<html><body><div>Part two of the draft for Sunday.</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;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Anyhow, whatever about this, I realize how dangerous those gatherings are. Sooner or later the whole movement may get to the ears of the officials.”<sup> 2</sup></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>Surely this is the point of the Gospel Jesus taught, especially the verses we heard this morning. We have to remember, all the time, the apparent contradiction that’s present. On the one hand, there’s the incredible reassurance of God’s love. No one lies outside the reach of God to embrace and reassure. No one, regardless of who she or he is, no one is beyond the desire of God to include in the wonderful blessing ceremony which is life.</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>As difficult and strange as it may seem, somehow even today we’re tempted to think, and sometimes act, as if certain outward signs indicate an absence of the inward spiritual grace which is God’s loving gift. We think of, or look at, those we term, less-well-off. We may not care for the way they dress; or their access to anything we take for granted, like a well-coiffed head of hair, for instance, or some such physical sign.</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>One way or another, we can so easily classify others as impoverished. We may even feel a certain degree of [pity for them, but it seems to take more effort than I or you feel we can muster to make plain that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>EVERYONE</u></b> is blessed.</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;'>The historical scene depicted in sixteenth and seventeenth century Japan may seem to come from another planet, as far as our experience goes. Yet not only were privileged people intensely rigid and controlling then, the same thing exists today, in our own culture.</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;'>The call to the church, if it will listen, the call echoing off the hillside where Jesus sat two thousand years ago, is that God’s will is to provide for everyone. God’s love is so intensely practical that whether one is side-lined because of physical or emotional circumstances or, indeed, by any other factor. God’s endless love is to be proclaimed by word and action by everyone in the Body of Christ – everyday! <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WE</u></b>, you and I, are to be the means of assuring people that they are the recipients of God’s grace.</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 the contradictory note comes in the form of a warning. Jesus didn’t offer condemnation in these verses, at least, in Matthew’s version of them. <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Yet there is definitely a strong word which implies that we can, and do, think of ourselves as being above and beyond those who live on the edge of life, or the fringes of our social group, and so on.</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;'>There is, undoubtedly, a wonderful note of compassion in Jesus’ sermon. But there is always what Endo described in the words of Fr. Sebastian, a note about “How dangerous those gatherings are. Sooner or later the whole movement may get to the ears of the officials.”</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;'>Jesus knew that what He said, what He did, what He told the people was incredibly revolutionary. Yet He kept preaching. He kept teaching. He kept trying to reassure them people that the Gospel He brought wasn’t merely a nice collection of stories to help people sleep better at night. </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;'>These are stories, yes. But they are stories, as we’ll pray in the parish hall at the annual meeting; these are stories designed to “arouse the careless” as well as reassure each of us.</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;'>You and I should be under surveillance by all sorts of authorities because of what we say and do to ensure that everyone in this area of Albany is blessed. You and I <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>SHOULD</u></b> be on a watch list until such time as those who compile such lists realise that they too <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>MUST</u></b> be part of the programme of blessing, and not of cursing.</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;'>Consider what is recited on many civic occasions – “Liberty and justice for all.” Is that there? Is that in place? Is it practiced, by us, by everyone?</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;'>What if we recited, every time we gathered as members of this congregation; what if we said we “act justly, love loyalty and walk humbly with God”? And what if those were more than words?</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;'>I <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>KNOW </u></b>it’s not always easy to answer that, but what if, every day, we were to examine ourselves and to say, “I will be a blessing today by consciously thinking about justice, loyalty and humility for everyone in God’s Name.”?</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;'>Maybe what we ought to do – and don’t groan – may what we could do is to have another congregational meeting, not restricted by time or talk of finances, a meeting in which we can think out loud about how we can live the Gospel in a visible, blessing way, regardless of how dangerous or troublesome this may be.</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;'>What if … ?</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;'>What if we had the courage and faith of those Japanese peasants four hundred years ago?</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;'>What if … ?</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;'>We need to ask this – often!</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;'>NOTES:</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;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>[1]</span></span></span></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“</i></b><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">Amos and Micah”</i> by John Marsh. S.C.M. Press Ltd., London, ©1959. Pages 81-2.</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;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>2</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Letter of Sebastian Rodrigues”</i> in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal">“Silence”</i> by Shusaku Endo, translated by William Johnston. Taplinger Publishing Company, New York. © 1969. Pages 43-44</span></p></div></body></html>