<html><body><div>Greetings again!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><font face="Arial" size="2"> But then, just in case, there was that famous altar dedicated to “the unknown god”.</font><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>So often there are things humans don’t understand. We <b><u>DO</u></b> understand the concept of sacrificial giving. We <b><u>DO</u></b> understand the concepts of discipline and commitment. Yet we don’t, we <b><u>CAN’T</u></b>, know everything about God, not everything we <b><u>THINK</u></b> we <b><u>WANT</u></b> to know. We, just like the Athenians, to some extent, are drawn to worship this God of whom we know very little and understand less. And yet, like Paul’s audience, we <b><u>DO</u></b> know the basics. Our God, whom we worship, is Love personified. Our God isn’t capricious, regardless of our behavior. Our God doesn’t exact tributes out of fear. Our God became a human being. Our God knows what it’s like to be exasperated, but loves us anyway. Our God knows how much pain we can inflict on one another and how frequently, but loves us anyway. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Our God knows more, though. Our God knows that we struggle, but that we try our best to figure out just how to fulfil the commandment to love. Our God is incredibly patient, and waits with longing, hoping that the penny will drop, and that we’ll actually perceive the Spirit who not only gives courage, but helps us chip away at all the things which divide us.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>God the Spirit <b><u>DOES</u></b> work within and beside us, looking for that moment of recognition when we can and do turn from unknowing God’s Love to actually living in it, and living it out in so many practical ways.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Jesus said, quite plainly, not only that we wouldn’t be able to see Him all the time, but also that we cannot leave everything to Him to do. Life here, life with our ever-increasing circle of neighbours, life here is now in our hands. How we and everyone else interact <b><u>IS</u></b> up to us. </span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Maryann Younger, who’s pursuing a degree in theology and trying to sense where the Spirit may be leading her, wrote, summarizing the commandments whose centrality in our lives define what our Love is like, “</span><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Here’s what we stand for: we stand for the dignity of every person. We stand for loving each other, and especially those who aren’t like us. We stand for a loving inclusive God who is all about standing with the oppressed and the marginalized. It’s that whole Matthew 22:37-40 statement about loving God and loving each other.</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“But here’s the thing – we need to do more than <i>stand</i> for something. We need to move with it, too. It is not enough to wait for folks to walk through our door and to make sure they have a good experience when they arrive. (Make no mistake, that initial experience is really important, but let’s save that discussion for another day.)” <sup>1</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Maryanne admits that we all, her included, have hurt people; have kept them at a distance; haven’t really listened. We’ve hurt people by tying church and church life up in things that have no basis in the teaching of Jesus. She suggests that, in trying to get back to the basics of what Jesus and the early church were about, we need to think about our promise to break bread, to share, to experience Jesus in our lives through the most simple, yet deliberate acts.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>From my reading of the past week, here are few ideas to stimulate our thoughts.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“</span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>A <span style="margin: 0px;">fridge</span> in a market in south London is offering <span style="margin: 0px;">food</span> for <span style="margin: 0px;">free</span> in a bid to tackle waste.</span><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>“If you're hungry, come and use the fridge. If you see something you like, help yourself. We see a lot of food going to waste, (said the market owner,) then we collect it from suppliers, from all sorts of sources - markets, restaurants, lots of good food.” <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>How do we do more with this than simply take a stand? How do we move with 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>“This woman goes to a ‘dumping ground’ (in a community in Texas) to find abandoned dogs every day — and these are the dogs she's saved.” <sup>3</sup> She doesn’t ever stop, no matter how many she’s found and rescued and taken for veterinary care.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>How do we do more with this than simply take a stand? How do we move with it?</span></p><p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Ms. Florence Nasar, a twenty-seven year old “artist and a dancer, … has recently been hosting interfaith events between Syrian Jews and Syrian Muslim refugees, eager to explore their shared heritage. Out of her own interest in understanding people, she had met someone.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Ms. Nasar was one of about 100 guests at a series of intimate Jewish-Muslim dinners that took place last weekend around Manhattan and Brooklyn to build interfaith understanding. She said, ‘I really liked the idea that friendship and common ground naturally emerges from sharing food together.’” <sup>4 </sup>And this is going on not just in New York City, but across the nation. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>How do we do more with this than simply take a stand? How do we move with it?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Seven-hundred and fifty years ago or more, Ibn Arabi wrote:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: red; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>My heart has become capable of every form:<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It is a pasture for gazelles<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And a monastery for Christian monks,<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And a temple for idols,<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And the pilgrim's Ka'ba,<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And the tablets of the Torah,<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And the book of the Koran.<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I follow the religion of Love:<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Whatever way love's camel takes,<b><br></b><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>that is my religion, my faith.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><sup>5</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>How do we do more with this than simply take a stand? How do we move with it?</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>All of this, just like the Gospel, should be at least a bit unsettling, as well as exhilarating. But we’ll be O.K.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>The Holy Spirit will be checking in on us!</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>So, let’s not forget to break bread together. </span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; 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";'><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";'><span style="margin: 0px;"><font size="2"> </font></span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><font size="2">“My Dear Episcopal Church” </font></i><font size="2">in </font><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:normal"><font size="2">“Episcopal Café</font></i><font size="2">”, 14</font><sup><font size="2">th</font></sup><font size="2"> May, 2017, by Maryann Younger </font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font size="2"> </font></span><a href="http://www.episcopalcafe.com/my-dear-episcopal-church/"><font color="#0563c1" size="2">http://www.episcopalcafe.com/my-dear-episcopal-church/</font></a><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></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><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiL48P6kPDTAhVO4GMKHVicCtkQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fav%2F39642662%2Fhelp-yourself-the-fridge-with-free-food&usg=AFQjCNHhgPVSpbV4waW-qbynuZYjjdOvBg" target="_blank"><font color="#0563c1">https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwiL48P6kPDTAhVO4GMKHVicCtkQFggiMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bbc.com%2Fnews%2Fav%2F39642662%2Fhelp-yourself-the-fridge-with-free-food&usg=AFQjCNHhgPVSpbV4waW-qbynuZYjjdOvBg</font></a> <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p><h6 style="margin-top:0in;line-height:normal;background:white;vertical-align:
middle"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><i><font color="#243f60">3</font></i></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><i><font color="#243f60"> </font></i></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;'><font color="#243f60">“</font><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DodoImpact/?hc_ref=PAGES_TIMELINE&fref=nf"><span style="margin: 0px; color: windowtext;">Dodo Impact</span></a><font color="#243f60">”</font></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><font color="#243f60"><i> </i></font><span style="margin: 0px;"><font color="#243f60"><i> </i></font></span></span></span><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DodoImpact/videos/1690228767660876/"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(36, 63, 96); text-decoration: none;"><i>May 13 at 11:13am</i></span></span></a><font color="#243f60"><i> </i></font></span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="https://www.facebook.com/DodoImpact/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf"><i><font color="#0563c1">https://www.facebook.com/DodoImpact/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED&fref=nf</font></i></a></span></h6><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;'>4</span></span><i><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Muslims and Jews Break Bread, and Build Bonds” </span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>By <a title="More Articles by SHARON OTTERMAN" href="https://www.nytimes.com/by/sharon-otterman"><span style="margin: 0px; color: black; text-decoration: none;">SHARON OTTERMAN</span></a> </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MAY 12, 2017</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><a href="http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6pghfX2HXfSzxRpdoyDWYNW/jSXUIvzWmPkzwae5ZjXCElYuwNxpC7oXKjBUrmdijvJ32TohHTThOIbCZY91LHgnGQ2EfFaLmWM+RD9Bku2M7TKZerT32YR1itFwn/fS1OmWBfQbLY5rsS5oBNJLUMdYOF6hTDrmZgTDsIbRkeAOSh6zGxtSPpe/AO6eEmryMJGVypokOY2BsB1Aa3f9NPwZizsh2LF/k0=&campaign_id=61&instance_id=97358&segment_id=108091&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7®i_id=63205127"><font color="#0563c1" size="2">http://p.nytimes.com/email/re?location=pMJKdIFVI6pghfX2HXfSzxRpdoyDWYNW/jSXUIvzWmPkzwae5ZjXCElYuwNxpC7oXKjBUrmdijvJ32TohHTThOIbCZY91LHgnGQ2EfFaLmWM+RD9Bku2M7TKZerT32YR1itFwn/fS1OmWBfQbLY5rsS5oBNJLUMdYOF6hTDrmZgTDsIbRkeAOSh6zGxtSPpe/AO6eEmryMJGVypokOY2BsB1Aa3f9NPwZizsh2LF/k0=&campaign_id=61&instance_id=97358&segment_id=108091&user_id=13776d46e58cd1c84bbfacad680c03b7®i_id=63205127</font></a></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></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;'>5</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span> Ibn Arabi 1165-1240<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>for biographical information see <span style="margin: 0px; color: red;"><a href="http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/treasureofcompassion.html"><font color="#0563c1">http://www.ibnarabisociety.org/articles/treasureofcompassion.html</font></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span>See also<span style="margin: 0px; color: red;"> <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Arabi-Selected-Poems/dp/1480181536/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494877392&sr=1-4&keywords=ibn+arabi"><font color="#0563c1">https://www.amazon.com/Ibn-Arabi-Selected-Poems/dp/1480181536/ref=sr_1_4?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1494877392&sr=1-4&keywords=ibn+arabi</font></a></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 13px;"><span style='margin: 0px; line-height: 115%; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p></div><div><br></div></body></html>