. This is the God who, in Job,
makes it clear that Leviathan, monster of the waters, is a plaything.<sup>1</sup> The monster Behemoth?<sup>2</sup> Are you kidding? God opens the heavens at the time of the great flood and closes them up again.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1"> </span>What’s
the guarantee after Noah lands the ark? “As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night,
shall not cease.”<sup>3</sup></span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Christ is king</span></b></div>
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