<html><body>I got an early start this week!<div><br></div><div>Part 1</div><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 THE 12<sup>th</sup> SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST<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"">ISAIAH
1:1, 10-20 PROPER 14
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"">HEBREWS
11:1-3, 8-16 7<sup>th</sup> AUGUST,
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"">LUKE
12:32-40 PSALM
50:1-8, 23-24<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; 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";color:#202020"> “Life is full of change,” wrote
Brother Luke Ditewig, of the Society of St. John the Evangelist. You don’t need
me to tell you about change, of course. But what Brother Luke added was
interesting. “Life is full of change and some of the hardest parts are
responding to change. Much of how we hurt each other stems from resisting or
taking offense at change. We so easily cling to sticky memories, wanting to
trap people in a former time and place.” <sup>1</sup><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 and I could change one thing,
what would it be?<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""> Have you ever thought about that?
Wondered what it would be like, if only ….? I suppose there’s a certain amount of
wishful thinking involved here. I’m not talking about winning the lottery, or
anything like that. Perhaps your wishes, your dreams, are relatively achievable.
It may simply be a matter of making up one’s mind to take that first step; it
may be a matter, once one’s mind is made up, of determining to take action.<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 often, though, that first step
can be so difficult. Whatever it is, whoever is involved, making a change can
seem such an overwhelming proposition. It may weigh upon us to prevent us
moving because we can’t see how we can possibly accomplish what it is we want
to do. Even if we’ve changed before; even if the change has involved the same
behaviour or trying to reach the same goal, even if this is so, it can still be
so difficult for us to start out. <b><u>THIS</u></b>
is why we need encouragement. <b><u>THIS</u></b>
is why we need reminding about what life entails. <b><u>THIS</u></b> is why we need to rehearse what our baptismal covenant
vows are all about. Otherwise we may never change. We may simply be too afraid
of what will be involved; what it might cost us; what God is actually expecting
of us.<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""> One
of my favourite quotes comes from the pen of John Henry Newman, scholar and
Cardinal of Westminster, London. He wrote, “To live is to change. To be perfect
is to have changed often.” Think about this. It accepts that sitting still,
that gathering material goods into barns and padlocking them shut, that resting
on one’s laurels – none of these is what God is seeking. There must be constant
ebb and flow, and constant self-examination on order to match God who is so
incredibly dynamic. Change, then, has to become our second nature. It must be
something of which we need harbour no fear, because it’s given us by God as a
means to discover how to interact with both the Divine and with other human
beings. This describes how we are to be ready to meet whatever may happen, or,
at the very least, to try to become comfortable with the thought that change is
not only inevitable but also is immensely desirable, because it talks to us
about the way in which we draw closer and closer to God.<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""> Now the word “change” doesn’t occur
exactly in </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">our Gospel passage this morning, but
I think it is present in the idea of being prepared, which describes how Jesus
spoke of those who were bless</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif"">é</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"">d</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">. If one is prepared for something it doesn’t
merely mean that one is ready to do, to respond, to speak exactly as one has in
the past. To be prepared takes us beyond that and demands that we be ready to
move in a completely different direction that the one in which we may have been
going.<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""> We
<b><u>DO</u></b> have the basic principles,
of course. God has told all in creation what is expected – to </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000;mso-ansi-language:X-NONE">act justly, to love loyalty,</span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> </span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#080000;mso-ansi-language:X-NONE">to walk humbly
with </span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000">…</span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#080000;mso-ansi-language:X-NONE"> God. </span><a name="_FOOTER_SECTION_"></a><sup><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:
"Arial","sans-serif";color:#080000">2</span></sup><span style="font-size:10.0pt;
font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#080000"> What God seldom defines with
any degree of specificity is how we’re to do this. These basic principles are
the sort of things described in the opening of the prophecies of Isaiah. But
they are limitless in their application, and we cannot begin to think that we
can know about every situation.<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";color:#080000"> There are some interesting points made by Jesus in His
parable. If you or I are invited to a wedding and there’s a reception
afterwards, usually we tell someone when we’ll be back. There are certain
expectations. How much food will there be? Will we feel like dancing or sitting
telling story after story? And so on. The master in the parable i</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">s described as
leaving suddenly, in the midst of the festivities. His arrival home is totally
unexpected. And, when he gets home, he knocks. He doesn’t use a key. “Only
strangers knock on doors at night in the Middle East.” Calling out would
reassure those within that this was not a stranger. The voice calling out would
be familiar. But the “most likely answer to why the master is knocking rather
than calling is that he doesn’t want his voice echoing through the residence.
Whispering cannot be heard through the door, but even a gentle knock at his
door will be heard at once by his servants – if they are awake and alert. ...
As he knocks he fully expects his servants to open immediately, even at night!”
<sup>3</sup><span style="color:#080000"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p 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""> Thirdly,
there is that strange comment about the slaves being bless</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">é</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";mso-fareast-font-family:
"Times New Roman"">d. “The meaning of the text is not: If these servants are
awake and ready, their master will reward them with a blessing. Rather it says:
Servants/slaves who have lamps lit, robes duly belted and are awake, eagerly
expecting the arrival of the master, are already filled with the blessing of
God and are a bless-ed presence in the household. The way they act is an
expression of who they are, not an attempt to earn something they do not have.”
<sup>4</sup><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""> Listen to that last sentence again.
I think it’s really important. “The way they act is an expression of who they
are,” or, at the very least, who they are trying to be. What Jesus is talking
about is our having drawn within ourselves the desire to change, the desire to
place God at the heart of our being.<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 finally, when the master gets
home and enters, no matter that he left the wedding early, he doesn’t change
out of his festive clothes. He gets a cincture and hitches up the garments in
pretty much the same way that we do who’re serving the congregation in the
liturgy. He gets the hem u off the floor. He makes sure that he won’t trip. He
gets ready to wait on the slaves.<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""> “What is this? Is he going to scrub
the floor? For the master to belt his robe in preparation for some lowly talk
is unthinkable! Servants, indeed, only lower-class servants and slaves belt
their robes.<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""><br></span></p></div></body></html>