<html><body>I forgot to post this when I finished the draft. Here's part 1<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 TWENTY-SIXTH SUNDAY
AFTER PENTECOST<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"">ISAIAH
65:17-25 PROPER 28 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"">2
THESSALONIANS 3:6-13 13<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"">LUKE
21:5-19 CANTICLE 9<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""> We – you and I, the country, the
human race – whoever – we’re going to Hell in a handbasket! I’m sure you’ve
heard of that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I
began to think about this before last Tuesday, so I was still fighting to keep
my head above water in the pre-election rhetoric. First one, then the other,
then the first one again and, of course, the other had to respond – it seems
that some people think that the best way to win an election – or get a point
across – is to scare people to death about how Satan will be roaming the
streets of Albany if one or the other candidate wins.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">I
think this may be as good a place as any to think about what God may be wanting
us to hear this weekend.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Amy-Jill
Levine wrote, “Jesus understood that God does not play by our rules. His God is
a generous God, who not only allows the sun to shine on both the just and the
unjust, but also gives us the ability to live into what <b><u>SHOULD</u></b> be rather than what is. (All Jesus’ conversations)
help us with their lessons about generosity: sharing joy, providing for others,
recognizing the potential of small investments” <sup>1</sup> So we’ve to learn
to tone down the rhetoric, to stop trying to scare folk to death. We all know –
Jesus knew – that you catch more flies with honey!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">“(Jesus’)
God wants us to be better than we are because we have the potential to be. We
are made but a little lower than the divine (Ps. 8.6; see Heb. 2.7); we should
start acting in a more heavenly matter. Those who pray, ‘Your kingdom come,’
might want to take some responsibility in the process, and so work in
partnership with God. We too are to seek the lost and make every effort to find
them. Indeed, we are not only to seek; we are to take notice of who might be
lost, even when immediately present.” <sup>2</sup><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">So
we can take courage. We can try to let scare tactics flow off our backs. We can
learn to hope again, no matter how desolate, and confused, and ruined the world
may appear.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But
the world, the media, all sorts of influences, work best when they can litter
our minds with terrorising pictures of what might happen. When we think again
of the quote that “God doesn’t play by our rules” we can see that time too is
under God’s jurisdiction. Just because things seem to be crashing in our lives,
we don’t need to panic.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Easier
said than done!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">There’s
a wonderful scene in the original “Star Trek” series in which the bridge crew
is being rendered incompetent by an overwhelming attack of fear. Dr McCoy
prepares some sort of a sedative shot that allows everyone to operate normally,
but completely without fear. Lieutenant Sulu laughs at McCoy and Captain Kirk
and responds, “I wouldn’t even be afraid of a Supernova!”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Jesus
has prepared just such an antidote for us so that we can move towards fixing
whatever situation troubles us. Of course, believe it or not, we live in
reality, not fantasy or science fiction, so people, places, situations <b><u>CAN</u></b> still <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"">impinge
on us. Fear, or at least anxiety, <b><u>IS</u></b>
something we need as humans to keep us on our guards against whatever may harm
us, but Jesus has prepared for us the FHL vaccine – Faith-Hope-Love. On these
three, people can lean. From these three, people can draw strength. With these
three, we can reach out to others. And it’s the mixture of these that we’re
asked to incorporate into our lives right now. It’s not a matter of waiting.
It’s so important that we get a shot so that we may learn to breathe again, before
we turn to help others. It’s like the pre-flight instructions on a plane: put
on your own oxygen mask – immerse yourself in FHL – before you help others get
theirs.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">One
of the problems with “Hell-in-a-handbasket” is that it’s designed to make us
see <span class="textexposedshow"><span style="background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">devils when
they’re not there. Yet there <b><u>ARE</u></b>
devils around.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span class="textexposedshow"><span style="font-size: 10pt; font-family: Arial, sans-serif; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial;">Of course, we all
think we have our own security blankets in order, those things that are at the
very core of our being. We all think we know what </span></span><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">gives stability.
We’ve been brought up by parents, relatives and communities to hold on to
certain values, to believe that we can always run to a certain person or place,
there will always be stability of one sort or another, and that there will be a
shelter for those times when we’re assailed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">The
Temple at Jerusalem was one such place, perhaps the primary place for Jews in
Jesus time, just as the Temple Wall and the Temple Mount are for both Jews and
Muslims today. Then, as now, anyone threatening to destroy that religious,
cultural and ethnic anchor-point can wreak havoc on people both there and
around the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">Perhaps
that’s why ISIS followers tear away religious and cultural landmarks; perhaps
that’s why people throughout the ages have taken deliberate action; perhaps
that’s why Native Americans’ Sacred Places are being desecrated with such
impunity. U.S. and Allied forces are included among those who destroy what lies
at the heart of people’s identities.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">But
Jesus said that no matter <b><u>WHAT</u></b>
happens, no matter what buildings, what ideologies, what sacred spaces are
invaded and threatened, nothing can take away the Love of God and the Desire of
God to bring us all home safely.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Arial","sans-serif"">This
is not to say that Jesus was egging on those who would destroy human lives and
property, just as no one should be egging on or excusing it today, not even
doing it surreptitiously and out of the public eye – not in the least. Jesus
was making sure that everyone understands that even when security of people and
place has gone, even when no institution can be trusted, sad to say, many times
not even the church; Jesus was saying that there is something deeper, something
stronger, something more precious even than what we think may be our places of
security.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;text-indent:
.5in;line-height:normal"><br></p></div></body></html>