<html><body><div>Here's Part 1 of my draft for this Sunday - I've had a two week break with others preaching, so now back into the fray!</div><div><br></div><div>Bob</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>THE FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>GENESIS
24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PROPER 9 a</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ROMANS
7:15-24a<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>9<sup>th</sup> JULY, 2017</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW
11:16-19, 25-30<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 45:11-18</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 struck me about today’s
readings is how they speak about coming to terms with who we are, and how we
think about ourselves in relationship with God, how honest we are with
ourselves – <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>AND</u></b> how
forgiving, because, starting from there, this defines how we relate to others
also.</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>Paul said, “I do not understand my
own actions.”</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>There must be very few indeed who
wouldn’t or couldn’t say that – in the privacy of a closet in their own homes,
perhaps. But I believe that most of us would be incredibly uncomfortable to say
that, say, before the City Council, or even the BAC. To say that we’re out of
control is a really serious admission. It would make our families, our friends,
our pew mates, really nervous were we to say that. It makes things so – well,
unpredictable. And <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NO ONE</u></b>
likes to be unpredictable, either to ourselves or to others. Everything within
us, everything within our societies, demands stability, and dependability. We
evaluate one another constantly. We keep a mental file on one another, whether
we admit it or not, so that we can “place” and “pigeon-hole” one another. We <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DON’T</u></b> like surprises! So, if we
have any quirks, we try to hide them as deeply within ourselves as we possibly
can, so that, sometimes, not even our closest friends know <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>EVERYTHING</u></b> about us.</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>Remember that ridiculous, sexist ad
line, “Not even her hairdresser knows for sure!” As if hair colouring were the
most important thing in 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>But here was Paul, close to the last
year of his life, and I believe he was fairly sure that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THAT</u></b> was so; here was Paul, the apostle who kick-started the
Christian Church; Paul, on whom people depended for support and encouragement;
here was the pillar of the Christian community in his latest letter of advice
and help; here was Paul, writing to those Christians living hidden lives in the
capital of the Roman Empire, saying not only that he messes up, but that
sometimes he doesn’t even know that he’s messing up.</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 Paul crazy? There were and are
some who’d have loved to have pinned that label on him. There were those, both
Christians and non-Christians, who’d have loved to have pulled Paul down a
notch or two, to have spread fake news about his suitability as a leading light
of Christianity. There were those who’d have done anything to have attacked
Paul’s credibility any way they could have, so that they wouldn’t have to
submit to all the things he’d said and written. They’d have done <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ANY</u></b>thing to have undermined his
authority.</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>Yet here was Paul, at the precise
point when he was wanting to nail down his legacy as an ambassador for Jesus,
the Son of God; here was Paul willing to say that he <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>WASN’T</u></b> in control of himself. And he <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>WASN’T</u></b> saying that to imply that God was in complete control
of his life. He was saying that there were things, influences, forces, call
them what you will, that reared their heads within his body, mind and spirit,
and grabbed at him whenever his guard was down, whenever his mind was
wandering, whenever he was thinking about how good it would be to put someone
or other in her or his place.</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 anyone knew what it was like to
be a Christian, it was Paul. He came to his faith the hard way. In fact, he’d
been dragged off his horse, kicking and screaming, with thoughts of
slaughtering Christians uppermost on the job resume he carried with him from
city to city. There was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOTHING</u></b>
Paul hadn’t rehearsed and rehearsed to get the better of, and to eradicate, any
Christians who crossed his path.</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>Yet that blinding light within him
and round him brought him to his knees and, finally, gave him the eyes of
faith. Filled by and with the forgiving and cleansing Spirit, Paul reassessed
and rearranged his life so that he could faithfully, forcefully, yet lovingly
bring people to believe in the Jesus whom he’d come to know and acknowledge.</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>Why would Paul, having gone through
so much, and having made such a huge commitment, not simply to follow Jesus who
taught such compassion, and love, and understanding; why would Paul who wanted
also to bring everyone he possibly could to believe in Jesus and join him in
the task of renewing and refreshing the world; why would Paul have admitted so
publicly that he messed up so often to the point that he thought of himself as
being out of control?</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 other thing about Paul was that
he was a Roman citizen, with all the rights and privileges that meant. He would
have been able to hold his head high in all but among the most elite in Roman
society. He would have been their equal, so this would have meant that he had
to couch his Christian message very carefully so as not to offend or lose the
support of anyone.</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>With all this on the line, then, we
come back to the same question. Why on earth would Paul risk misunderstanding
and jeopardise everything he had tried to do over the past twenty-five to thirty
years? Why would he offer anyone who challenged Christianity’s message of
justice and peace for everyone an opportunity to discover a crack in the
arguments and character of its chief apostle?</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 Paul was nothing if not careful.
Not only did he know himself, but he knew others equally well. He was aware of
whom Jesus hoped to reach.</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><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"><br></span></span></p>
</div></body></html>