<html><body><div>Here's the first part for tomorrow.</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>THE
EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>3 ADVENT a</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ISAIAH
35:1-10 <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>11<sup>th</sup>
DECEMBER, 2016</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JAMES
5:7-10<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>CANTICLE 15
(MAGNIFICAT)</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW
11:2-11</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I read a report the other week which
touched me quite strongly. The story was published first just a few days after
Christmas, last year.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>A
photo of several stray dogs sleeping in a Greek Cafe is touching hearts all
over the world. The tired pooches are pictured passed out on cushioned benches
and chairs, really all over the place. The pups didn’t sneak their way in, but
rather were invited by open doors after the shop closed down that night.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“The
cafe, Hott Spott in Mytilene, Lesbos, opens its doors every night so that local
stray dogs have place to sleep. They have been running this little pet motel
since July, and have no plans of putting these pups back out into the cold.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“Antonis,
a waiter at the cafe, said, ‘In the city there are many dogs. When the bar closes
each night, the dogs come and sleep here. We don’t have a problem. From July,
every night there is a dog on the couch.’” <sup>1</sup></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>What
an amazing thing of which to read, especially in December – either last year,
when the story was written, or this year, when we know what it’s like to be
cold, and wet, and, possibly, chased from any spot of shelter one might find!</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>We
know how so many people love animals, especially their pets. We know how far
we’ll go to care for them, whenever we possibly can. Yet this stops, sometimes,
when the animal isn’t our own, or one we know. Oh, yes, we can be fairly
generous in making gifts to SafeHaven and other shelters. But to open the doors
of a café to let street-living dogs in for the night? I find that marvelous. It
means that someone cares <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b>
much for these animals that he or she is willing to put up with whatever
comments may be made by folk in the community.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>In
this case, there don’t appear to be any. Maybe the town’s folk say that the
owner of the café is a little soft in the head. Maybe they tease him or her.
But there’s no mention whatsoever of anyone boycotting that café.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>The
owner is willing to take responsibility for any damage or wear and tear that
may result from the canine lodging, yet, equally strangely, no mention is made
of that in the article either. I wonder if the dogs realise what is being done
to and for them that they, in turn, settle down for the night to recoup their
energy, to find some health and strength, and respect what’s been given them.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>It
seems that everyone wins.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>What
was it that Jesus said to John the Baptist’s disciples? “Go and tell John what
you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are
cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought
to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>John’s
been having a miserable time. Many of those on the margins of society – the
sick who have no one to care for them; the poor who can barely scrape together
a meagre meal once a day; those who realise how much they’ve been abusing both
their own and other’s lives – John had preached hope to them. But he ran into
such horrendous difficulties with the authorities, who’d come to spy on him and
harass him for the way that he felt he was fulfilling God’s call to him. Kind
of like the city ordinance here which fines both a person receiving <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>AND</u></b> the person giving some sort
of tangible aid at the side of the street or through a car window.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>This
is, probably another issue for another time, but think about if and how it ties
in with the ministry of John.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>John
may well have been wondering what on earth he’d been doing, trying to call the
nation’s people to live in hope and to make a commitment to God to wait for the
Love of God to bring resolution for people’s lives. When law enforcement
finally caught up with him and their embarrassment<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>became too great for them to tolerate, they
hauled him off to jail. They did what authorities did for centuries before and
have continued to do for centuries afterwards. They tried to shut John down.
His message of hope, of peace, of the coming of God’s Anointed One, was too
troubling, and when it was coupled with attacks on the way that folk were being
harassed and mistreated – well, that was too much, and John was shut down.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>So
he sent his closest friends to Jesus in anguish, wanting to know whether his
life had been a total misunderstanding.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Back
came the words I quoted already – about the blind, the lame, the seriously
sick, the deaf, the dead, the poor. “Those with no hope, the very ones for whom
you had so much compassion, John,” said Jesus. “They have not been forgotten.
They <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WILL NOT</u></b> be forgotten.
They will always have my attention.”<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>And
then Jesus turned to those who were sort of hanging around. They weren’t quite
party members. They weren’t sure whether or not they wanted to put their trust
in Jesus, no matter what they may have seen and heard about the needs of the
community and the way he was addressing them. Jesus confronted them and asked
them bluntly, “What’s your motivation in life? What do you do with your time?
How do you use your resources? How do you interact with those whom you meet, or
try not to meet? Why did you bother with John?”</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Now
that last one must have stung! Jesus was on the point of saying that they were
there for the spectacle, as long as they could go home afterwards and try to
wipe out the memory of those folk who listened to John, who went into the
Jordan beside him and asked for renewal for their lives.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>And
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THIS</u></b> is Jesus, pushing the crowd
so early in His ministry! He was asking them to make a decision, a commitment,
not so much to Him, although that was important. He was asking them to make a
commitment to themselves, to find the truth within themselves, to find the
Divine Spark, that reflection of God’s Love which was within them all, but
needed to be coaxed and allowed to come to the surface.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 11px;"><br></p>
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