<html><body><div>Back to the old cut and paste!</div><div><br></div><div>Here's the first part of the second part.</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>Or, in a more directly affecting
way, it reminds us of all the people of 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>Don’t tell the Russians! Don’t tell
the Chinese! Don’t tell the North Koreans! Don’t tell anyone from another
country, or indeed State, with which the U.S. and we ourselves may be in
tension! Don’t let people know that we are dependent on other individuals for
life, that there are such crises not only in the Columbia Gorge but across the
nation. Because, if this was widely known, not only would there be
embarrassment, but also there would be a strong possibility that there might be
severe economic, political and personal consequences.</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>David said as much as he lamented
the death of David and Jonathan. Above all, he said “Don’t let the Philistines
know that the country is so weak. They’d try to move in and pick the country
apart, tribe by tribe, until the whole nation was overrun and demoralised.”</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>David had been anointed king quite
some time before this, of course, but the nation had been embroiled in a
horrendously destructive civil war. The death of Saul wouldn’t patch things up
quickly either. It would take a tremendously careful programme of compassionate
diplomacy <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>WITHIN</u></b> the country
and intentional efforts of healing all the would before the people would start
to find its strength and moral compass 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>It was to be a difficult task, and
it would be made so much more difficult if foreign outsiders – if such there
were – knew that Israel was <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b>
vulnerable, that the people were <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b>
distraught.</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 surely that’s a risk we have to
take. After all, if we hide our failures, if we don’t admit that we’re weak in
one or more ways, then we’re not being honest and we cannot begin to find
reconciliation, we cannot begin to find healing.</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 the monks of White Salmon didn’t
admit to the world that if people didn’t give, then they wouldn’t eat; if they
didn’t disclose their vulnerability, then they wouldn’t be able to help us to
discover or re-discover how closely linked are the lives of every one of God’s
children.</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 if the citizens of White Salmon,
or we and our own communities, aren’t alert and open to the fact that people <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DO</u></b> depend on us for so much, as
we depend on others, then, similarly, healing cannot begin.</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 way that we love one another <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>DOES</u></b>, <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:
normal"><u>DIRECTLY</u></b>, affect how we love God. As Jesus pointed out, no
one who spouts off against a brother or sister; no one who takes advantage of a
sister or brother; no one who ignores the needs of a brother or sister, can say
that she or he loves. It simply doesn’t compute.</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>Even a bunch of radishes, or a
couple of ears of corn, or some tea to make up a drink – it takes <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>SO</u></b> little to begin to love our
neighbours, because whatever we do by making a response acknowledges that we
care about what happens to that person and, just as David prayed for the
people, it allows renewal, re-formation to occur in 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>It doesn’t matter whether the need
is new, like the illness and death of the synagogue leader’s daughter, or the
incredible chronic condition of the woman who came up to Jesus in the crowd.
Both of these are neighbours. Both deserve a response of love. And, while we’re
at it, the friends of the synagogue leader need help too. No one, no matter
who; no one is to be ignored, or belittled, no matter who that person is or
what she or he has done. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ALL</u></b>
are children of God, and <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight:normal"><u>ALL</u></b>
are our neighbours.</span></p>
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