<html><body><div>Here is the first part of my draft for revision for this Sunday.</div><div><br></div><div>Peace!</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. ALBANY, ALBANY <span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>THE DAY OF PENTECOST a</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ACTS 2:1-21<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>4<sup>th</sup> JUNE, 2017</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>1 CORINTHIANS 12:3b-13<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 104:25-35, 37</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JOHN 20:19-23</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>“Apostolic Succession!”</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>Already, I think I can sense some of you sitting up a little straighter, possibly, if I saw correctly, leaning forward just a little as if you’re eager to hear what comes next, as if already, after just two words, you’re starting to get excited.</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>“Apostolic Tradition!” </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;'>Two more words. This is going to be good! I can hardly wait myself.</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;'>“Historic Episcopate!” How’s that?</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 I should back up 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;'>Back in January, a document was issued by a group appointed from The Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church. <sup>1</sup> This group, in one form or another, has been engaged in serious conversations for the last fifteen years. They’re studying what it is that lies at the heart of each denomination, what is distinctive. Finally, the group produced a paper which it commends to the appropriate committees and, ultimately, after 2020, to the denominational conventions. The group asks for frank and open exchanges both within each denomination and also between members of each denomination. And, yes, Apostolic Succession, Apostolic Tradition and the Historic Episcopate may figure in what we say to one another. But the hopeful note sounded by representatives echoes what Paul write to the Corinthian Christians. As the paper says, “Our unity is … grounded in our common baptism” which derived from the prayer, the command of Jesus that we all be one.</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;'>Not Jesus, not Paul, not the formers of January’s document even hint at the idea of uniformity. Each speaks, in fact, about the diversity of the gifts with which the Holy Spirit has invested in us. Nor is there a suggestion that one person, one group, has necessarily “got it wrong”. Each of us is affirmed as being “sealed by the Holy Spirit in Baptism and marked as Christ’s own forever”, <sup>2</sup> no matter how different we may appear, how individually we may act, how distinctively we may talk.</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 continue to be surprised by the passage from the Book of the Acts of the Apostles as I read or hear about the incredible mixture of ethnic groups who were described as being present to hear Peter and the other disciples talking about the Loving Power of God, and how God, from the very beginning, has been working to ensure that we recognize the common relationships that we all share.</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;'>Fifty days after the resurrection of Jesus, God enabled the Gospel message to be proclaimed and heard in terms of who the people were. It wasn’t a matter of these disciples – apostles now, actually, because they were sent out, dismissed in the Power of the Spirit; it wasn’t a matter if any of the apostles saying, well, if you all take classes and get your English up to speed, God will speak to you in three or four weeks.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></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;'>Of course, this hasn’t stopped any people trying to <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>SAY</u></b> that. Conform to the way we act, or speak, and so one, and we’ll consider letting you be part of who and what we are. But that’s the opposite of what the scripture passages say. God’s Love was and is so incredibly strong that the people who were present then, just as people who are present today, are affirmed Beloved just as they were and are, no matter <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WHAT</u></b> the differences.</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 document that the United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church will be studying and discussing emphasizes this quite strongly. “<span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10);">We seek the greater unity between our two churches because we believe this is a mandate grounded in Scripture. Jesus calls us into unity for the sake of mission and ministry, so that the world may believe:</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“‘I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>those who will believe in me through their word, that</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>they may all be one’ (John 17:20-21a).</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“Our unity is also grounded in our common baptism:</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>“‘There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).” <sup>3</sup></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It’s a wonderful thing to discover, or re-discover, how much we share with one another. What we hear and see in the world around us tends to concentrate on what divides us. And, of course, this is what sells just about everything from food, to toothpaste, to clothes, we’re shown pictures of people who seem to look alike, act alike, think alike, but it’s done in such a way as to draw a contrast with other individuals, other groups. Books, magazines, newspapers, TV and radio – they all thrive on pointing out things that not only differentiate one from another but also engender fear. If someone reaches a conclusion that’s different from ours; if someone organises his or her life, or worship, or hopes and dreams on different principles, we’re ;led to believe that, somehow, there’s something suspect, something dangerous about such a person or group.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I mean, who <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ARE</u></b> those Methodists? Why should we bother with them? </span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 10); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><br></span></span></p></div></body></html>