<html><body><div>The final part for Sunday.</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;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>This Sunday, in the midst of Lent
which calls us to repent of our complicity in everything which draws creation
from the Love of God; this Sunday says that the evil <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>WILL</u></b> be overcome, and that we ourselves <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>WILL</u></b> be renewed. We’ll be given whatever means we need to
break ourselves away from any despair and feelings of hopelessness that we
won’t be able to make a difference, for ourselves or for anyone 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>Lent, in fact, need not be a
depressing time. The hope of Lent is that we will find the time and the ability
to see more clearly where God may be leading us, both as individuals and as
groups. The hope of Lent is that we’ll be able to readjust our lives in terms
of the things which eat away at us, and to strengthen our lives in terms of
those things which bring us to more clear images of God in the world.</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>God did <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>NOT</u></b> give Jesus to creation to condemn, as the Gospel reminds
us in what is possibly the most quoted verse in the New Testament. God brought
Jesus to us that we might see in Him the way to salvation, to renewal, to
trust, to health, and to love. God gave us Jesus to help us understand that death
– death of imagination; death of hope; death of love; death of compassion;
death of justice; death of mercy; God gave us Jesus to see that death of all
that is good cannot be. God hoped, and will <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>ALWAYS</u></b> hope, that we will be so drawn to look at the Light,
at the Love, at the Mercy which shines in and through Jesus that we too will be
brought into the joy of God. “For,” as Paul wrote to the Ephesians, when we
live in and through Jesus, “we are what (God) has made us, created in Christ
Jesus for good works, which God has prepared beforehand to be our way of 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></span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Death be not proud, though some have called
thee</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Mighty and dreadful, for, thou are not soe,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>For, those, whom thou think'st, thou dost
overthrow,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Die not, poore death, nor yet canst thou kill
mee;</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>From rest and sleepe, which but thy pictures
bee,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Much pleasure, then from thee, much more must
flow,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And soonest our best men with thee doe goe,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Rest of their bones, and soules deliverie.</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Thou art slave to Fate, chance, kings, and desperate
men,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And dost with poyson, warre, and sicknesse
dwell,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And poppie, or charmes can make us sleepe as
well,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And better then thy stroake; why swell'st
thou then?</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>One short sleepe past, wee wake eternally,</span></p>
<p style="background: white; margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: black; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>And death shall be no more, death, thou shalt
die. (1-14)</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;'>NOTE:</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;'>1</span></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(63, 63, 63); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><a href="http://www.dictionary.com/browse/death--be-not-proud" target="_blank"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 0, 153); text-decoration: none;">Death, be not proud | Define Death, be not proud at ...</span></a> </span><span style='background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 117, 66); font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>www.dictionary.com/browse/death--be-not-proud</span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>cf. 1 Corinthians 15:26</span></p>
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