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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Forwarded:Part 2 of 3</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><table class="fullFromTable" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; border-spacing: 5px 8px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-size: 12px;"><tbody><tr class="fieldRow" style="vertical-align: top; margin-top: 4px;"><td class="label" style="outline: none; margin-right: 4px; text-align: right;">From</td><td style="outline: none;"><span class="addressItem" style="white-space: nowrap;"><span class="address wsItem" style="padding: 2px 4px; color: rgb(32, 32, 32) !important; background-color: rgb(216, 242, 254) !important;"><span class="addressDispForm" style="font-weight: bold;">robertpmorrison</span> <a href="mailto:robertpmorrison@charter.net" style="color: blue; cursor: pointer;" target="_blank">robertpmorrison@charter.net</a></span></span></td></tr></tbody></table></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">THE TWENTIETH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">PROVERBS 31:10-31 </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">JAMES 3:13 -4:3, 7-8a </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">20<sup>th</sup> SEPTEMBER, 2015</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">MARK 9:30-37 </span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> The
woman who is beyond praise, says God, is the one who doesn’t take, “No!” for an
answer, but who finds a way to engage the merchants in town. She doesn’t simply
look at a piece of property or land and sigh about how nice it would be to own
it. This woman negotiates with the owner. She breaks all sorts of rules and
customs; she puts herself at risk of ridicule or worse. She faces contempt. She
talks straight with the owner and is sharp enough to know if she’s the object
of pandering. Even if she’s the only woman in the village to be willing to
engage people, she works and works to make sure that no one tries to cheat her,
or denigrate her, and she ends up by being an incredibly shrewd business woman,
who, no doubt, had to face down bigotry, stupidity and lies in order to ensure
that the best deal was obtained.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> I
remember meeting, many years ago, a woman who had an extremely gentle voice and
manner. She was delightful; she had a terrific sense of humour; she was
well-informed and read voraciously. When she met her husband, they were both in
medical school, on track to become MDs, but she decided, late in her studies,
to take on pharmacology, saying, “One physician in the household is enough.”
But it was she who planned, designed, developed and ran the pharmacological department
of a hospital which didn’t have one. And it was she who was among the first
class of women to attend General Convention as a Deputy the first year they
could do so.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> This
quiet, unprepossessing woman was leaving a trail of broken glass just about
everywhere she walked. Yet she wasn’t above coming along with a dustpan later
to gather up the shards to make sure that it was safe and possible for other
women to join and follow her. She saw the gifts with which God had blessed her,
and she ran – she didn’t walk – she <b><u>RAN</u></b>
with them to make sure that everyone would benefit.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> Where
would she have been, though; where would <b><u>WE</u></b>
be, if, for once, the church didn’t do something right, and praised and
encouraged people like her, instead of saying, “Get back to the sink, and knock
off the alcohol!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> Take
a look sometime at the first picture in the bulletin this morning. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> “The
Indian woman here may or may not be married. Her husband may or may not be
known in the city gates. She may or may not have a household, but she is noble.
She has wrapped herself in purple and adorned her figure with dignity. Her
hands are worn and her face weathered, but she does not appear to be suffering.
She is the beautiful elder, not forgotten. Even if she were forgotten by men —
her husband, or sons, or government — she will not be forgotten by God.” <sup>2</sup></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> God
touches <b><u>EVERY</u></b>one, to bless
and to stimulate us, regardless of our gender. The only thing that God seeks is
a willingness to try, It doesn’t matter whether we’re from one part of Albany
or another – or out of Albany altogether. God chooses <b><u>ALL</u></b> of us to minister in the vineyard.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> We
fail when we are unable or refuse to see the utterly unbiased way in which God
seeks to engage us and to have us minister to others. We fail – and the history
of the church is full of failures – when we won’t allow our imaginations to
soar, and we don’t say to ourselves, “I can do that.” Or “At least I can try
that.”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> But we get so bogged down with the
externals. Who’s first? Who’s going to lead?” Who can get the most money? Who
has the greatest reputation or prestige? – you know, everything the disciples w</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif">ere arguing about,
running everyone else down, saying whatever they liked, whether it were true or
not – yet none would admit it. So Jesus slipped His arm around the waist of a
child,, or took hold of her hand, and looked her in the eye while He said to
everyone else, “If you do anything to hurt the powerless, or the fragile, or
the at-risk, the ignored, the despised, no matter who she may be and what her
condition; if you do <b><u>ANYTHING</u></b>
to hurt or malign, heaven help you!”</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman""> Of
course, we all mess up. That’s part of the challenge of being human. We forget;
we’re distracted; we’re blinded by our socialization. Fortunately, Jesus still
pulls children into our midst and says, “For Pete’s sake – ’scuse me about that
Peter! But, for Pete’s sake, look! Listen! See what you can learn!”</span></div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial",sans-serif;
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">===Continued in Part 3</span></div>
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