<html><body><div>Here's the first part of this Sunday's draft.</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>THE THIRTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER
PENTECOST</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>EXODUS
3:1-15<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;">
</span>PROPER 17 a </span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ROMANS
12:9-21<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;">
</span>3<sup>rd</sup> SEPTEMBER, 2017</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW
16l21-28<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM
105:1-6, 23-26, 45c</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>“I’d like you to do something for
Me.</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 don’t want you to do this without
thinking. I don’t want you to be surprised or anything. But I’m not sure how
much I can tell you, so you may not know all that’s going to be involved. You
know Me. At least a little, anyway. So that may help you make your decision.
For the rest, though, you’ll have to trust Me. And I’m <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NOT</u></b> from the government!</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>“Seriously, I’d like you to do
something for Me.</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>“It doesn’t seem to matter what all
you’ve done, where all you’ve been, what your state of mind. But I <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DO</u></b> want this to be a conscious
decision on your part.”</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 Moses, for instance. Right from
the get-go, he was facing trouble. Probably conceived when the authorities had
a one-child-per-family policy, and when, unlike some societies, males were
feared. Moses was born and had to be hidden right away. Miraculously, he was
saved and grew up, an impetuous, fiery-tempered, strong-willed teenager who was
used to getting his own way. He got into more than the usual scrapes and, when
pushed and taunted, he lashed out and had to flee the country.</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>It was when he was settled in to a
completely different style of life, and had lost the little status he had, that
the question, the request, came to him. In the middle of nowhere, out of the
blue, came this strange 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>Now, Moses lived in a time and
culture that was obviously very different from ours. It might take a whole
house catching fire for us to do something other than, at best, calling 911.</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>Thirty-two hundred years ago,
though, signs were noticed as much for their quietness and their
unobtrusiveness as much as anything else. Signs were important and the desert
was the place where one might become most aware of God’s interaction with
humans, so Moses had to stop, to draw closer, to try to make sense of what was
going on. The blazing bush, though, could hardly have been for him. He was, and
wanted to remain, under everyone’s radar. He was a fugitive from justice, hated
as much by his own family as by the authorities. He had a terrible speech
impediment. He was awkward. He was still trying to get himself under control.
Not the sort of person for whom the Divine One might have fired up the bush.</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 God <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>DID</u></b> fire up the bush. This had been planned. All that was
necessary was for the unsuspecting Moses to walk by.</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’d like you to do something for
Me.” That’s what the sign said to Moses. “Yes! You!”</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 <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>DID</u></b> happen at the edge, the boundary, between the wilderness
and Mt. Horeb. It was a doubly sacred place, and Moses knew it. He’d have known
it well. But perhaps he was hoping to get through with the sheep before
anything untoward happened. </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
know, there is remarkably little known about huge chunks of Moses’ life, and
because of his past indiscretions, he would have been hoping to blend in with
the scenery and get out of the sacred places of spirituality before he could be
stopped and recognised.</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;'>None
of that carried any weight with God, though. That bush had been marked out for
a long time. It may even have had on it a sign, “Do not clip or trim. Reserved
for Moses.” </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;'>No
matter, God needed him not because of all the trouble he’d been in, but because
God knew that Moses could be brought to overcome whatever might seem, to
others, or even himself, as hindrances. It’s as simple, yet as difficult, as
that. God speaks so often, asking, cajoling, never threatening, reaching into
the lives of so many people, trying to persuade them to be agents of change and
healing in the world. And God can and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DOES</u></b>
use everyone. It’s just a matter of awakening our consciousness to the
possibilities.</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
always, but at least some of the time, we hold back. We may feel that we’re too
tired, we’re too old or young, we’re too – well, often we find any excuse not
to get involved. It wasn’t Moses’ problem anymore that the situation in Egypt
was intolerable for the Hebrews. Besides, even with his connection with the
Pharaoic family, he felt that he’d carry no weight. Just like us, so often, it
seemed at first glance that it simply wasn’t Moses’ job, Moses’ place, Moses’
ability to do anything.</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;'>God,
however, is nothing, if not persistent. God kept the flames set on white-hot.
God made sure that the bush didn’t burn up so that, eventually, the only thing
that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WAS</u></b> burned was the image
of that bush on Moses’ heart and brain. So much so that I’d imagine he saw that
sign of the power, the hope, the love, the seriousness of God’s response to
people in pain and anguish; it would remain with him for the rest of his life,
the image of a bush blazing passionately with the love of God for humanity.</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;'>Just
so, to this day, the emblem standing for the reason of the existence of the
Presbyterian Church of Scotland is that burning bush. It symbolises for people
in Scotland, Presbyterian or not; of one faith tradition or none; it speaks out
that we care; we have stood with Moses; we have listened to God talk about how
too many in creation are being abused, and ridiculed, and deprived of the very
basic necessities for human life. And, the Church of Scotland emblem adds, We
have heard God say, “I’d like you to do something for me,” and we’re ready to
take on our responsibilities. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b>
what the emblem, the sign of the Church of Scotland, says to this day.</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 know that, “I’d like you to do something for me” can sound OK when it’s
said to us by our spouse, our child, or our parent – someone we trust. If we
know the person, and have a pretty fair idea how that person thinks, the
request may not involve too much risk. But for Moses and his spiritual
descendants, there was, and there <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>IS</u></b>,
<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b> much that’s unknown,
that’s a mystery.</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><br></p>
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