<html><body><div><br></div><div><div><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>This draft was begun before the events of last Sunday and I've been looking at it off and on since then.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Comments, should you be inclined.</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Bob</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><br></span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>HE EPISCOPAL CHURCH OF ST. ALBAN, ALBANY<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>THE TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JOSHUA 24:1-3a, 14-25<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PROPER 27 a</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>1 THESSALONIANS 4:13-18<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>12<sup>th</sup> NOVEMBER, 2017</span></p><p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>MATTHEW 25:1-13<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 78:1-7</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>Give us grateful hearts, O 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>It’s difficult, incredibly difficult, to comprehend that this means, sometimes. But it’s part of who we’re working to become as Christians, no matter what’s going on around 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>Give us grateful and loving hearts.</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 get there, though?</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 know if anyone has ever calculated how many hours the members of the ECW group put into the Bazaar that was held last weekend. It’s not a few. First, there are the people who start thinking about it even before Christmas each year. They talk to themselves or to others about what worked and what didn’t; what was popular with the guests who patronised the Bazaar and what elicited little interest. So at least some people begin their plans way ahead of time, knowing that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THIS</u></b> will be back, and that <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>THAT</u></b> will be discontinued. They may even sneak around to spy at other people’s bazaars, especially here in Albany, to see if they can pick up any ideas. Of course, not everyone is able to or is interested in doing the same thing.</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>So folk think through January, February, March, and so on, perhaps not every waking moment, but for a fair bit of their time, and they refine and refine their thoughts.</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>Then these people, or perhaps others, begin to think about how to pull the various ideas and projects together in a practical way, and they all begin to invite others to brainstorm with them, and to start the practical first steps towards November. Because everyone knows that November is coming!</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>All through spring, summer, and fall, they work away, mostly by ones and twos. Then they come together for about a month and a final week to put their work out for others to admire and to buy. And, in about six to eight weeks, it all starts up all over 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>O.K., you probably didn’t need or want to hear me say that last sentence. But we all know that it’s true!</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>So we come to Joshua, talking to the people.</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>Everyone knew it wasn’t easy being engaged in God’s everlasting Bazaar, but the expectations, the promise of the results, were great. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b> why everyone responded to Joshua as they did.</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>“Yes! We’re ready to work! We’re prepared to set aside all the stuff we know we should give up. We know that being engaged and married to God will take a lot of effort. However, we’re in it for the long haul. Besides, despite our complaints, God’s bazaar is really a heck of a lot of fun for which to prepare and to set 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>“You’re kidding!” was Joshua’s comeback. “There are no half measures. You’re in or you’re out. If you promise, then back off and break your end of the bargain, you know that God’s going to be ticked off!!”</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>Joshua and the people went back and forth until a contract was drawn up and the people made a commitment and started to feel really good about what they’d done.</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>Of course, it always looks good when it’s January, and the Bazaar isn’t till November. It always looks good when you don’t know that someone may come along, waving tickets for Hawaii, or Mexico, and saying that it’ll be perfectly O.K. to take two weeks, four weeks, a month, maybe more, off.</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 here the analogy may break down. Because you <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>CAN</u></b> take your knitting with you to Hawaii, or to Mexico, or anywhere else.</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 so with what Joshua was presenting – at least, not in the way we might usually understand it. This was a twenty-four-seven-three-hundred-and-sixty-five-day proposition – three-hundred-and-sixty-six in a leap year!</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 so easy to say, “Yes!” to God when the sun’s out, or not out, depending on how you feel and work, and everything looks as if there will never be anymore troubles. The real test is when we want to slack off, or our friends wave those travel tickets in our faces, or our family members start to place burdens and demands on us. It’s <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>NOT</u></b> easy all the time. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b> what we forget so often.</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>Do you renounce Satan and all the spiritual forces of wickedness that rebel against 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>I renounce 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>Do you renounce the evil powers of this world which corrupt and destroy the creatures 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>I renounce 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>Do you renounce all sinful desires that draw you 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>I renounce 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>Do you turn to Jesus Christ and accept him as your Savior?</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 do.</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>Do you put your whole trust in his grace and love?</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 style="margin: 0px;"> </span>I do.</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>Do you promise to follow and obey him as your Lord?</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 do.</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></div></body></html>