<html><body>I posted the sermon in two parts, but someone told me part 2 wasn't "there". I didn't receive either part back, so I didn't know this.<div><br></div><div>I'll try to post part 2 again.</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> The Tuesday evening group is in the middle
of watching a documentary called “Bully”. It deals with all the ways in which
adults and children pick on one another, seeking out whatever weaknesses they
may find so that they can torment others. <sup>1</sup><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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> I would suppose it may give the
tormentors a feeling of power and control. No matter, as the documentary points
out, and as we know from our own community right here, that there comes a point
when some people simply cannot stand the violence perpetrated on their bodies
and minds. So they take their own lives.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> This person is different. She or he
talks with an accent, or has different skin tone, or walks and dresses in some
fashion a few others don’t like. So the victimisation goes on.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> This is nothing new. Read both parts
of the Bible, our Holy Book, to see that this behaviour is as old as the hills.
And the consequences remain the same – isolation, ridicule, abuse, even
legislation to ensure that “the other”, whoever she or he is, won’t be accorded
full and equal rights.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> This is what goes on in our own communities,
in our own nation, in the whole world. And when those children and teenagers
are attacked, are not protected, are, metaphorically or literally, separated
from their mothers you have the same intensity of pain and grief experienced by
the widows in the two stories we heard this morning.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> We <b><u>DO</u></b> know that the
man described in the First Book of Kings died of some disease. However, we know
nothing about the death of the man from Nain. It’s just possible that he’d met
a violent end, for whatever reason.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> <b><u>BOTH</u></b> mothers’ pain and
shock were, nevertheless, real. <b><u>BOTH</u></b> must have wondered where on
earth they might turn. <b><u>BOTH</u></b> must have felt incredible emptiness –
just as mothers and fathers do today. It doesn’t matter in which century this
happens. It doesn’t matter what the faith, or the depth of the faith of the
parents. It doesn’t matter one bit what the tensions may have been in the
family situation, the separation, the <b><u>FINALITY</u></b> of separation, is
almost unbearable.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> Think of Mary at the cross,
inconsolable at what was happening to her Son. Of course, Elijah knew nothing
of what would happen centuries later. Jesus didn’t know what lay three years
down the road. Both of them, however, reached out, trying to demonstrate that
God heard the sobbing, the anger, the frustration of those whose lives were so
desperately fractured.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> I’m aware that medical science is
continuing to make strides to attack diseases and disasters. And I thank God
for that! I’m aware that there <b><u>ARE</u></b> people who step into terrible
social crises, in schools and other educational facilities, for instance, where
prejudice and bigotry and just plain cruelty try to demean people. And I thank
God for all who try to prevent physical, and social, and spiritual death! Yet we
know that this may never be eradicated, certainly in our lifetimes, not our
grandchildren’s.<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 style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> <b><u>BUT</u></b>, there <b><u>ARE</u></b>
those prophets, those messengers from God, who will come into human society and
will bring touches which will try to heal, to repair, to build up life. We <b><u>DO</u></b>
believe that Jesus is the Lord of the Living and the Dead, and that we will <b><u>ALL</u></b>
be safe with Him. It’s how we deal with the here and now that’s so troubling,
though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 7.5pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> Suzanne
Guthrie wrote, “(This Gospel) story offers scant comfort to the parents of
children Jesus doesn't bring back from the dead. I certainly did not call the
widow's son to mind when my two little grandchildren died on the day they were
born last summer. My son and daughter-in-law cradled their son and daughter,
comforting the children and each other during the hours the babies lived. And
after they died, I didn't expect Jesus to arrive at the hospital and raise them
from the dead. The surprising thing is that Christians take hope in the raising
of Jairus's daughter and the widow of Nain's son in spite of the deaths of our
own children.” <sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 7.5pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> These
two stories, in fact – the ones of Elijah’s and Jesus’ actions – may serve only
to make things really difficult for us to deal with trouble, with disaster,
with disappointment. But there’s one thing that Suzanne pointed out that gives
me hope, that shines light even in the midst of the darkness. So many of the
sparks of life which the Spirit nurtures in us come at such moments of
darkness, of uncertainty. As Jesus touched the bier on which the man was being
carried out of Nain to be buried, “the bearers stood still.” They were waiting
to see what might happen, perhaps. They wondered whether Jesus would defile
Himself by doing what would make Him unclean. But Jesus didn’t hesitate. He
reached out. The bier bearers must have held their breaths. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 7.5pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> In
the depths of grief, we all may be brought into such stillness. We may find
something of holiness that can effect healing. In the intensity of the pain
that we and others may feel; as we struggle with grief, with doubt, with what
may take us towards unbelief, we are invited to come back, week after week, to
find our place at God’s Table.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 7.5pt 0.0001pt 0in;"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman";mso-bidi-font-weight:bold"> Mothers’
pain can be incredible, there’s no getting around that. But through His touch,
Jesus now assumes that pain with them, with us. And while He lives with us in
that pain, He calls also that we explore with Him what it means to live a
Baptismal Covenant life. Even in darkness, we’re invited to trust in God’s
love, and to reach out to eat at His Table.<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"">NOTES:<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 class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; line-height: 115%;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=8&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwj16IC1kY3NAhUES2MKHXCADbcQtwIIMjAH&url=https%3A%2F%2Fvimeo.com%2F89091209&usg=AFQjCNGpaMjmUJcDG0XjaBvchPaO-wgMcg"><span style="color:#660099">The Bully Project [Full Documentary] on Vimeo</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><cite><span style="color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-style: normal; background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-size: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial;">vimeo.com › Jim Harris › Videos<o:p></o:p></span></cite></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 class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">2</span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> <i>“At the Edge of the Enclosure Soulwork
Toward Sunday: Self-Guided Retreat Proper 5 (Year C)”</i> <i>“But Joy Comes in the Morning”</i> June 5, 2016 <a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper5c.html">http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper5c.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;line-height:115%;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p></div><div><br></div><div><br></div></body></html>