<html><body>I tried to send this in one. 8 - (<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 THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">ISAIAH 5:1-7 PROPER 15 C<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">HEBREWS 11:29 – 12:2 14<sup>th</sup> AUGUST, 2016<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 12:49-56 PSALM 80:1-2, 8-18<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" align="right" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-align: right;"><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;"> This is <b><u>NOT</u></b> what I wanted to hear this morning, in this, of all places. I suspect you feel the same way. There’s so much strife in the world, even our own little corner of it, that the last thing we need to hear is anything which seems to intensify our struggles.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Why do I have to do this?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Because I’m your parent. Your sibling. Your child.” And so on.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> One of the behaviours of which we hear and which raises my blood pressure and end shivers down my spine is so-called “honour killings”. Someone, usually a woman, does something that it judged immoral by another member of the family, and that is the cause for immediate action, often execution. No matter that the definition of morality may not be agreed upon; no matter that the living situation may have changed quite radically; no matter that what is happening within the family seems to be so out of step with many others in the community; no matter that all of this may be going on, still, some men within the family take it upon themselves to eradicate what they consider to be a cause of shame to that family. And seldom is there an eyebrow raised.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I can imagine – I haven’t actually heard it – but I can imagine hearing someone turning to these verses from the Gospel according to Luke and using them as justification for abusing others, even killing them.<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 there’s something incredibly strange going on in this story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Kenneth Bailey asked, “If then Jesus had women disciples (and this seems certain), both among the crowds and also among His band of travelling companions, did this make any discernable difference in the context and style of his teaching? Indeed it did. Jesus selected images and created parables with a deliberate concern to communicate the message to his women listeners on as deep a level as to his male followers.” <sup>1</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;"> And in this terrible tale this morning, we find an explicit example of the way in which Jesus’ eyes were being opened and His thinking expanded.<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 Jesus had been a member of the good old boys’ club, what He would have said about the impact of His preaching and teaching would have been radically different. But Jesus didn’t belong to <b><u>ANY</u></b> clubs, save the group who were part of he expanding membership of the realm of God. If Jesus had been “old style”, He wouldn’t have mentioned <b><u>ANY</u></b> female members of the family. Jesus, though, was always breaking glass ceilings, just as He was all for knocking down walls too.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Jesus, in ways that may be hard for us to understand in our day and age – or <b><u>SHOULD</u></b> be hard for us to understand – Jesus made a not so subtle remark in the manner of Ginger Rogers. When she was compared to Fred Astaire, you’ll remember, she said she did exactly what she did, except backwards and in high heels!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Jesus, to a crowd which may not have realised what hit it, Jesus not only said that this Gospel message was for everyone to understand how inclusive it was. Jesus also said that women were not mute slaves, but that they were intelligent; they could figure out things for themselves; their had a right to their own opinions. Not only that, they had a right to engage one another in disputes. They had not only a right, but a responsibility to dispute others, to debate them, to prove them wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Living the life of the Gospel can be intensely difficult, said Jesus, and it was and is <b><u>BOUND</u></b> to create tension, to cause fights and hurt feelings. In fact, as we know all too well, in our own day and age, living the Gospel can divide families in ways which can be tremendously painful.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> One of the really disturbing things about this, though, is that nowhere do we read of Jesus saying, “Knock it off! Some of you have to be subservient to the others, so don’t think about things too much.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Actually, Jesus said that <b><u>EVERYONE</u></b> is to be servant to everyone else. As the passages from the last few weeks have shown, we’ve to be agents of God’s love to everyone we meet. We’ve to take absolutely seriously the charge to reach out across every possible boundary, knocking them down, if possible, making sure that no one will be left out of the party.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Of course this will tick people off! I can guarantee it,” said Jesus. “You’re going to go home all fired up because of something you heard or saw – at a movie, at a lecture, at a class, gosh – maybe even at church! – you’re going to go home <b><u>SO</u></b> fired up that the minute you walk in the door you can’t wait to share the news. That’s when the fan starts distributing stuff all over the place. “How dare you talk to me like that! I’ve paid for your schooling, or your clothing, or your shelter; I’ve out myself out for you, and you come in thinking you can say and do what you like?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It’s such a familiar scene. It always <b><u>HAS</u></b> been, and Jesus experienced it first- hand. “Get out of there! Shut up! You’re crazy! Do you have any idea how this is making us look?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> And Jesus just smiled.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Good,” He may have said. “You heard what I said.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The Gospel <b><u>IS</u></b> that radical. If it doesn’t get us worked up in pleasure or in pain, they we may be missing the point. Families will, inevitably, disagree, even banish one another or force one or the other to leave. The Gospel, of course, doesn’t encourage picking fights, or disrespecting people, putting them down. Exactly the opposite. It’s supposed to draw us together with God and one another. Yet nowhere, nowhere, does it <b><u>EVER</u></b> say that we have to abandon what we consider to be the prime directive to love, simply in order to keep the peace. If we are forced into serious, even strident debate, then we must speak the truth in love. We must talk of Jesus’ Gospel-telling ministry and not name-call, not lie, not demean, but speak the truth and seek the opinion of others in the hope that we and they together can meet Jesus, hear Jesus, see Jesus, even in the midst of a scorching debate.</span></p></div></body></html>