<html><body>Here's what I have for this Sunday, when we celebrate All Saints.<div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY THE SUNDAY
AFTER ALL SAINTS’ DAY (C)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">DANIEL
7:1-3, 15-18
6<sup>th</sup> NOVEMBER, 2016<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">EPHESIANS
1:11-23
PSALM 149<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">LUKE 6:
2-31<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> In the late sixties I sang in a
choir that made a short tour. We went to several cities, giving concerts in
churches, and one of the songs I remember doing was called, “Good news”. The
refrain before and after every verse was “Hey! Hey! Anybody listening?” <sup>1</sup>
The point that the author of the lyrics was trying to get across is that
there’s much in the Gospel, much in the whole Bible and in life, that requires
our closest attention. We can’t afford to be selective. When you hear the words
it usually sticks, for a while, at least. One performance sticks in my mind,
though.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> The song gets loud in places and in
others it quiets down. Nobody noticed that two people towards the back of the
audience were talking through much of the concert. They were engrossed in their
own words that they seemed quite unaware of anything else. And when that song
ended with the words, “Anybody listening?” their voices carried loudly
throughout the room. It was as if the choir and the rest of the audience
weren’t there.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> I bring this up because what jumped
out at me from this morning’s Gospel verses were the words of Jesus, “</span><span lang="X-NONE" style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000;mso-ansi-language:X-NONE">But to you who are listening I say</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";color:#080000"> …”.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> What did He
mean? He’d been talking for quite some time. Whether what He’d said was as
highly polished as the report we have in the Gospel today doesn’t matter. He’d
been talking. You’d expect that He’d be given <b><u>SOME</u></b> respect, by at least some of the people.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Then, all of a
sudden, He said, “Hey! Hey! Anybody listening? Here’s what you have to hear, to
learn, to make a part of every ounce of your body, mind and soul. Love your
enemies. Do good to those who hate you. Absorb that!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Just think what
might have happened over the last eighteen or twenty-four months if everyone in
this country had listened to this! Everyone!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> What a
tremendous judgement that is, “… to you who are listening…”. But this is
exactly what we need to hear, again, and again, and again. Clergy and laity in
church; everyone who used to go to church but who has been hurt, abused, and
has stopped attending church; everyone who’s never considered going to church,
or temple or synagogue because of what’s perceived as irrelevant hypocrisy.
“Listen up!” Even on Jesus’ lips, perhaps especially on Jesus’ lips, it’s not a
throwaway line. No one can afford to let anything slip away that might bring us
healing, and energy, and hope. Not peace. Not a million dollars. Neither of
these are guaranteed. But a sense of belonging, of being on the journey towards
wholeness, a sense that, despite doubts and questions, we’ll be enabled to
overcome in everything that matters – if we listen and allow ourselves to
wrestle with what Jesus’ words mean – <b><u>THAT’S</u></b>
what’s important. And, at the heart of it all, is this. “Love your enemies. Do
good to those who hate you.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> The most
incredible thing about the Christian life, as Jesus pointed it out, is not that
we are to be nice to our families, or to be sure to remember our friends at
Thanksgiving, or to treat the dog or the cat with kindness. Usually, most of us
can manage that. It’s the folk that get our goat; it’s the people that say
outlandish things; it’s the family member, or the pet, or the friend who seems
to know exactly how to wreck the most joyful occasion; <b><u>THEY</u></b> are the ones on whom we’re to lavish attention, and
find ways to offer a compliment, and forgive – time after time.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Am I listening
to that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Are you
listening to that?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Will you help
me, will I help you, to be quiet, to be respectful enough to absorb what Jesus
says? <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> Now we’re given
some incentive in this. Jesus said that, if we do our best to put into practice
what He offers us, then we’ll be blessed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif";
color:#080000"> A blessing is
that gift which enables us to understand that we’re on the right track, no
matter what’s happening or being said around us. A blessing is the feeling deep
in the core of our being when we experience love which seems so strong that we
can face anything, and, at the same time, which enables us to relax, to let
down our defences. And it’s probably in that state of grace in which we allow
ourselves to open up, to hear with our hearts and souls, that we can begin to
love our enemies, to do good to those who hate us.</span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> We’ve heard so often that it’s not
easy to be a Christian, especially in a culture which prizes talking over
listening, pressing one’s self forward rather than drawing the other out. Jesus
knows, life can be so hard sometimes. We want to blurt out when we hear
something which seems to contradict us. If we’ve been told something often
enough, we tend to begin to accept it without question, so if another person,
people of another nation, suggest a different route, then it grates on us and
we have to do a serious job of tongue-biting just to keep calm enough to ask
ourselves whether or not Jesus would have said or done that under those
circumstances.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""> You know, it might be really helpful
to us if we celebrated All Saints’ Day every day. Certainly, we might run the
risk of becoming too blasé about it, but we need to think about all those whose
lives, whose behaviour, whose words have had such an impact on us. Some of
those folk rub shoulders with us often – in the office, at a coffee shop, on
the internet, at Diocesan Convention. Others we may never have met, but
newspaper and magazine articles, even Facebook entries that have been reposted
thousands of times, these can make us stop, make us look, make us listen, make
us think, “Wow! Did she say that? Did she take that criticism, those vilely
demeaning words and deeds? Did he smile in that infectious way so often that it
began to draw others to listen themselves?”<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><br></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif""><br></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;line-height:
normal"><br></p></div></body></html>