<html><body><div>I hope that this is the last part...</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><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>THIS</u></b>
is what it means to live in community. Maybe this is why David, and Saul, and
Jonathan, and many in Israel were having such a time. They had lost sight of
the connectedness which binds everyone together. Personal wealth, personal
control, individuals and only close friends over everyone else, this was what
mattered to them, apparently.</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>Maybe this was going on in the lives
of the woman, the young girl and the others in the Gospel story too. Quite
possibly they lacked community to care for them – the woman had fallen foul of
the medical system which took her money and did next to nothing; the synagogue
leader and his family may have been isolated because everyone else thought that
they were behaving in such a way that put them above others. We don’t know. But
we <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DO</u></b> know how people on our
own streets, and in our own communities, act, so it’s not a stretch to see how
communities extend only so far and break down so readily.</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>There’s a medical term used to
describe those whose lives seem to have lost meaning and is affecting their
entire physical systems. It’s called “failure to thrive”, and it can happen
when communities of support disappear, and when others can begin to prey on
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>Jesus’ point in healing both the
people in the story is to restore them to mainstream society and, in order to
facilitate that, He told the girl’s family to feed her, to allow her to assume
her normal role in the home and in the village. The older woman, we assume, was
given a similar gift. She was given back to the others in the community.</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>Interesting that Jesus said, “Feed
her.” Kind of like the unspoken words in White Salmon. “Feed them.” If you
won’t, who will? Or the people around here, the people who come to our doors;
who go to FISH, not more than a couple of blocks from here; or who go to St.
Mary’s, or to Helping Hands.</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>“Set them on their feet and give
them the means to be steady.” It’s what everyone needs to hear said of them at
least once, if not way more often in their lives.</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>Frances seems to be doing pretty
well on this score these days, though. But she’s not quite at the stage of
providing for all of her own needs. She has to have folk look out for her. Even
more so Evelyn. She has to have so much more support. So she’s been brought
here this morning by people wanting to ensure the quality of her community.
She, her sister, her parents and her other relatives seek nothing but the best.
And she and her retinue look to us to provide the supportive socialization that
will help her grow as a human in God’s image.</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 expectations that we place on
her – or rather, that Jesus places on her – are really high, just as they are
for us. She must learn from us what dignity is and means. She must learn from
us what it means never to discriminate, for any reason. She must learn from us
how to respond to the image of God everyone on earth bears, and then she must
be able to make this her own manner of life, so that she will be able to
respond whenever and wherever she can – to be an instrument of God’s healing to
women young and old; to communities torn apart by prejudice and anger; to
people who mourn the loss of their friends <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>AND
</u></b>their enemies.</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>Like us, Evelyn’s not here just for
the bread. She’s here for the bread <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>AND</u></b>
the community, both of which Frances has found and enjoys already.</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>There are people, perhaps people
whose needs might surprise us; there <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ARE</u></b>
people who may be saying, right now, right around us, as well as around the
world, “If people don’t give, we don’t eat.”</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>Baptism, coming into the family of
God and a sibling relationship with Jesus; Baptism calls us to be alert – to
needs, to relationships, to communities. <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></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";'><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="2"><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span>Prayer
of Confession, The Book of Common Prayer, Church Publishing, Inc., New York,
N.Y. © 1979, page 360, et al. </font></span></p>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif";'><font size="2"> </font></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></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>Forest-dwelling
monks have kept an obscure Buddhist tradition alive in the Columbia River Gorge
with the help of the White Salmon, Washington, community. <span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(34, 34, 34);"><a href="https://www.opb.org/artsandlife/article/buddhist-monastery-white-salmon-washington-thai-forest-gorge/"><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(102, 0, 153);">Buddhist Monastery Survives In Columbia River Gorge
Through ... - OPB</span></a><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span></span><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(0, 102, 33);"><a href="https://www.opb.org/.../buddhist-monastery-white-salmon-washington-thai-forest-gor"><font color="#0000ff">https://www.opb.org/.../buddhist-monastery-white-salmon-washington-thai-forest-gor</font></a>...</span></span></p><div style="mso-element:para-border-div;border:none;border-left:solid #C1C1C1 1.5pt;
padding:0in 0in 0in 31.0pt">
<p style="margin: 0px; padding: 0in; border: medium; border-image: none; line-height: normal;"><span style='margin: 0px; color: gray; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'> </span></p>
</div>
<p style="margin: 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="margin: 0px;"><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'>3</span></span><span style='margin: 0px; font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10pt;'><span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="background: white; margin: 0px; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);">John Donne, originally in prose in
Meditation 17 Devotions upon Emergent Occasions. </span><u><span style="margin: 0px; color: rgb(102, 0, 153);"><a href="file:///J:/No%20Man%20Is%20An%20Island%20Poem%20by%20John%20Donne%20-%20Poem%20Hunter%20%20https:/www.poemhunter.com%20›%20Poems%20›%20No%20Man%20Is%20An%20Island"><font color="#0000ff">No
Man Is An Island Poem by John Donne - Poem Hunter<span style="margin: 0px;"> </span><span style="margin: 0px;">https://www.poemhunter.com
› Poems › No Man Is An Island</span></font></a></span></u></span></p>
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