<html><body><div>Part one was rejected - and consigned to what I've found to be outer darkness and neglect.</div><div><br></div><div>I've split part 1 into a and b.</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>2 EASTER b</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>ACTS
4:32-35<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>8<sup>th</sup> APRIL, 2018</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>1 JOHN
1;1 – 2;2<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>PSALM 133</span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>JOHN
20:19-31</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>“Without trust,” said the music
director and the radio commentator, “without trust, we have nothing.
Civilisation is gone.” <sup>1</sup></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><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b>
serious. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>REALLY</u></b> serious. No
trust, no civilization.</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>Think about what it means to have
what we call “civilization”, though. It’s the art of not killing or even
thinking about doing harm to a neighbour, no matter how aggressive, or
aggravating, or obnoxious that person or these people are. More than that,
though, civilization is the product of what happens when you build up another
person emotionally, psychologically and spiritually.</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 results is a community that has
faith not just in each of the constituent members within it, but in those
outside it, because each challenges the other to grow, and to appreciate
differences, and to reach higher and farther than might be thought possible. So
the measure of civilization, or of culture, can be a measure of trust, which is
also of compassion and understanding. The measure of the civilisation of any
society or culture depends directly on the way in which each individual within
it strives to bless every other individual, to allow each to be better, to
allow their lives to be richer, and more dignified, to be more trusted.</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>Without dwelling too much on the
negative, to refuse to participate in blessing another; the refusal to enrich
another; the refusal to accord dignity and build up a feeling of self-worth;
these are the marks of a civilisation that is disintegration and imploding.</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 you think about it, it’s amazing
that Christian faith has spread to all the continents on earth.</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 began in what’s been described as
a backwater country, good for little but to act as a buffer or a pass-through
between more important, much more affluent nations. Perhaps <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THAT’S</u></b> how Christian faith
spread. Someone picked it up and thought it worth considering while travelling
to other countries and staying there to work.</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 Christian faith began in such a
shaky way. No matter how many people were on the fringes of the crowd, the core
group of disciples was so disorganized, so shaken by Jesus’ arrest and death.
The disciples, it seemed, couldn’t agree on much until Jesus appeared that
Sunday evening. His Presence drew them together, perhaps in ways that hadn’t
even happened before He’d died.<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>It was
this sign of Jesus’’ power over death that gave them the insight and courage
about life that they needed.</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>More than that, though, Jesus’
resurrection and appearance with them enabled them to behave so charitably
towards Thomas. Or, at least, it gave the reason to do so, even if they didn’t
always follow through.</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>They could have tossed him out. They
could have kept him from learning more about Jesus, had they wished. But that
would have led to the diminishment of the civilization to which God had called
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>Instead of rejecting Thomas with his
incessant questioning and concentration on physical evidence, they brought him
closer to themselves. They trusted him, even when it seemed they had so few
things on which to build. They trusted Thomas because they trusted God, they
trusted Jesus.</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>
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