<html><body>Here's the draft for tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.<div><br></div><div>A very Happy Thanksgiving!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THANKSGIVING EVE<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">DEUTERONOMY 8:7-18 25<sup>th</sup> NOVEMBER, 2015<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">2 CORINTHIANS 9:6-15 PSALM 126<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">LUKE 17:11-19<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“Be not afraid” – words spoken within the last few days by Presiding Bishop Michael Curry, but also the words occurring throughout the stories in the Bible. <sup>1</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“Be not afraid” – not what<b> <u>I’d</u> </b>expect to hear on Thanksgiving Eve, unless someone was planning on stuffing a turkey with onions and garlic! Yet there’s a need to hear these words right now. The world has been filled with hatred personified in killings on every continent, some of them making newspaper headlines, others quietly shuffled off elsewhere out of the way. You know, “Out of sight, out of mind.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Remember how you used to act as children. If something was scary – a movie, a trip, an unspecial vegetable, a relative – if we closed our eyes we could imagine that the object, the person, the behaviour wasn’t there. It never ended well, however. I don’t know about you, but when I opened my eyes, whatever it was that was troubling me was still there. Fear can take such subtle but pervasive hold.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> What’s really interesting about thinking about not fearing is that this is <b><u>PRECISELY</u></b> what the readings say to us. Fear is so all-consuming. If you go to any meeting; if you come to any place of worship; if you meet with someone, whether you know them or not; if you do any of these and you start to have fear pass through your mind, then you may become partially or wholly paralysed. Your mind will become clouded. You won’t be able to think straight and deal with reality. At the very least, your stomach will be tied up in knots and your dinner will just sit inside you, like a great, acidic, lead balloon, waiting to explode.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <b><u>THIS</u></b> is why fear is such an incredible weapon. It withers your sense of personhood. It dehumanises you.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> So, when someone holds up an onion to me, I wonder immediately whether or not the food will be destructive to my nourishment and well-being. Well, maybe this <b><u>IS</u></b> overstating things a bit, but perhaps that’s why medieval humans and actors in some TV dramas wear cloves of garlic around their necks. They seem to say, “Be afraid. Be very afraid!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Thus the terrorist, the interrogators, the TV newsperson the nasty neighbor all seek to control us way beyond an actual bullet or bomb. All they need to do is to plant the thought in our minds that there’s someone or something out there, and it becomes impossible for us to give thanks fully, to relax, to allow our gifts and resources to flower, to become total images of God, to be eager administrators of Jesus’ Justice and Peace.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> When we acknowledge that there <b><u>IS</u></b> nothing that can separate us from the love of God, then we begin to see things from God’s side of the picture. We can, fully and truly, give thanks, because God <b><u>IS</u></b> good!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We’re not necessarily talking about Paris here, or Brussels, or any number of places in Syria, or Bamako in Mali, or some other distant place, although this definitely <b><u>DOES</u></b> apply there. This is talking about our own homes, our living rooms, our kitchens and bedrooms. These are places where we cannot and must not allow fear-mongering to enter, otherwise they’ll be places where we cannot overcome whatever is trying to persuade us that we’re in trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> If we worry whether or not we’ll have enough to eat or drink over the next few days, indeed, for the rest of our lives; if we worry about whether we’re going to be creamed by some vehicle on I-5; if we’re not willing or able to celebrate life because we’re unsure of what may happen to our health, our jobs, our family and friends; if we fill ourselves or allow ourselves to be filled with fear, then the enemy of life has won, and, as the Prayer of Confession puts it, there is no health in us.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> But this is <b><u>NOT</u></b> what God says to us, God means for us. You and I <b><u>ARE</u></b> here tonight, not out of fear, not out of hate, but out of love, out of an overwhelming joy at the goodness of God and God’s children.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We’re here because, once again, we celebrate that Novak’s is offering a full dinner to anyone who may have thought that there would have been none. No charge! Absolutely free! The doors will be unlocked, the tables set attractively, the food cooked, and the whole place filled with warmth and delicious smells.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We’re here because we and people we know have enough and more to share tonight and tomorrow, so we can always find room for another place at the table, and, quite probably, another place again.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> We’re here to acknowledge one more time that God’s love, God’s very practical love, continues to spill over to keep us in perfect peace. Therefore it’s incumbent on us to talk, to act out this love in our own lives, to challenge and dispel fear wherever it may occur, to make each one of us, this place, and every place we go signs of peace, of safety, or welcome – we have to begin Advent right now, and every day, preparing room for Jesus in our midst and <b><u>BEING</u></b> Jesus in the midst of everyone else, on our own doorsteps or halfway around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Whoever is or feels displaced in this city and in this world, must know that there is <b><u>ALWAYS</u></b> a place for her or him.<b><o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></b><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">An article this past week reported that<b> “</b><span style="color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">Nearly 60 million people are currently displaced from their homes by war and persecution - more than at any time since World War II. Half are children.” <sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> What gives some glimmer of hope from these terrible statistics is that children, though never completely unscathed, have been found to be remarkably resilient. They are the hope for the world. Perhaps this is why Jesus said that we have to be like children. “That children, even under the worst of circumstances, are able to remain children supplies the world around them with the sense of a future, which is the equivalent of hope.” <sup>3</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"> You may have heard about “</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">A little boy in south Texas (who) </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">did<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/19/1452210/-7-year-old-does-something-amazing-after-Texas-Islamic-center-is-disgustingly-defaced" target="_blank"><strong><span style="color: windowtext; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none;">something pretty grea</span></strong><span style="color: windowtext;">t</span></a> last week, and the news spread quickly across the world, via social media. Seven-year-old Jack Swenson took $20 from his piggy bank and decided to give it to a community mosque that had been grossly defaced during a Muslim hate crime.<br> “Twenty dollars might not seem a lot to some, but to Jack Swanson, it was a life’s savings. And to Faisal Naem, a board member from the <a href="http://www.icptx.org/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">Islamic Center of Pflugerville</span></a>, Jack’s gift was comparable to ‘$20 million’ to the Muslim community.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> “</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;">What many didn’t know last week was that Jack Swanson was saving his pennies for an Apple iPad. <a href="https://www.facebook.com/ArsalanIftikharFanPage/timeline" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">Ardalan Iftikhar</span></a> heard about the story and said he was moved to tears. Known to some on social media as <em>The Muslim Guy,</em> Iftikar contacted Jack’s mother, Laura Swanson, and within days, Jack received a package in the mail along with this note from Iftikhar: <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> “‘Dear Jack, you had saved $20 in your piggybank for an Apple iPad. But then a local Islamic mosque was vandalised. So you donated your $20 to this local Texas mosque. Because of your amazing generosity & kind heart. <strong><span style="font-weight: normal;">‘Please enjoy this Apple iPad with our sincere thanks</span></strong><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>:-). Love The American Muslim Community.’ <o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> “Jack Swanson will most likely always remember how his kindness was received by many around the world. What a wonderful lesson to learn so young — that when we give to others, from our hearts, expecting nothing in return, the good often comes back to us, <em>multiplied</em>. Thank you, Jack,” wrote a reporter, “for this lovely reminder.” <sup>4</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Thank you, Novak’s, for the meals you offer. Thank you those who will open their homes for warmth, and conversation, and food, even for some crazy relatives! Thank you, God – and the Altar Guild – for setting up this table, and for inviting everyone, without exception, to the Feast.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">As Bishop Michael Curry said, live; celebrate; give thanks; and, above all, “be not afraid!”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">NOTES:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 15.3333px; color: rgb(54, 95, 145);">[1]</span></span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “</span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: windowtext;">Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry addresses Syrian refugee crisis: ‘Be not afraid!’” </span></i><span style="color: windowtext; font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> November 18, 2015 Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs press release <a href="http://publicaffairs.cmail19.com/t/r-l-zykkuhk-xihjhoid-o/" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext;">Episcopal Church</span></a> Presiding Bishop and Primate Michael B. Curry addresses the current Syrian refugee crisis:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><a href="http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/11/18/presiding-bishop-michael-b-curry-addresses-syrian-refugee-crisis-be-not-afraid/">http://episcopaldigitalnetwork.com/ens/2015/11/18/presiding-bishop-michael-b-curry-addresses-syrian-refugee-crisis-be-not-afraid/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">2 “<i><a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KVBjmEgFdYACPLKh239P3pg2QzY3JgpkMDkftYVwQpO3OLpWa4oJgdKnpM0CZzdOIK7pJhJqo+rHz636RuWDsvj/fY6AH1rUkbzQPfENmgP1RhBv7P/hndWkaZjaWII+sqexdMreC5lvwIDLFGhIZ9u&campaign_id=129&instance_id=66270&segment_id=80342&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7®i_id=63205127" target="_blank"><span style="color: windowtext; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">The Displaced: Introduction</span></a>” </i>By JAKE SILVERSTEIN 7<sup>th</sup> November, 2015.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KVBjmEgFdYACPLKh239P3pg2QzY3JgpkMDkftYVwQpO3OLpWa4oJgdKnpM0CZzdOIK7pJhJqo+rHz636RuWDsvj/fY6AH1rUkbzQPfENmgP1RhBv7P/hndWkaZjaWII+sqexdMreC5lvwIDLFGhIZ9u&campaign_id=129&instance_id=66270&segment_id=80342&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7®i_id=63205127">http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=4z5Q7LhI+KVBjmEgFdYACPLKh239P3pg2QzY3JgpkMDkftYVwQpO3OLpWa4oJgdKnpM0CZzdOIK7pJhJqo+rHz636RuWDsvj/fY6AH1rUkbzQPfENmgP1RhBv7P/hndWkaZjaWII+sqexdMreC5lvwIDLFGhIZ9u&campaign_id=129&instance_id=66270&segment_id=80342&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7®i_id=63205127</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">3</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Silverstein, Op. cit.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">4</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “<i><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2015/11/23/1452887/-Little-boy-who-gave-20-to-vandalized-mosque-receives-a-special-surprise"><span style="color: windowtext;">Little boy who gave $20 to vandalized mosque receives a special surprise</span></a>” </span></i><span class="author-name"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/user/Leslie%20Salzillo"><span style="color: windowtext;">By Leslie Salzillo</span></a></span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> </span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0.1pt;"> </span><span class="timestamp"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">Monday Nov 23, 2015</span></span><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"> </span></span><span class="timestamp"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">7:07 AM PST<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(60, 55, 54); letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"><a href="http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/23/1452887/-Little-boy-who-gave-20-to-vandalized-mosque-receives-a-special-surprise">http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/11/23/1452887/-Little-boy-who-gave-20-to-vandalized-mosque-receives-a-special-surprise</a> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span></p></div></body></html>