<html><body>Part 2<div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“</span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">There is a wonderful two-line short story by Franz Kafka, more or less like this:<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “‘One day a leopard came stalking into the synagogue, roaring and lashing its tail.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “‘Three weeks later, it had become part of the liturgy.’<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Our task,” wrote Rabbi Arthur Waskow, “in every generation, every year, is to let the leopard out of the cage of liturgy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “Scary, and full of life.” <sup>3</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> If the same thing happens in our lives, if the same thing takes over, then it becomes established. We all know that if you say something often enough, if you say it loud enough, it takes on the aura of appropriateness, of truth. This is true for what we hold in our own hearts and minds as it does for the things we say and hear.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> In Kafka’s astute story, if the leopard is not quizzed about why it is present, about what its intentions are; if people simply shrug and accept it, by the second or third time it shows up it is no longer something exotic. I really like the analogy if this occurring in a liturgy. If a mistake is made, if something happens for two or three weeks in a row and no one stops to say, “Did you mean that?”; if no one says, “That’s not how it’s supposed to be”, then pretty soon, whether it’s right or completely wrong, it will be repeated and given the honour of respectability, even when the bishop comes in and says, “What on earth are you doing?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Whether it’s in worship, or in our lives at home, or our lives out in the community, we have to be on our guard for leopards. Seeing them, calling them out, pointing them out to others, is what brings healing and the possibility of renewal. This is what Jesus did for the people of His day, and this is what Jesus longs to do for us today. And, I think, especially in light of the Gospel story this morning, what Jesus prays we’ll develop is an attitude of gratitude.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Of the ten diseased people with whom Jesus interacted that day, all were made well. They’d been isolated, they’d been kept from living, working, playing with their families and friends. Or so we’ve been led to believe.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Scholars point out, however, that it was the local priest who made the diagnosis of such things as diseases which made a person “impure”. In other words “the disease is only a problem if the priest says it is.” <sup>4</sup> That’s why all ten were told to go back to see the priest, to have the proclamation lifted, to ensure that all could participate fully in community life once again. All except one, that is.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> One of them was a Samaritan – he was doubly beyond the pale of society, Even if he was healed, he was still unacceptable to the priest of Galilee or Judah. It was he, Jesus said in His story, it was this man who was overwhelmed by the feeling of gratitude that he had to turn back to give thanks to Jesus.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> What was the leopard in Jesus’ story? The nine fulfilled everything that was required of them. They could live fully in this life. But was their leopard that they might well continue to live exactly as they had before, without any thought of looking beyond how they had lived, without any thought of interacting with more and more people, with different people?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> The late Welsh poet and priest “R. S. Thomas writes, ‘<i>Life is not hurrying on to a receding future,/Nor hankering after an imagined past. /It is turning aside like Moses/ To the miracle of a lit bush</i>....’ Gratitude urges you to look twice at the same thing, and that second look penetrates to eternity.” <sup>5</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> That one person, one out of ten, turned aside to find out what might be done in life now that healing had been given. He saw the leopard, and discovered what it was, and put it away from the liturgy which is life, because it was preventing him from seeing God and for making God visible through him.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> I saw a brief video last week, almost as short as Kafka’s story.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “I’d like to help you.” A man talks to people on the street, in parks, in stores, in parking lots – so many places – and asks if he can do anything to help them.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> One response is, “Are you rich? You must have a lot of money to help people.” The man replies, “No, I don’t have a lot of money. But I have time.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">“Can I help anyone with anything?” he said.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> It sounds like Jesus. He comes over a rise on the dusty road, walking towards Jerusalem. It must have been for an important Festival. That’s when people made their journeys to the city with its Temple. Not that it was a bad place to visit, but people really made an effort for one of the High Hoy Days – like Rosh Hashanah last Sunday, or Yom Kippur – the Day of Atonement – on Tuesday evening.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “It’s such an unusual request,” the man thought, and he was right. Some people ignored him or didn’t engage him. Others said, “No thanks,” possibly wondering if he was nuts. He said that he came away from these encounters thinking, “Well, I’m not a nice guy. … People are suspicious and they don’t want to risk putting themselves in danger.” But a few took him up on it and were overwhelmingly grateful. He </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">Said, “It’s easy to help people, even to have a conversation with them, but we haven’t figured out how to go deeper.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> “People go through hard times and it takes someone to put themselves out there that will make a real difference. … We can’t say what is meaningful or not, because a small thing can have that butterfly effect.”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">What is the leopard in our lives – this morning? What needs healing? Might we listen to Jesus and take Him up on His offer? Might we find ourselves freed? Might we then free others?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> Why does Jesus seem to leave us with questions every time we turn around? Oh well, at least we don’t need to be afraid of anything or anyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><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; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><br></span></p><h3 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference">[1]</span></span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51); font-weight: normal;">StoryPeople 4<sup>th</sup> October 2016 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=4&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiTn_DXh8LPAhVRVWMKHZ9mCIcQFggxMAM&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.storypeople.com%2F&usg=AFQjCNHg8OiRQztZLTAP7aYwhYWr_QFv0w"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 153);">StoryPeople by Brian Andreas</span></a> </span><cite><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.storypeople.com/">www.storypeople.com/</a><o:p></o:p></span></cite></h3><h3 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h3><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">2</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>“Fear”</i> by Br. Mark Brown , SSJE, 5<sup>th</sup> October, 2016 <a href="http://ssje.org/word/?p=13040">http://ssje.org/word/?p=13040</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><br></p><h3 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">3</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"> Quoted by Rabbi Arthur Waskow in<i> “</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-weight: normal;"><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwi93bvTosfPAhURxWMKHZb8Bj0QFggoMAI&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.huffingtonpost.com%2Frabbi-arthur-waskow%2Fisaiah-kafka-the-leopard-_b_705225.html&usg=AFQjCNFxBAJ94LAFCKFRhd8hzVIYcECYhQ"><span style="color: rgb(128, 0, 153);">Isaiah and Subersive Prayer: Thoughts for Yom Kippur | Huffington Post</span></a>” </span></i><cite><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-weight: normal; font-style: normal;"><a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.../isaiah-kafka-the-leopard-_b_70522">www.huffingtonpost.com/.../isaiah-kafka-the-leopard-_b_70522</a>...<o:p></o:p></span></cite></h3><h3 style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></h3><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">4</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>“The Meaning of the Bible”</i> by Douglas A. Knight and Amy-Jill Levine. HaperCollins, New Your © 2011. Page 184.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoFootnoteText" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; line-height: normal;"><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;">5</span></span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif;"> <i>“</i></span><i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">At the Edge of the Enclosure: Soulwork Toward Sunday: Self-Guided Retreat”</span></i><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);"> </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">Proper 23 (Year C) </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">October 9, 2016 </span><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; color: rgb(0, 0, 51);">“gratitude and insight” Suzanne Guthrie <a href="http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper23c.html">http://www.edgeofenclosure.org/proper23c.html</a></span></p></div></body></html>