{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\deff0\uc1{\fonttbl{\f0\fcharset0 Times New Roman;}{\f1\fcharset0 Arial;}}{\colortbl ;}{\stylesheet{\s0\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1\f0\fs20 \kerning28 Normal;}}\paperw12240\paperh15840\margt1440\margl1440\margr1440\margb1440 \headery1440\footery1440\deftab720\pgnstart1\viewkind1\viewscale100\fet0{\*\docvar {ColorSet}{-1}}{\*\docvar{ColorPos}{-1}}{\*\docvar{StyleSet}{-1}}{\*\docvar{StylePos }{-1}}\pard\plain\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 {\header\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1\tqc\tx4680\tqr\tx9360{\fs20\par } \fs20\par}{\footer\pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1\tqc\tx4680\tqr\tx9360 {\fs20\par} \fs20\par}May 4, 2008\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Easter 5 ( A)\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 St. John 17:1-11\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\line{\f1\fs24 Google spoils me. I type in the words I remember from a song (\u8216\'91you \par }} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 really got a hold on me\u8217\'92) and Bam!, there is a YouTube video of the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Beatles practicing the Smokey Robinson song for their 1963 album. \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 George Harrison and Paul McCartney are harmonizing with John Lennon\u8217\'92s \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 lead vocal . I have been thinking about that line ever since I read the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 PB\u8217\'92 s sermon on \u8216\'91who\u8217\'92s got a hold on you\u8217\'92? It\u8217\'92s also interesting that \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 there is some ambivalence in the song itself. Might that cause us to \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 ask about the level of ambivalence in our life in Christ?\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Can we fairly say that Jesus has a hold on the disciples, has a hold \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 on his friends , even though they will fail miserably at first when \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 things get violent and out of control? Yes, we can. They will at first \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 be anything but faithful friends. But they will return to their Master, \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 their Lord , with their hearts and minds, with their voices, and with \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 their bodies . They will eventually, with God\u8217\'92s help, put everything on \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 the line for this Jesus. And what about us? I know there are times when \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 I want to venture everything for this Jesus. But the fear and the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 reluctance can storm back (not to mention the easily found \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 distractions ).\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 And might there be a sense in which we can say that these disciples \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 have a hold on Jesus. (\u8220\'93...Father, glorify me in your own presence with \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed...I am \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.\u8221\'94 \u8220\'93Holy \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 may be one , as we are one.\u8221\'94) And this is the night before his \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 self-offering of himself on the cross for them, for us, for everything. \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 (\u8220\'93 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all things (the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Greek is pantas; not just human beings, but everything in the cosmos) \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 to myself \u8221\'94).\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 (Rowan Williams ) \u8220\'93...The love God shows, in creating us as much as in \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 saving us , is completely free. God doesn\u8217\'92t owe us anything. God has \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 chosen that we should exist and God has chosen to treat us always as \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 lovable-- \u8221\'94God has thought that we were worth dying for\u8221\'94.\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Ascension provides another witness to the mystery of God\u8217\'92s love for \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 us, and of our hold on God, as it were. \u8220\'93Jesus returns to the infinite \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 and eternal glory that he had with God before the world existed--and he \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 returns to that glory with his full humanity--with his human \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 personality that loved and wept and joked with the disciples; with his \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 human experience that knew pain and joy and suffering and hope; with \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 his human body that walked the roads of Galilee, and hugged the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 children that were brought to him, and suffered and died on the cross, \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 and appeared alive to his disciples after his suffering, to eat and \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 drink with them and teach them about the kingdom and bless them to the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 end of the age.\u8221\'94\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Jesus takes his full humanity into God, and in God that humanity is no \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 longer separated from anything. (Karl Barth: \u8220\'93...our flesh, our human \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 nature, is exalted in Jesus to God. The end of Christ\u8217\'92s work is that we \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 are with Him above. We with Christ beside God.\u8221\'94 (even now!!!) In \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 today\u8217 \'92s Processional, there is the telling line: \u8220\'93...mighty Lord, in \par } \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 thine ascension , we by faith behold our own.\u8221\'94\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 What shall we do with this love? (\u8220\'93You shall be my witnesses in all \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 the earth !!!\u8221\'94)\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 (Sam Portaro ) Every baptized child should grow up in the knowledge \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 that he or she is God\u8217\'92s child. That child should know the deep and \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 abiding love of God that sustains even when all our earthly supports \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 fail. That child should know what it means to be loved in a profound \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 way. But if that is all we teach, that child will be as spoiled as any \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 modern Christian who believes that feeling good and being \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 comfortable --or being good and feeling comfortable--are the sum total \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 of what it means to be a believer.\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 The baptized child will know, if we teach through the example of our \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 own lives , that being a child of God means sticking up for and standing \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 by God in some pretty mean places, means having sometimes to be the odd \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 person out --maybe even living on the very fringes of life, where the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 children of God are so often pushed...I wish we could say that every \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 baptized child will live happily ever after. Instead, we can only say \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 that this child will live forever, will always be God\u8217\'92s even as we are.\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 St. Andrew \u8217\'92s-Sewanee School obituary. The Rev. Lee Anthony-Gerald \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Stevens, Order of the Holy Cross and former St. Andrew\u8217\'92s School faculty \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 member, died Sept., 2007. Fr. Stevens was ordained priest in 1943, and \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 became a monk in the OHC in 1951; SAS \u8216\'9162-\u8217\'9265. It was while serving the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 OHC\u8217 \'92s Liberian mission, and particularly at the leprosy clinic and \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 colony at Mbalotahun, that Fr. Stevens \u8220\'93lost his heart forever\u8221\'94 in his \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 words. He became a licensed paramedical worker in leprosy; developed a \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 leprosy rehabilitation and control program; then a hermit monk at OHC \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 priory in S. Carolina. He went back to Liberia in 2000, only to have to \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 return to the U.S. due to civil unrest. At OHC monastery in NY until \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 returning to Liberia in 2006, when he was allowed to establish, at the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 request of the Bishop of Liberia, at the age of 94, the first \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 indigenous religious Order for men, the Community of the Love of Jesus. \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 He is buried , as he requested, in the cemetery of the Leper Colony at \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 Mbalotahun .\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 \u8220\'93 ...but you will receive power when the HS has come upon you; and you \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28 ends of the earth.\u8221\'94 My witnesses...\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f1\lang1033\fs24\kerning28\tab Amen. \par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\tab\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\tab\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\tab\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\par} \pard\nowidctlpar\nooverflow\sl240\slmult1{\f0\lang1033\fs20\kerning28\tab}}