<html><body><div>Here's the second part for Sunday.</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;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>We <b><u>DO</u></b> need someone or
something, of course, on whom or on which we can focus, and receive some sort
of inspiration and hope. We always do, even if we don’t admit to it. So we cast
around for something else on which to lavish our attention, and, nine times out
of ten, it’s something that, frankly, isn’t really worthy of our attention. And
it’s not just the first reading that points this out. Jesus is equally clear in
the story we heard this morning.</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>Not only has everything been created
for us, but everything is ready for us. God has been doing so much – speaking
to folk like Moses, for instance, setting things up. We ourselves may even have
had flashes of intuition that have given us an idea of what‘s been going on. We
may have heard Moses of thirty-some thousand years ago, or a present-day Moses,
talk about how intensely God loves us, and what’s being prepared for us. Yet we
become so impatient so readily. If we don’t see it now; if we can’t touch it
now; if we can’t speak to that person now; if our own, what we think are the
most important needs in the world; if our <b><u>OWN</u></b> needs are not met
right away, and we sense we might have to wait, we get <b><u>SO</u></b>
impatient.</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 always get a smile when I think of
that line spoken in Robert Bolt’s play, “A Man for all Seasons”, about Thomas
More, who, at his trial, confronts Sir Richard Rich, who’s just perjured
himself in front of the whole court.</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>Thomas More asks about a chain and
medallion of office that Rich is wearing and, on hearing that it is a sign of
his authority as Attorney General of Wales, Thomas More says, “For Wales ...
why, Richard, </span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>It profits a man nothing to give his
soul for the whole world ... but for Wales, Richard!” <sup>3</sup><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;"> </span>Nothing against Wales, I love the
country, but you get the point.</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 Hebrews had been promised a land
flowing with milk and honey. They’d been taken out of servitude and been asked
to work hard while they transitioned to their new home. Some of them, including
Moses himself, would not see or enter the new home. But it lay ahead of them.
God had promised. Were there difficulties in getting to that day when Moses
took a bit longer reflecting with God on the state of the world? Of course
there were. And there would be many more in the miles ahead. Yet God promised
to walk with them and to encourage them.</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>And the same is true for us today.</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 Prayer of Consecration
continues, addressing God, “Again and again, you called us to return. Through
prophets and sages you revealed your righteous Law.”</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>Again and again – it’s a terrible
reminder. We stand before God, before our families, before our friends, before
the country, and we’re so reluctant to admit that we ourselves do nothing, or
allow others to do nothing on our behalf, to prevent people from being
intimidated, from being abused, from being terrified. There are, still,
prophets and sages who speak out, who reveal God’s righteous law, but they make
me, they seem to make most people, feel so uncomfortable that we turn to use
the same technique as the Hebrew leaders did back then. We call it “Fake news”;
we come up with excuses; we’d rather have Wales than our souls. So we give up
our trinkets in order to have all sorts of idols fashioned, and we dance to <b><u>THEIR</u></b>
tunes.</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 writer whom I quoted earlier
makes the simple point that it doesn’t matter one bit who starts something. The
point, for us as individuals, for us as the Church, the Body of Christ in the
world; the point is, who’s going to do something about it? Who’s going to speak
out against all that dehumanizes, because dehumanising means allowing people to
be drawn away from the love of God.</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 Jesus’ story has anything to say,
it’s that God creates a banquet and invites those who’ve heard about its
preparation to attend. And that those who <b><u>HAVE</u></b> heard, we, the
Church, <b><u>MUST</u></b> be prepared to act to enjoy it. But the accusatory
sting at the end is that, ultimately, there’s no one who’s <b><u>NOT</u></b>
invited. That paragraph in the Prayer of Consecration concludes, “And in the
fullness of time you sent your only Son, born of a woman, to fulfill your Law,
to open for us the way of freedom and peace. By his blood, he reconciled us. By
his wounds, we are healed.”</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’s <b><u>NOT</u></b> a negative
picture or message unless we make it so. Even as we stand to admit that we’ve
participated in doing what we ought not to have done, we stand to hear that God
welcomes us, along with everyone else, to the biggest celebration imaginable.
We all have our share of wounds, and we’ve all handed out our share of wounds
to others too. Yet God forgives, and forgives, and forgives again.</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>Again and again, God still calls us
to return to the life to which the prophets and sages have called us, to the
life which Jesus demonstrated and laid out. God <b><u>IS</u></b>, truly,
amazing.</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>Oh, and that improperly dressed
guest? People have been debating that for aeons. But there’s nothing to contradict
that he and we ought to be wearing the cloaks of righteousness, which
demonstrate our infinite compassion for others.</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>At least, that wouldn’t be a bad
place to start.</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>Come, the banquet is ready. And
bring someone! It’s for love!</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> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style:
normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>“Love” in “Brother, Give us a Word”</span></i><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> by Br. David Vryhof, S.S.J.E., 9<sup>th</sup> October, 2017</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">Eucharistic Prayer C”</i>, Book of Common
Prayer, Church Publishing, New York, N.Y., page 370</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;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></b></span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span></b><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=3&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwietbjc9-vWAhXIhFQKHXufAh4QtwIINTAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DbLIsqYKDqY8&usg=AOvVaw2vKZV_KOikqYRMQesHZWYK"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(102, 0, 153);">A Man for All Seasons - Trial (2 of 3) - YouTube</span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><cite><span style='margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 102, 33); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt; font-style: normal;'>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bLIsqYKDqY8</span></cite><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></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
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