<html><body>I have to split it again!<div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div>First part:<div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY PENTECOST c<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">ACTS
2:1-21 15<sup>th</sup>
MAY, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">ROMANS
8:14-17 PSALM 104:25-35, 37<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">JOHN
14:8-17, 25-27<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Happy Mother’s Day!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> No, I’m not slow – well, not on
account of this, anyway. But, yes, Happy Mother’s Day! <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> It’s easy to let things slip by one,
and if it’s been a while since you used your Hebrew or Greek, you may have
recessed it in your mind, but all references in the Bible to the Spirit are
feminine. There can be all sorts of reasons for this, and I don’t know if any
other religions have a similar linguistic inclusivity – but then, Christianity is
unique in its adherence to the understanding of God as Trinity, with each
Person being equal yet not confused with one another in the Godhead. If you can
wait, though, Deacon Peggy will tell us all about this next week. For today,
it’s sufficient to recognise, to praise, to accept God the Holy Spirit as the
Divine feminine.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> So, Happy Mother’s Day! Mother’s Day,
not just because God is feminine, but because we celebrate today as the
Incarnation of the Church, the rebirth of the human and Divine relationship
after all the roadblocks humans tried to throw in God’s way. This is the
celebration of our re-formation in the Image of God as the sisters and brothers
of Jesus, and our empowerment to continue the work of Jesus in the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> It’s the Spirit’s coming to us, and
all on earth, to help enrich our lives and help us deal with our daily
experiences; it is the Spirit who gives both life and meaning, who draws us
closer and closer each day to understand the loving care of Jesus and the
passion of the Father; it’s the Spirit who carries us when we need that special
protection and nourishment; it’s the Spirit who dusts us off and sets us back
on the right path with a word of encouragement and comfort.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> So – Happy Mother’s Day!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Of course, just like Mother’s Day,
just like being a parent, there aren’t any guarantees – either for the parent
or the child. So much has to be taken on trust that there won’t be anything to
overwhelm us completely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Think back, if you will, to your
very early years. You were a pretty happy child. You had some degree of
confidence, and you liked playing outside. But you had to stay in your own
garden. Neither you nor your mother were ready for that neigbourhood
exploration.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> I’m sure that worked well for a fair
length of time. If you were Claude Monet’s child, you had all those winding
paths, those wonderful, exotically coloured floral borders to explore and to
examine. You had trees to climb. And, if you were really responsible, you had
the lily ponds to ponder. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Whether you were Monet’s child or
not, though, you had a pretty good place to play, with such a great situation
in which to mature and develop your imagination. And you could always run home
if you fell and scraped your knee, or just needed something to drink.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Happy Mother’s Day, Indeed!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> But then came the day – possibly you
can’t remember whose idea it was – but you found yourself outside your garden.
All of a sudden, you had this mixture of excitement and uncertainty. You
weren’t sure how much you could do; how safe you’d be; what might be round the
next corner; and what might be expected of you in terms of behaviour and
responsibilities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> If you were that child, the feelings
would have been confusing, no doubt, and you might have glanced back to make
sure that your mother was standing by the gate in case you got into something a
bit challenging.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> And if you were that mother – or
father, they did this too! – if you were that mother, you’d stand anxiously
wondering how much to intervene and how much to let your child discover and develop
on her or his own.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> The emotions, the concerns, the
potential for joy and success and for uncertainty and confusion were present
equally.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Sometimes, your own garden, with the
gate shut, especially if you lived in Giverny in that artist’s paradise; sometimes,
your own garden looked pretty good, pretty safe, a lot less challenging.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> But you knew back then – you know
still – that, sooner or later, you and I, as children or parents, <b><u>HAVE</u></b> go out on to the street and
down the road, whether it’s to school, or a friend’s house, or to a store. And
when you go, when you come upon other people, when you encounter questions and
have to make decisions, how will you cope? Your mother may not be right beside
you, but, nine times out of ten, she’ll have talked to you, prepared you, so
that if you don’t know how to react, you can think things through logically and
find a way to cope.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Thank God for mothers!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> And, if that sort of thinking feels
familiar, then you’ve had the rich experience of having someone care for you
and back you up with some confidence and a bit of expertise.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <b><u>THAT’S</u></b>
what it was like for the early apostles. They’d been trained in the security of
their own area. They’d had someone to look out for them, and they’d done
reasonably well.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Oh, they’d made their mistakes. We <b><u>ALL</u></b> do that! But they’d
recovered.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> Then came the time when they left
their places of comfort and security and, lo and behold, they had the power and
the instinct not simply to cope, but to flourish. They were able to interact
with others. They were able to talk to them in ways that they could understand.
They were able to tell them of their own experiences in their own gardens, and
relay to them the surprising knowledge that what they’d been taught, what
they’d lived, applied not just in their own gardens but everywhere they went.<o:p></o:p></span></p></div></div></body></html>