<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'>Forwarded, with sincere condolences to Mother Judy:<br>
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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Judy <judy_boli@ecunet.org><br>
To: propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic@ecunet.org><br>
Sent: Sat, Jan 10, 2015 6:43 pm<br>
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Epiphany 1B<br>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Dear Friends,</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">My beloved husband of 48 years and best friend of 50 years, Fr. Bill Boli, died December 14, 2014, so I am finally ready to post sermons again.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Justice and Jubilee” or “The Judy Touch” or “The Work of ChristMass” and deals with the epistle (Acts 10:34-38).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Here it is: </font></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000" size="3">In today’s gospel, we heard the episode of Jesus’ baptism by his cousin John.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This was the start of our Lord’s public ministry.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Then in the Old Testament lesson from Isaiah (which parallels Jesus’ first sermon- Luke 4:16-21), we heard what this ministry was: Jubilee.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">You recall how in ancient Israel, every seventh day was a Sabbath- a day of spiritual rest and refreshment for everyone (the richest to the slave; men, women, foreigners, even animals).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Every seventh year was also a Sabbath year, when the land was to rest.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Seven Sabbath years would be every fifty years. (They counted from “one”, not “zero” as we do.)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This Sabbath year of Sabbath years was the Jubilee year as described in Deuteronomy.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Everyone had a fresh start- slaves were freed, land and belongings reverted back to the original owners, in other words- the basic concept of Jubilee was the great equalizer.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Isaiah reminds us that the messiah would institute the Jubilee.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Finally, in the Bible reading from the book of Acts, we heard the end of the encounter between Peter and the Roman (Gentile) offices, Cornelius.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">It’s this story that points out exactly what Jubilee meant when Peter tried to live it in his life in the first century and when we try to live it today.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The modern day saint and hero who best typifies Jubilee was the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., whose birthday is January 15 (falls on a Friday this year).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Our nation celebrates it the third Monday, which will fall on January 19</font><sup><font color="#000000" size="2">th</font></sup><font color="#000000" size="3"> in 2015.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Let’s look at the Acts story.</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000" size="3">To understand the significance of Peter’s experience, you need to recall how Jews felt about Gentiles.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Do you remember the extremely cruel childhood game of the so-and-so touch?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">It begins by a popular child touching a tormented, picked-on child, let’s call her “Judy”- I feel better using myself.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The popular child then runs to catch another child and touches him or her, as in tag.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">However, here’s the difference- once you are tagged, you have the “Judy touch.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">That’s how Jews felt about Gentiles.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">If even the shadow of a Gentile fell on a Jew, he or she was unclean and had to wash to cleanse himself or herself from the defilement of the “Gentile touch.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">It goes without saying that Jews never ate with Gentiles or even considered inviting Gentiles into their homes.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">That’s the cultural background of the story.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">You see how their 1</font><sup><font color="#000000" size="2">st</font></sup><font color="#000000" size="3"> century culture brainwashed them?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">We must be very careful that we don’t allow 21</font><sup><font color="#000000" size="2">st</font></sup><font color="#000000" size="3"> century culture to brainwash us today.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Well, the story from the book of Acts starts with Peter, who is visiting Simon, the tanner, asleep on the roof.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">In his dream- unless you want to call it a nightmare, Peter is famished.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">All of a sudden a huge sheet descends from heaven with many kinds of unclean animals on it.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Peter hears a voice saying, “Arise, Peter, kill and eat.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Peter answers, “Lord, you know that I’ve never eaten anything unclean in my life.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The sheet goes back to heaven.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Peter remains hungry.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">You know what happens- down comes the sheet again with the same words: “Arise, Peter, kill and eat.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Once again, Peter answers, “Lord, you know that I’ve never eaten anything unclean in my life.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Back goes the sheet up to heaven.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Obviously, Peter is still very hungry, when- you know what happened- down comes the sheet again with the same words: “Arise, Peter, kill and eat.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Again Peter answered, “Lord, you know that I’ve never eaten anything unclean in my life.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This time, God responds: “Peter, don’t you ever call something unclean that I’ve created.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">At once, Peter awakens to find two servants and one soldier of the Gentile, Cornelius, at his door. Cornelius was sending for Peter.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Peter invited the Gentile guests to spend the night, then went with them to instruct and subsequently baptize Cornelius.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">That’s what happened before the Acts lesson when Peter proclaimed everyone equal- amazing insight for a first century Jewish man!</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000" size="3">So, what’s the significance of this story in our own lives?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">We are citizens of a Kingdom in which everyone is equal; a Kingdom in which every day is a fresh start.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Let’s be more specific.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Who is your Cornelius?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">What kind of person is it that you just don’t like?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Remember the sheet- everybody gets a fresh start- no one is unclean whom God has created.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Here’s another possibility.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To whom are you a Cornelius?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Who treats you as if you aren’t quite as good as they are?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Maybe it’s your color, maybe it’s your sex, maybe it’s your age, maybe it’s your educational level (too high or too low), maybe it’s how much money you have or don’t have (too rich or too poor), maybe it’s how you speak (too proper or not proper enough), maybe it’s your weight (too fat or too thin), etc.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Remember the sheet- in God’s eyes there aren’t any “too anythings.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">The ground is always level at the foot of the cross.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Believe in your Creator, believe in yourself, and speak up.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">Maybe you don’t have any Cornelius’s and maybe you’ve never been a Cornelius to anyone else, but you can’t live long in this society without seeing someone treated like a Cornelius.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">That’s when your loyalty to Jesus and his mission comes in.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">No matter the cost, speak up.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">It’s not just Jesus who was called to institute Jubilee and justice, he does it through his followers- us.</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000" size="3">I want to close with one of my favorite poems (one we’ve used every Epiphany 1 recently) by Howard Thurman, an African-American educator, poet, and mystic.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">This poem reminds us of our responsibilities as Christians to Jesus’ mission and its relationship to ChristMass:</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">“When the song of the angel is still,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">When the star in the sky is gone,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">When the kings and the princes are home,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">When the shepherds are back with their flock,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">The work of Christmas begins:</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To find the lost,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To heal the broken,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To feed the hungry,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To release the prisoner,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To rebuild the nations,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To bring peace among peoples,</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000" size="3"> </font></span><font color="#000000" size="3">To make music in the heart!”</font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">My prayer is that we keep ChristMass, the real ChristMass, the Jubilee ChristMass all year long and all our lives long.</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; tab-stops: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: </font><a target="_blank" href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org/"><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman"></font></u></a><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org" target="_blank">http://www.stpaulsepisag.org</a></font></u><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> .</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Blessed preaching,</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Judy Boli</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">St. Paul's Episcopal Church</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Saginaw, Michigan</font></span></div>
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