<html><body><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Here's part 1 of the draft for tomorrow.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Bob</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><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>THE
SECOND SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY a</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ISAIAH
49:1-7<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>15<sup>th</sup>
JANUARY, 2017</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>1
CORINTHIANS 1:1-9<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 40:1-12</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JOHN1:29-42</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>What a weird looking sheep that is
in the bulletin illustration! <sup>1 </sup><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I have to admit I did a bit of double-take
myself when I saw it. I can hear people saying, “Couldn’t you have found a
better looking animal. I mean, something like ones we have around here –
fuller-coated, better looking heads. I mean, c’mon!”</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>But maybe that’s the point. Seldom
does Jesus – God’s Anointed One – seldom does Jesus look as we expect and
anticipate. If He did, we’d be all over Him, smiling, laughing at whatever He
said, crowding around Him, basking in the glow of being welcomed by Him. We’d
be willing to run for anything He asked, and to fetch whatever it was, anything
– from a glass of water, to a pillow, to the folk from the next street over.</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>But there’s something a little odd
about Jesus. He’d never pass a screen test, not even for one of the old
biblical epics. He’d probably get bounced off a plane – He might not even make
it through the TSA screening at the front door of any airport.</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 mean, call that a sheep? It’s like
a horse whose mother wouldn’t really love it.</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>And yet. And yet, there’s something
about it. It’s an ancient mosaic, for one thing, so you have to get over the
artistic style. And look at those eyes – so full of wisdom and understanding,
yet already sensing loneliness, and rejection, and pain. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THIS</u></b> is what the early church came up with when people
thought of the Lamb of God.</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>Perhaps it’s as well that we find
ourselves taken aback by this illustration. The words, the music that we use
week-in-week-out can make things so, well, so easy. We lose the pain of the
title, we don’t remember the fact that lambs were sacrificed. The words seem to
trip off our tongues with almost the same formality as, “I’ll have a latte.” We
lose the enormity of the call that Jesus accepted.</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>We need to see things with rough
edges, with less than ideal ovine characteristics, just as John’s disciples saw
this non-descript figure. It took two days, two separate remarks by John before
the two disciples took any notice and were able to pick Him out in the crowd
and, finally, to follow Jesus to check Him out.</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>The really strange thing about
Jesus’ ministry is that He might not have been noticed much if people hadn’t
started to follow and hang around Him.</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>“Was it something I said?” comes to
mind as an expression Jesus might have used when He saw those two very young
men tailing Him through the village market, or along the shore. In fact, that
was probably just about all that Andrew and his friend may have had to have
gone on: John’s words and whatever Jesus may have said or done.</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>“Take me at my word,” comes to mind.
Not what anyone in her or his right mind would do regarding a politician
without a heck of a lot of explanation, research and example on which to base
our opinion and trust.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>But, somehow, something gripped the minds of
these two young men. Something persuaded them, after at least twenty-four hours
of thought; something persuaded them to follow behind Jesus for a bit.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>How
often does that happen, though? If you’re really lucky, you and I may have such
an experience once, maybe twice in a lifetime. Something about a person,
something about a location, something about an event touches our hearts and
really excites us, really calms us, really brings a feeling that, even in this
world, this experience is as perfect as we’ll ever find.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>It’s
not to say that there will never be questions. These are bound to come up. In
fact, asking questions and having them answered may only increase our pleasure
and acceptance of such an experience. Having someone who, for a reason we can’t
quite understand, we feel we can trust implicitly, no matter what else is going
on; having that miraculous moment is not that common, but when we have it it’s
so settling, so comforting, so exciting that we simply go with it, or with him,
or with her.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>It
may be that your church life hasn’t been smooth. You and I may decide to try
another denomination, another congregation, and, suddenly, something clicks. We
may not even know how or what it is, but we feel that we’re home. We’re going
to be fed. We’re going to be stimulated.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>That’s
how the greatest number of people in The Episcopal Church become members.
That’s what happened to me. That’s possibly what happened to many of you.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>And
that’s only one part of our lives. Think of all the other commitments we’ve
made, and how they’ve affected our lives. </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Did
Andrew and that other disciple of John the Baptist’s have any of those
feelings? Who knows? They may have looked the first time, perhaps not been able
to pick out from the crowd exactly of whom John had been speaking. They may
have seen a market place, or a river bank, or some other place filled with
pretty non-descript people. Possibly there was no one whom you or I might have
picked out at a party and thought, “<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THERE’S</u></b>
an interesting person. I want to hear what <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>HE</u></b>
has to say. I like the looks of Him.”<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>In
fact, if the way we look at that sheep in the bulletin description strikes us
today is anything like the person to whom John drew attention, then we might
even have wanted to back away from Jesus. He may have looked too ungainly, too
much like the last person – perhaps not even like John himself, in his own,
wild-eyed, long-haired, roughly-dressed way.</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></span></p></body></html>