Luke 15: 8-10 1 Corinthians 1:18-24 Do not deceive yourselves. If you think that you are wise in this age, you should become fools so that you may become wise. For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, “He catches the wise in their craftiness,” Last week we talked about belonging, that deepest of human needs. Paul, the great early church builder described himself as “an apostle of Christ Jesus, by the will of God.” His letter was addressed “to the church of God that is in Corinth, to those who are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called t be saints.” As soon as we begin to truly follow Jesus, to be drawn in from the edges of the curious crowd, as soon as we say, “yes, I’m yours Lord," we begin to align our hearts with what was real all along. God becomes our identity. The problem for the Corinthians was they already had these other identities, other ways of belonging. Its one thing to switch loyalties, its still another to be utterly transformed by the renewing of our minds, as Paul wrote to the Roman saints. When “I owe my allegiance to my patron” became "I owe my allegiance to the one who baptized me, __________”, old patterns were being re-enacted. Following Christ can feel at first like that old Johnny Mercer song: (words & music by j. mercer - r. bloom) Fools rush in, where angels fear to tread And so I come to you my love My heart above my head Though I see the danger there If there's a chance for me Then I don't care, oh-oh-oh-oh Really living as though we belong to Christ Jesus upsets our common sense. Christ’s wisdom, what looks so foolish is expressed in the Body of Christ, when we activate the spiritual gifts God gives us. We begin to recognize Christ’s uncommon sense when our human will works with Holy Spirit’s way. The church is a kind of kindergarten in which we practice new order life in the midst of our brokenness. David Buttrick, The Mystery and the Passion Christ’s wisdom, the wisdom that seems so foolish, is characterized by simplicity and by vulnerability. Consider the woman who lost one coin. Not many of us would spend hours searching the nooks and crannies of our home for one lost coin. We may think, “it will turn up,” (if we notice its gone) or “there are more where that came from.” Time is too valuable to spend looking for that one of many. We’d look like a fool! Last week’s gospel text, Luke 14:25-33, reminded us that we hate to look like fools, For which of you, intending to build a tower, does not first sit down and estimate the cost, to see whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it will begin to ridicule him saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'…… Its a pun of a parable, because if we follow through by following Jesus that will almost certainly mean looking like a fool from the world’s perspective. “The world” is the part of us that expends its resources grabbing every minute of life, death is the enemy. Accumulates money without noticing what the piles push out of our lives. We have so much that a penny doesn’t really matter much. But God starts small looking around for someone one man, even, God-expectant, just one God-ready woman. God sees unshepherded Sheep, taking turns pretending to be Shepherd. …… Don’t they know anything, all these impostors? Don’t they know they can’t get away with treating people like a fast-food meal over which they’re too busy to pray? Night is coming for them, and nightmares, for God takes the side of the lost and the least. Is there anyone around to save the people? Yes. God is around; God turns life around. Turned-around Jacob skips rope, turned-around Israel sings laughter. Jesus followers find life in giving up life; become reconciled with death In weakness we find strength, in loss we find love. We are the people saved by the crucified Christ and sanctified by the Resurrection Spirit by living as though God’s kingdom is so close we could reach out and touch it. So with yourselves, wrote Paul to the Corinthians, since you are eager for spiritual gifts, strive to excel in them for building up the church.….When you come together, each one has a hymn, a lesson, a revelation, a tongue, or an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up. (words & music by j. mercer - r. bloom) Fools rush in, where wise men never go But wise men never fall in love So how are they to know, When we met, I felt my life begin So open up your heart and let This fool rush in "….what woman having ten silver coins, if she loses one of them, does not light a lamp, sweep the house, and search carefully until she finds it? When she has found it, she calls together her friends and neighbors, saying, 'Rejoice with me, for I have found the coin that I had lost.' Just so, I tell you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents." --------------------------------------------------------------
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Luke 14: 25-33)
1 Corinthians 15: 44b-53 Will you join me as I offer this prayer written by Walter Brueggemann?[1] Truth-telling, wind-blowing, life-giving spirit- We present ourselves now For your instruction and guidance; Breathe you truth among us, Breathe your truth of deep Firday loss, Your truth of awesome Sunday joy. Breathe your story of death and life That our story may be submitted to your will for life. We pray in the name of Jesus risen to new life- And him crucified. Human beings want to belong. We are both unique creatures playing our individual gifts and dreams and we are social beings, meant to belong to something larger than ourselves. From the creation of Adam and Eve so that human became more than one, to efforts today to “fit in,” or “find our tribe,” Human beings need to know how we belong. NY Times Magazine 9-7-13”You are, to an unprecedented degree, the emperor of a personalized kingdom of popularity, and zillions of bots are working tirelessly to heed your whims and hone your experience. …Once we listened to the same song together, watched the same show together, argued over the same movies together. Now we’re each focused on our own screen, listening to our own playlist… It sometimes seems like we're in an extended adolescent crisis of Nothingness. How do I know there is anything but me? A little Church history sets the stage for our fall series, “See How They Love Each Other.” Nearly 2 centuries after stories about Jesus began to travel with traders around the Roman empire, through Europe and North Africa and east into Asia, And about 150 years after Paul planted the early Christian Churches of the Jewish Diaspora, as the Roman empire was beginning to break apart... a famous orator from Carthage, what is now Tunisia, the nearest point on the African Continent to Italy, recorded what the pagans of the day thought of their Christian neighbors. "See how they love one another." –Tertullian wrote. We are a body knit together as such by a common religious profession, by unity of discipline, and by the bond of a common hope. We meet together as an assembly and congregation, that, offering up prayer to God as with united force, we may wrestle with Him in our supplications. This strong exertion God delights in. We pray, too, for the emperors, for their ministers and for all in authority, for the welfare of the world, for the prevalence of peace, for the delay of the final consummation. We assemble to read our sacred writings . . . and with the sacred words we nourish our faith, we animate our hope, we make our confidence more steadfast; and no less by inculcations of God’s precepts we confirm good habits. ……. The tried men of our elders preside over us, obtaining that honour not by purchase but by established character. There is no buying and selling of any sort in the things of God. Though we have our treasure-chest, it is not made up of purchase-money, as of a religion that has its price. On the monthly day, if he likes, each puts in a small donation; but only if it be his pleasure, and only if he be able: for there is no compulsion; all is voluntary. These gifts are . . . not spent on feasts, and drinking-bouts, and eating-houses, but to support and bury poor people, to supply the wants of boys and girls destitute of means and parents, and of old persons confined now to the house; such, too, as have suffered shipwreck; and if there happen to be any in the mines or banished to the islands or shut up in the prisons, for nothing but their fidelity to the cause of God's Church, they become the nurslings of their confession. But it is mainly the deeds of a love so noble that lead many to put a brand upon us. See, they say, how they love one another, for they themselves are animated by mutual hatred. See, they say about us, how they are ready even to die for one another, for they themselves would sooner kill.[2] The communities Tuertullian described were started by Paul of Tarsus and his co-workerd, traveling out from Jerusalem to Jewish communities around the Roman empire. It was an age of expansion. The community from which our text comes this morning, Corinth, was Paul’s third church plant. The city itself had a particular and peculiar reputation. “Wealth without culture, and abuse of the poor by the wealthy.” It was, one travelor wrote, without grace.” In that culture, everyone belonged to someone else in a way that we find it hard to imagine today. A Lord or a patron connected you to the economic and social web. Competition within the Corinthian Church was fierce for who would “lord it over,” be in charge. For who got to say who was in and who was out. What did it mean to “belong” to the Body of Christ.” In His letter, Paul urgently reminds them, "we are God’s servants working together." But evidently too many Members belonged in name only, not in practice. Oh they’d show up in time for dinner, in time to get a good seat at worship, But what did it mean to belong first to God. We experience that belonging through faith community. We experience it from taking our place at the table, not elbowing out the people we'd rather not sit next to. Psalm 139:1-6, 13-18 O LORD, you have searched me and known me. You know when I sit down and when I rise up; you discern my thoughts from far away. You search out my path and my lying down, and are acquainted with all my ways. Even before a word is on my tongue, O LORD, you know it completely. You hem me in, behind and before, and lay your hand upon me. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is so high that I cannot attain it. For it was you who formed my inward parts; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Wonderful are your works; that I know very well. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately woven in the depths of the earth. Your eyes beheld my unformed substance. In your book were written all the days that were formed for me, when none of them as yet existed. How weighty to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! I try to count them -- they are more than the sand; I come to the end - - I am still with you. ****You know me so well that you know where my thoughts veer (19-24)! [1] Walter Brueggemann, Prayers for a Privileged People, Abingdon Press, 2008. [2] http://www.christianity.com/church/church-history/timeline/1-300/what-were-early-christians-like-11629560.html Delight in the Lord
Proverbs 17: 22; 30: 18-19 Luke 13: 10-17 For 18 years she'd bent ever closer to the ground. Finally she could only see the feet of those who passed before her. She wasn't the sort they were looking for in worship. But she was there when Jesus' feet stopped in front of her and she heard him say she was free. Can you imagine how, as she slowly unwound her body, the first eyes she met were his? What do you think she felt looking into those eyes? We don't know what the burdens were, what she'd been carrying year after year. But in the moment that their eyes met, she knew what she was created for. She rejoiced in her Lord. We've been journeying through summer with the Wisdom of Proverbs, part of the "Sunday School lessons" the woman and Jesus both learned as they grew up. Of earth's origins Wisdom speaks: Then I was beside him, like a master worker; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing before him always, rejoicing in his inhabited world and delighting in the human race. “And now, my children, listen to me: happy are those who keep my ways (Proverbs 8:30-32 NRSV). Not everyone was delighted on this particular Sabbath though, were they? The one in charge of keeping order, dedicated to making sure everything went according to plan, was not pleased. Jesus was messing with the liturgy, getting things out of order, encouraging people to be where they shouldn't, upsetting expectations. I wonder whether Jesus had another proverb in mind as he replied to the worship leader's scathing complaints. “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? (Proverbs 1:22 NRSV) For the synagogue leader, time is something to be kept and controlled. For Jesus, time is something to be entered. It is Kairos, the moment as threshhold to God's own life. It is the moment when delight can overcome complaint. My earliest expereinces as a worship leader were voiceless, clowning in white face. When one of my professors at the University of Minnesota discovered this he invited me to see what I could do in his next lecture in our Comedy and Tragedy seminar. (As I recall we were reading Freud that week). Conveniently, I was leading worship in St Paul that morning and just caught the bus over to Minneapolis with green hair already in place and my best red and white candy striped knickers with snazzy red ringmasters' tails, pockets fully loaded with fun. The bus dropped me off about five minutes after class had started and I let myself quietly into the back of the room, taking a seat in the back row and pulling out my soap bubbles. As the Professor spotted me he dropped his voice to a drone. The bubbles drifted up the aisle. Heads turned to glare in my direction. I moved up to sit in the middle of the aisle, shining a few shoes with my best red bandana on the way. (irritated shuffles, a few bemused glances). "What's going on back there? " demanded the authority figure at the front. That was all it took. The gig was up. Student shoulders hunched. Eyes riveted forward on notebooks, pencils resolutely gripped, the test on "what is comedy" looming in the near future. And I fell in with my classmates, joy surpressed for the one and only time in my clowning experience. What blocks delight? Fear. What releases delight? Paying attention to what God is actually doing. One of my clergy colleagues, Anne Robertson remembers serving not so long ago in an east coast state. In her five years serving community, the other area church pastors, all male, would never let this now award winning preacher and author offer the message at any ecumenical community service. ("We’re afraid Other People will be offended"). At the last community worship she attended before moving to New England, all the Pastors were lined up, man after man after man (i picture them in order of ehight), splendidly arrayed in their best robes, and then Anne, also in her robes, standing at the end. The chosen pastor began to pray. In his extended and comprehensive prayer he asked for God’s blessing on the assembled Pastors in their ministries. Help him to serve humbly…. Help him to speak prophetically… Help him embody Christ to his congregation… Well, you know how sometimes its hard to keep your eyes closed all the way through a really long prayer? Someone in the congregation lifted their eyelids and glimpsed Anne standing there right as one of the “hims” flew by, and started to giggle at the absurdity of it. It only takes a spark to get a fire going……. That one giggle was a spark that ignited the crowd. The congregation had the good sense to recognize, and to delight in, what was standing right in front of their faces. Jesus was working in them to clarify authentic authority. Their eyes were open. They rejoiced. It makes me wonder what God is putting in front of our faces, asking us to see and delight in his good creation. Turn to someone near you and take a few minutes to share something that delighted you this week, won't you?! Here's one more story of the power of God's delightful kairos. This is more recent, just this weekend in fact, and comes from Tsitsi Nakoma Moyo, Pastor of Randolph and East Pittston churches, (and graduate of Africa University which many of you helped build and continue to support through that mission shares that make us partners throughout the global Methodist connection. ) Facebook post Friday August 23, 2013: Some people broke into our church building Randolph UMC at 16 Asbury street, Randolph , ME; They borrowed my computer, note pad, 42 inch TV, collecting plates, a banner, two microphones and a microphone stand. Then they left me a message on my door: Pray to Satan. No darlings, I wont pray to satan. A note to you who broke into the church: I will pray to my God to bless you richly. and you can bring our stuff back anytime. Saturday, August 24: Thank you all for all your prayers and encouraging words. Friday being my off day, I don't normally go to the office. But since I lost a whole day yesterday, I wanted to catch up on my work, so I went to the office. Guess what I found on the church door?? a pile of some of the stole items including two of my drums...one that I bought in Ghana and one I bought in Israel, an Old Big Bible, a wooden cross, a box of offering envelop and some Christmas ornament wrapped in a banner. all these items except for the banner, we didn't notice there were gone. I have a collection of drums so I didn't even notice the drums were missing. God is good all the time my beloved friends. I do have one request from all of you, friends and relatives...lets us pray for these persons, who were created in God's own image, whom God so loved that God had to send the only begotten Son, Whom Christ so loved he had to die on the cross for them including me; pray for these precious souls...that one day they will talk about this happening...not as a confession but as a testimony. I believe God wanted them to be in church. I believe when they were doing their visitation inchurch, they read what was on the walls especially in my office "God Loves you Nomatter what" Oh how I wish they had taken that one. I believe God had already started working on their as well as my crippled self. Who am I to tell them to come by the Main door. God saw their troubled souls, and had to do something about it. the church doors were locked, So God beckoned them to come through the open window. if they have never been in the church before, now they have. and I trust by being in the sanctuary, something within them was touched and they were changed. I don't know how many they were, but because they touched the microphones, I pray that one of them will be a Gospel singer. Because the touched the drums, I pray that one of them will be a missionary who will spread the word of God all over the world. Because they touched the Big Pulpit Bible, I pray that the one who carried that Bible, the word of God be planted in him and he be a proclaimer of the word of God. Because they took the TV used for bible study, I pray that one of them be Christian Education teacher. because they took the office computer, I pray they will be able to read the sermons saved on that computer, and that one of them will be an author of Christian books/literature. Because they took the collection plates, i prayer that a great giver comes out of this. That as they give, they be blessed as well. I truly pray for blessings upon these guys. May God's delight in who you are created to be overcome any complaint that comes your way this week. 8-11-13 Prepared for the Unexpected Proverbs 31: 10-31 Here's a question for the womens. Do you ever feel like other people expect you to be "that woman?" Have you ever found yourself wanting to be like "that woman." Think for a minute about a role model you’ve found truly worthy of imitation. What are some of the qualities of that role model? When I was in my early twenties, I learned to spin (wool, silk, flax). I wasn't consciously trying to imitate the proverbial worthy woman, but who knows what my subconscious was up to? Last week in worship Rosemary Word (a role model for many United Methodist Women) shared some of the things Sarai Rice spoke about at the first Mid Maine Resource Day last spring. One of the things that has stuck with me is Sarai's emphasis on the difference between technical and adaptive approaches to problem solving. Proverbial living can be imitating techinical skills (like learning to spin). But frankly, as much as I enjoyed spinning then, its not the most useful skill in my toolbox these days. Instead, learning to focus on an unfolding process has become a resource in adaptive challenges. A technical challenge is one we can solve with available knowledge and skills. An adaptive challenge requires us to step away from our expertise and recreate. How is God calling me to live faithfully and fruitfully as this woman did then? Do I want to be remembered for having learned how to spin or for learning how to balance generously taking care of my own family and sisters and brothers in Christ as well as those in need in my community? We have plenty of problems to solve. Cna you thik of a few: In our world? In our church? In our own lives? We live in an environment that encourages us to prepare for the worst. But we read scripture and believe a God who leads us to prepare for the best. What do we really, in our hearts, expect? Because that is what we are prepared for. Sarah Rice: Every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets. You only need to change if you want other results. The clamor for change Is exhausting, we hear it everywhere. IN fact, I'm thinking of striking the word "change" from my vocabulary as a spritual discipline for the next year. What and where are some of the chnages you notice most? If only someone would come and fix it! We need heoric rescue! We see this in political struggles, We see it in the religious trap of charismatic leaders who fall under the weigh of expectations they themselves build up and cannot sustain. How did Jesus, the most charismatic human being who ever lived, spirit filled, avoid this trap? The Apostle Paul wrote to early Christians struggling with issues incredibly similar to ours, "The church is Christ's body in which he speaks and acts, by which he fills everything with his presence.” -Ephesians 1:23 (The Message) The wise woman of Proverb 31 is an image of God; hers is a life of creativity, resourcefulness, compassion, strength. Raymond van Leeuwen describes her work, “to transform a Judean highland plot (as large as 10 acres) into a vineyard is a difficult, massive undertaking. It is done on rocky, hilly ground, not good for much else.” (p. 261 NIB vol. ) Reminds me of Elijah’s “dry bones” vision. Can these bones live? Can they dance? Her capacity and her will are formed in the image of the God to whom she is oriented. To meet her is to encounter a centered person. She is prepared for whatever comes, expected, or more importantly, unexpected as God does a new thing. To be honest, most of us want the change that we can expect and control. Nothing is more frightening than being out of control. This week Jeff and I tried out some of the rides at the Topsham fair. (Not the ones that you go upsaide down on). I like my thrill rides at the Topsham fair, but only with strict safety features in place. I was thinking about this morning when I received a message from Kayla McClurg about what Jesus tells us in this mornings’ gospel lesson. “Do not be afraid, little flock….” Simply sell all that you own. Relinquish everything, and give. Fear attaches to things we cannot release, a ruinous mold spreading in the dark isolation of our grasping and clutching. Fear infiltrates all the systems of our life, alters our breathing and shows up masked as various anxieties and dis-eases. Fear erodes the realm God wants to give us. In his teachings, Jesus shines a healing light upon our minds and hearts to clear the mold of fear away. Now, fear is a great motivator. There’s nothing like a good panic to get the energy flowing. But after a while it’s exhausting. Remember that old proverb about the carrot or the stick? Both are external motivators. God wants to get IN us. To create and sustain great Christians Sarai Rice reminded us in May that the purpose of the congregation is To create and sustain great Christians How do we do that here and now. How do we BECOME that great church? Part of what's disorienting about the change all Western culture churches are experiencing is that: •Things we know how to do don’t seem as important anymore and •We don’t know how to do the things that do seem to be important So we seek techinical fixes that we can handle: •Problems for which people have the know-how and procedures to solve them •Where the solution involves applying current knowledge •and the problem-solvers are the “authorities” We resist Adaptive Change: •Problems that can’t be solved with authoritative expertise and SOP •that require experimenting, new discoveries, adjustments, changed attitudes, values, and behavior •and where we cannot see at the beginning that the new situation will be better, only that there is a potential for loss •Every organization is perfectly aligned to achieve the results it currently gets. You only need to change if you want other results Sarai Rice continues: •Adaptation occurs through experimentation and relies on the presence of diversity •The most common cause of failure is when we treat adaptive challenges as if they need technical fixes •Adaptive change is not primarily about managing change; it is about managing loss In the Body of Christ, we are meant to support each other as we cultivate Christlike qualities. This is our purpose. Great churches create great Christians. We are not called to sit and wait for rescue. That's just spinning our wheels. It is not a matter of figuring out who will do for us but how will be this healthy Body together, with God’s help. Jesus never separates hearing from doing. You don't feed a family by reading cook books. You actually have to enter a kitchen, pick up some utensils, and start cooking. A disciple puts into daily practice what is heard and read. - Leonard Sweet A crown's no cure for a headache.” -African proverb, Kpelle Tribe. 2 Kings 5: Story of Namaan The great Namaan has a personal problem. It’s embarrassing, but there it is. Namaan has military power, success, recognition and wealth, but he is ill, un-whole, at a fundamental level helpless to help himself. The nameless girl, however, has the power of knowledge: She has “holy know-how.” She has faith. There are other more conventionally powerful people in this story. The king of Aram, Namaan’s supreme commander, has power to release Namaan and power to influence others on his behalf. (thus the letter). The king of Israel, in a communication snafu, and facing something he cannot do, is feeling far from powerful about Namaan’s request. Enter Elisha, “man of God,” who CAN change what needs to be changed but …..who could evidently care less about using the proper diplomatic channels to do so. Instead, another child carries the message of healing. Namaan, confused by the impropriety, is offended. He’s gone through the proper channels, played the power game properly. He’s brought the right gifts, Presented himself in full dress uniform, He’s ready to pay whatever the treatment’s worth. He’s backed by the winning king. So where do these Israelites get off sending a child as though Namman were some back yard neighbor being called for a casual supper in the barn? As we listen in, we can’t help but wonder, What do you really want changed, Namaan? What’s most important to you? Is it people’s attitude toward you or is it your actual condition? We’re really asking Namaan what defines him, his wellbeing or the way people treat him. Can he tolerate this disordering of one for the reordering, the healing, of the other? At the pinnacle of his power Namaan feels the peril of revealing his weakness. He has so much power, so much to loose, that healing is obscured by the complications of power that he’s come to expect. Do you remember who started the ball moving in this story? It was the simple young girl of faith, the most apparently powerless character in the story. She was young in a time that valued the wisdom of age; ….enslaved in a culture that valued freedom,; ….female in a world ruled by male power. What empowers the powerless to speak up? Faith. What message does faith give? Come and be made well. Back in 2002, the world noticed other young people raising their voices for the well being of others when their movement was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize, the first time children had ever been nominated. The movement’s founder, Gerson Andres Florez Perez was 11 when he heard of first one, then another child being killed by land mines in the eastern part of his country, Columbia. And so in 1998, during his school holidays, Gerson wrote a proposal for peace. entitled “Children For Peace”. 2,700,000 children from all over Colombia voted in a referendum and insisted that their basic and essential rights be respected. This act was named the “Children’s Movement for Peace”. As Gerson expected, the children’s voice had a huge effect. Soon after this vote, 10,000,000 adults also voted and demanded peace in Colombia. How simple can becoming well be? But how terribly, horribly, complicated we make it. We crave attention as we already are instead of than well being as God knows we can be. (Which, if you think about it, is idolatry, my image, not yours, God.) We do at the simplest level in our own lives. What do you ususally say when someone asks, How are you? What would happen if I answered honestly when I"m having a bad day? Are we afraid of what revealing our truth might provoke? Honestly, wouldn't most of us rather be in the power position of praying for others rather than having others pray for us? What might happen if each of us were willing to expose our woundedness? But we want to give the world a strong face, we are imperiled by our power. Gerson saw what the power of attention did to adults working with his movement. At age 16 he wrote, “Unfortunately the [peace prize nomination] made some of the adults who coordinated our activities to indulge in a passion to win the Prize ,forgetting to act with humanity towards the children. … At my young age and with my innocence, I understood that for many adults peace is as good of a business as war, and that only when it is born from our interior will we be able to bring peace to our fellow human beings. I understood that true peace is provided by God, and that it is our duty to maintain it for the well-being of all humanity. Power brings peril: But humble yearning for the well-being God intends for the world is the most powerful force in our lives and in our world. Psalm 30 (©2001 Nathan Nettleton LaughingBird.net) I pleaded for help, LORD God, and you stepped in and healed me. They were nearly ready to pronounce me dead but your brought me back, LORD; you put me back on my feet when I was about to be carried to the morgue. So I’m singing your praises, and I’m encouraging everyone to do the same; to name you with joyful thanks. I was guilty of taking your goodness for granted; I thought I had it made. You had put me on top of the world but I got all too full of myself. You stepped aside — made me stand alone — and I turned to jelly! I realised how much I needed you, LORD, and in my panic I begged you for mercy. …..Give me another chance, LORD. Please, LORD, bail me out one more time.” And sure enough, you did, LORD. You turned my tears to laughter; you set my dragging feet dancing; . …So now I’m singing your praises ........ from the bottom of my heart, ................and no one can shut me up! You are my God, LORD, ........and I’m eternally grateful. [1] Written by Reinhold Niebuhr while at Heath Union Church, Berkshires, 1943. 7-28-13 “Choose Your Fork” Luke 11:1-13 Colossians 2:6-15, (16-19) (8:30) Hosea 1:2-10 The baseball great Yogi Berra [1] was know for sayings that seemed to make no sense yet feel like they’re hovering tantalizingly close to deep truth. The future ain’t what it used to be. "Never answer an anonymous letter" " It's deja vu all over again" My favorite: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” What is it about that statement that makes me stop, not just to ask "hunh?" but to also thank, "hmmmm." We have other sayings about forks. Remember “He speaks with a forked tongue?” According to one 1859 account, the native proverb that the "white man spoke with a forked tongue" originated as a result of the French tactic of the 1690s, in their war with the Iroquois, of inviting their enemies to attend a Peace Conference, only to be slaughtered or captured[2] When I hear that someone “speaks with fork-ed tongue,” I can’t help but think of the serpent in the garden of Eden, instigator of the first bad human choice. And do not bring us to the time of trial, Jesus said. Our scripture readings this morning have some tough stuff in them. Did you flinch a little when you heard Jesus say to us, If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" I don't ususally thik of myself as evil. At least not the way villians in movies are evil. But I know that I don't always make the choices God wants me to make. I know that sometimes being led into temptation looks, well, pretty tempting. Oh God, how bad can it be if I'm mean just this once? If I ignore that person just this once. If I turn my back and ignore what I know God wants for me, just this once... When you come to a fork in the road take it. Pick it up. Look at it. Think about it. Pray about it? What can you do with a real fork (wind chimes and other crafts projects aside)? Have you ever watched a little kid try to figure that out? First they try to stab whatever's in front of them. It doesn't matter whether its solid, mushy or liquid. Eventually they figure out that they can stab other things too, like their borther or sister. Eventually they start to get the hang of the utensil and actually move food into their mouth. What an accomplishment! What joy overflowing! They want to share. They try to feed you with this wonderous implement they've discovered Stab or feed. That's our choice pretty much every day. Remember Noah’s story? In response, God’s plan A seemed to be to indict, to judge, to punish, and finally to forgive. But in one of the little prophetic books, something extraordinary happens. God comes into the story in a new way. Hosea first sees an impulse kicking in “eye for an eye, pain for pain,” It sounds like God is scape-goating him, doesn’t it? Like God is taking the pain of a dishonored husband and stabbing another, take that! (And maybe I’ll feel better.) A time honored tradition that we still use today, even to explain the cross. But God doesn’t stay there. In this book, for the first time, humanity sees God responding differently. God takes the fork that began to stab and offers to feed with it instead. What Hosea learns, and what he models, is how God behaves with those who have dishonored him. Each story, … of Hosea, … of Jesus, presses the limits of human imagination and understanding while drawing us deeper into God’s embrace than we’ve ever been before, even though we’ve been unfaithful. It can be my story and yours too. Men and women speak with forked tongues, that’s a fact, And yet even the snake is later redeemed by God in the desert with Moses, and spoken of as a sign of God’s redeeming power by early Christians. The snake becomes a symbol of healing and wisdom among medical practitioners. So what are some actualy forks in the road? Where are places we see God's plan continuing to respond and emerge? One example is gambling in Maine. For years Methodist led the charge against leagalized gambling, knowing that it is not God's intention to leave our shared or household economies to chance. But as the public was worn down by relentless press of the industry, Methodist have become silent on the subject in the past few years. What now? A new effort has begun to pay attention to those who are most vulnerable to problem gambling and addiction. Executives from the gambling industry are supporting the creation of a network of self-exclusion by which people who recognize their problem can be kept from the casinos. Professional standards are being created for counselors who work with addiction to gambling. We Methodist can be silent in the face of defeat, or we can rise to the opportunity to be partners with former foes. Another example comes from our past. As I was working with some old Methodist Disciplines (our polity guidebooks) I was astonished to find a 1952 prohibition on divorced ministers. What a painful period of change that must have been for our church as the culture all around began to embrace divorce. What was God doing in that time? Did we discover that we were wrong about what God's will was? Or did we find that God's will responded to the needs of God's people? Last October we prayed for an Afghani school girl who has become a global ambassador for women's education, Malala Yousatzai. The shot from a taliban fighter meant to silence her went through her brain and lodged in her shoulder. Today she is once again active as an advocate for educational equility. What makes someone choose to feed rather than stab? Where does the wisdom, the strength, the courage come from? He said to them, "When you pray, say: Father, hallowed be your name. Your kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone indebted to us. And do not bring us to the time of trial." When we are not able to forgive, we end up stabbing either someone else by passing on the pain, or ourselves by holding it in. When we are able to forgive, we are fed and able to feed. Relentless Love[3] written by John van de Laar Though we run hot and cold, fickle and changing in our faith, your love remains certain and constant; Though we grow tired and disillusioned, bored and distracted far too easily, your love stays true to the end; Though we allow our grief and anger, to turn us away from grace and mercy, your love refuses to let go; We praise and thank you, O God, for your relentless love, for it’s abundant availability, and for so flooding our lives with love, that some must, inevitably overflow and warm others with its touch. Amen. Benediction from Colossians: As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. [1] http://www.yogiberra.com/yogi-isms.html [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forked_tongue [3] http://sacredise.com/lectionary/2013/07/proper-12c-ordinary-17c-9th-sunday-after-pentecost-2/ If-Then-But….
Topic: The Bible assumes that we are responsible for our choices, both what we choose to do and what we choose to think. Our choices matter. Intro: When our son was in High School, he had a two-part proverb in bumper sticker form posted on the door to his room. Part One: The early bird gets the worm. What assumptions do you recognize in that old saying? If……………….then……………… (If you want to win the stuff you’ve got to get out ahead of everyone else) Part Two: But! The second mouse gets the cheese. Assuming that if……..then……….. (If you keep your eyes open you can benefit from the mistakes of those who go before you) Assumptions are tricky. We walk into each other’s assumptions all the time, so we know they’re there. They’re just hard to see, like invisible walls or walkways, (depending)! If I offend you then chances are I’ve banged up against one of your assumptions. But it can be even harder to see our own. That requires getting out of our own heads, which is impossible to do on our own, an oxymoron. One of the things that an honest relationship with the bible is really good at is helping us see things from another perspective. The proverbs are a record of assumptions acquired by Yahweh followers thousands of years ago, snippets of lessons learned sometimes at grandparent’s knees and sometimes the hard way. The Proverbs of Solomon are a set attributed to King Solomon’s court. Here’s one: Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are the lazy to their employers, makes sense when you think about the vast building projects Solomon accomplished: Palaces for his hundreds of politically connected wives, walls to guard the city, the temple that located God safely in the center of the city. Wealth hastily gotten will dwindle, says one proverb, but those who gather little by little will increase it. (13:11). In the French version, feather by feather the goose is plucked. Not too long ago, the American economic system, in a period of sustained economic stability, assumed it was clear sailing toward a horizon of progressive prosperity. So investors, financial firms, and regulators assumed it was safe to take risks. In fact, it became necessary to take increasingly larger risks to satisfy demands for greater and a greater profit fueling the prosperity that we assumed, and perhaps still assume, is our right. [1] Assumption: If something goes wrong, then the robust economy and safeguards will provide damage control. But what happens when too many take too big of risks and the safety net develops holes? Proverb 14: 20 makes an observation, the poor are disliked (disdained) even by their neighbors, the rich have many friends. But, says the partner proverb following close on its heels: those who despise their neighbors are sinners, but happy are those who are kind to the poor (14: 21). If someone has a lot then we are naturally going to be attracted to him or her. But we ignore our less affluent neighbors at our own peril and find happiness in being kind to them. Reading these wisdom sayings is not just looking over the shoulders of our ancestors to sneak a peek at their lives. Its also listening for where and how God speaks to each of us. What is it that makes me uncomfortable (causes me to disdain) that ragged person I passed with a sign reading “help me” in the Portland intersection last week? How can I be kind to the poor who, in our way of life, is rarely my next-door neighbor anymore? The community that recorded these proverbs lived side by side in various economic situations. What they had in common was a way of life, a heritage, a faith. They lived on land they inherited or moved into as a community The community that reads it now lives divided into economic neighborhoods for the most part. We live where we can afford. Figuring out what we have in common is one of the most pressing moral issues of our time. Change of proverbial topics…..I love the proverbs that startle me. This one always stops me in my tracks: Like a gold ring in a pig’s snout is a beautiful woman without good sense. (11: 22) Seems kind of harsh don’t you think? Yet it sure gets your attention, doesn’t it? I read it this week right after this eye-catching headline: “She Can Play That Game Too” an article by Kate Taylor, in the New York Times, Sunday Styles. Researchers are documenting a trend among college women who have grown averse to developing relationships. They can’t spare the time and energy that must go toward goals they assume must be accomplished in their college career. Speaking of the young man she is sleeping with but emphatically not dating, one junior said, We don’t really like each other in person, sober. When the interviewer asked why she hasn’t had a relationship while at college, the undergraduate talked about “cost-benefit analysis and the “low risk and low investment costs” of hooking up. [2] This is the generation that has grown up in the recession, that is now much more risk averse than their parents and grandparents. For the young women interviewed at one highly competitive university, college is a race for top grades, leadership positions, sports accomplishments, highly visible internships, and community service projects. The only down time is at bars or frat parties. “If I’m sober, I’m working.” The same woman said that, “she did not want to settle down until she could choose a partner knowing that his goals and values were fixed.” “I don’t want to go through …changes with you, I want you to have changed and become enough of your own person so that when you meet me we can have a stable life and be very happy…I’m a strong woman, I know what I want.” Yet she doesn’t want her name in print or the number of one night stands because of the assumption that it would damage her reputation with her family or future employers. Assumptions -where do we start? With hers? A perfect life is happy and stable, on my terms and when I choose. (I am in control) If I do everything right in this phase of my life then the rest will be smooth sailing. But…. Ours? What wisdom do we have to share? And what assumptions might get in the way of sharing it? Do we assume that life is about getting ahead, proving our plan, or even achieving our personal dream of happiness? How do we pay attention to where our dreams intersect with others’ dreams? If I talk to the young people in my life, they’re not going to want to hear my opinion….but study after study shows that the greatest influence on most young people right up into their late twenties or early thirties is their parents and other adults they respect. It’s hard work paying attention to our assumptions. In fact, I wonder whether we don’t work even harder to protect them. It’s easier to smile at a proverb that rings a sympathetic bell than to ponder over one that disturbs. The simple believe everything, but the clever consider their steps. (Proverbs 14:15) Sometimes we’re lucky to have split seconds in which to make a choice: There’s a Northern European saying: If you wrestle a bear, never grab for his tail. In Maine we might say, if you see a moose in front of your car, aim away from the knees. That’s when good habits come in handy, right? I’m reading a new book, “The Power of Habit,” in which Charles Duhigg describes how changing everything begins with changing one habit. So simple, so powerful. When we become intentional about the choices we make each day, they form the ways we react without much time to think. The Songhai say, a log may lie in the water for 10 years but it will never become a crocodile. A submerged plan that is never acted on will never come alive. People who I never get to know will never become more than I assume them to be, at least not in any way I can recognize or respond to. If I want to get to know people, I have to invest more in human relationships than watching reality show or scanning magazine covers in the check out line. If I want to get to know what God is saying to me through scripture, if I am ready to get outside my own head and see my assumptions in a new light, then I have to open up the book and get to know the content through conversation, study and prayer. But I also have to choose what I do with it. Because its not just words, not just information that God offers, it’s relationship. It’s relationship that compels us to check our assumptions. Am I doing what God is really calling me to do? Or am I doing what I want to do… Or, what I assume God wants me to do? How do I know? maybe this is a way to know. At the end of the day, has what I’ve chosen to do and what I’ve chosen to think caused me to become a little more like Jesus? Has what I’ve chosen to think about the college women in that study, what I’ve chosen to do about the woman I met in the median, made me more, or less, like Jesus? Those choices will reshape my assumptions, reshape my habits, turn me around to recognize Jesus more readily tomorrow, or not, depending on what choices I make today. How we live comes down to hundreds of choices we make through the course of each day. What we choose to say: Who ever winks the eye causes trouble, but the one who corrects boldly makes peace. Proverbs 10:10 Mud thrown is ground lost. Bumper sticker What we choose to do: Did Martha have one of these proverbs (her background education) in mind when she was stewing in the kitchen? Like vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so are the lazy…. I wonder whether she wasn’t abdicating her own choice by distraction at what someone else should be doing, I wonder whether she was pinned to the kitchen by the assumption that that was where she was supposed to be. Mary has chosen the best thing, Jesus said. Ouch, that must have hurt, no matter how gentle his voice might have been. What Martha does next is her choice, what she thinks next is her choice. They will reveal her ultimate commitment, either to the assumptions she carries, or to the living One standing before her. If the choice she makes embitters her then it makes her less like the Christ she is trying to serve. But perhaps she will choose to think, to do, and to be free of whatever is holding her back. Perhaps she will take a minute to sit and join her sister listening at his feet. Perhaps she will return to the kitchen singing with the joy of serving such a Lord. You see we make our choices based on what, or who, we chose, consciously or unconsciously to pay attention to. Former President Jimmy Carter remembers a Cuban pastor he met at a Puerto Rican revival service. The pastor seemed to form an instant relationship with those listening. So President Carter asked him how he established such rapport with the immigrant workers he was preaching to. What was the secret of his success? (An understandable thing for a politician to want to learn.) Senor Jimmy, said Elroy Cruz, we only need to have 2 loves in our lives: for God, and for the person who happens to be in front of us at any time.[3] That sounds a lot like something we heard last week, doesn’t it? If you will love the Lord your God with all your ….(heart, mind, and soul) and your. …(neighbor) as yourself, then you will have done all there is to do. And there is no “but.” [1] “The Time Bernake got it wrong,” Floyd Norris, nytimes.com/economix.7-19-13 [2] “She Can Play That Game Too” Kate Taylor, NYTimes, Sunday Styles, 7-14-13 [3] Jimmy Carter, “Sources of Strength, introduction July 8, 2001 Wisdom: Companion Guide Children’s message: “What’s a Proverb?” Shared Joy is double joy and shared sorrow is half sorrow. Swedish Proverb: Proverbs 8: 1-11, 22-31 The Gospel According to Luke 10: 1-11 Long ago and far away, when most of the Hebrew bible was first being written down, the people of Israel were slave labor in Babylon, desperately trying to hold onto the story of being God’s chosen people. The captors who “required of them songs and mirth,” told their own creation story in war sagas, with gods mercilessly subduing and slaying their own fathers and mothers, who represented various aspects of the world’s creation. Biblical scholar Raymond Van Leeuwen, calls Proverbs “narratives in a nutshell.” I think of them as snapshots in a family album that carry our faith family’s values. The Proverbs that Jesus’ faith-family collected carry remnants of a creation story in which God first created a companion called, “wisdom.These proverbs remind us that we are not in this thing we call life alone. We have each other, We also have God’s first companion, Wisdom. Proverbs 8:22-31 is a remnant of a very different creation story, one that values wisdom and companionship, not violence and competition. Now, even though our creation stories don’t begin with the bloody conflicts of the Babylonions, we know that it doesn’t take too long before conflict creeps in. (read Proverbs 9:7-9) In our Gospel reading we just heard Jesus teach the 70 being sent out before him what to do with inhospitable folks. It went something like this. Peace to your House!” slam! Goes the door. (Wipe dust from feet) What happens to the peace that was offered? “If anyone who is there shares in that peace, your peace will rest on that person; but if not it will return to you.” Having Christ’s peace thrown back in our face is not what we’re looking for when we go enthusiastically out to share God’s good news. Could the modern proverb be true? “A friend is one who dislikes the same people you dislike.” Is that why Jesus sent them out in pairs? Or is it that, “Friendship, like phosphorus, shines brightest when all around is dark.” Which proverb carries our “narrative in a nutshell? Jesus knows that rejection is part of the way life is, but its not the main point of the story, and so he coaches his followers on how to move on. Here are three other things to notice about this story; 1. Jesus sends his seventy out in pairs. He implicitly values companionship. From the beginning (Adam and Eve) human beings need company. 2. Jesus tells each traveling pair to enter the first house where they are welcomed and stay there. Why not “share the wealth” by staying at as many houses as you can and influencing as many as you can? Maybe it has something to do with knowing that relationships take time to take root and grow. Germans sometimes say, Friendship is a plant we must often water. By staying with someone, the disciples nurtured deeply rooted wisdom that their hosts could then plant as Kingdom seeds in their own community. God’s peace is to be cultivated over time and through deep relationship. . 3. Finally, notice how Jesus tells his followers to be open to what God will provide, instead of searching out what they think they ought to find. Jesus tells them: to receive what is given to them (eat), to give what is given them to share (healing) and to name what is happening and who is doing it (proclaim the reign of God is at hand) In these friendships, God is building something, the Kingdom is near. Perhaps Aristotle was onto something when he wrote: Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.” The friendships God gives, true friendships, move us toward that Kingdom experience of sharing the one Soul of creation, which is God. In Syria it’s sometimes said that if you will tell me your friends, I’ll tell you who you are. Biblical Proverbs describe a God who offers friendship in the form of wisdom, Wisdom created as God’s first work of long ago, Wisdom present as God’s delight seeing the heavens, waters, foundations of the earth, and finally, humanity come into being. Wisdom embodied in God’s saving grace, Jesus Christ, Wisdom that invites us to become part of God’s redemption of creation. Go often to the house of they friend, for weeds choke the unused path. –Ralph Waldo Emerson Pastoral Prayer: Loving God, we pray for the hot spots in your world this week, especially we wrap our loving thoughts around Egypt, and Syria, and The Nigerian community of Yobe as it mourns for its slain children. We thank you for compassionate hands and wise voices in these places, who remind us of your healing power and will. We pray for strange and terrible events on our own continent San Francisco, (plane crash) Quebec Province (train fire) Bangor (parade accident) Arizona (19 lost) Give rest and renewal to first responders. Grant comfort to those who mourn and hope to those who will rebuild lives. We pray for all who feel the impact of sequestration and for local communities seeking common ground and budgeting solutions. To those who fears are ignited, bring peace. To those with resources, give wisdom. To all of us bring awareness of our role in your greater story. Hold us to account for what we do and don’t do. Form us in the image of your son and self, Jesus Christ, as we share the prayer he taught us. ---------------------------------- After this the Lord appointed seventy-two others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. -- Luke 10.1 You do not just happen to be here, you have been sent. You are intended to be here, to convey a presence. The land of uncertainty and the unknown, these are your territory. You are sent not away but ahead. You are accompanied, paired with one who goes with you. It is not your success, but your love and courage that fulfill your purpose. The path will need you; the journey will create you. What we receive compels us, and, not alone, we go. -Steve Garnaas Holmes, 7-5-13 www.unfolding light.net Kings 17: 8-24 Luke 7: 11-17 These incredibly similar stories of two widows, two sons brought back from the grave, and two miracle workers both have happy endings. And that’s what makes them such dangerous texts if we use them to pull God into our stories instead of letting God pull us into the depth and width of the divine story. Loosing a child is a mother’s worst nightmare. Man of us have come close to that edge, or gone over. I can remember with a melting in my bones, the afternoon our oldest lay limp in my arms, the little chest heaving for every thin breathe of air. It only takes a moment’s imagination to be back at the side of friends whose children were gone in the flash of a moment, a knife, a car’s bumper, a gun. What do we do with these miracle stories that raise our hopes? What do we make of them when we know the child doesn’t always get up off the bed? Was it something we did or didn’t do? The Sidonite woman cries out to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin to remembrance, and to cause the death of my son!" Do you think it was her fault? ….a sin tax to be paid? ….failure to protect her child? Our children’s vulnerability cuts through every illusion we have that wealth, knowledge, good behavior, ritual or any other human power is in control of life itself. When Jesus met that grieving mother, she was surrounded by neighbors caught up in mourning. I think of some of the things we hear at funerals or read on social media in the face of loss. “Only the good die young.” “God took her to be an angel.” “Its all part of God’s plan.” Friends, as much as we feel compelled to explain the pain, these are not words of comfort. They are bad theology (god-talk). The singer sings: With or without you With or without you I can't live with or without you. How do we live with a God who would leave only the “bad” living on earth, who would pluck a cherished child out of a family to populate heaven’s chorus, who would plan such profound grief? But how can we live without God our creator, redeemer and sustainer when words strip comfort away? Years ago we watched a beautiful young woman in our church in Hampton Virginia battle cancer. Over the month and years of treatment, remission, in moments of normalcy, as prosthesis replaced her nose, as she fell in love, introduced her beloved to Jesus, and married, she shared her powerful encounters with Christ. They were so powerful couldn’t believe it when she died. If anyone should have had a miracle, it was she! God turns these stories around. These widows’ stories are not life giving because they promise the longed for happy ending is within our grasp. If they contained the whole of God’s message, too many of us would be left wrestling with how to live with or without the God we long for. These stories are life giving because God turns them around and face life in a way we didn’t see coming. God becomes the parent losing the child. God doesn’t just relieve our grief. God doesn’t just accompany us in our unrelieved grief. God becomes the parent who loses a child. God walks right into the fragility of our lives and does not jump back out of our story when loss looms. God walks right through the death of God’s son and out the other side to life beyond our imagining. I won’t pretend to understand the Resurrection. (If anyone ever tries to explain this extraordinary mystery to you, take it with a grain of salt!). The singer makes as much sense of it as I can hold. And you give yourself away And you give yourself away And you give, and you give And you give yourself away. With or without you I can't live with or without you. Our stories are too small, each alone or even all together, to contain God’s story. But the God who gives and receives life makes us sacred characters in a story much richer than our own introductions and conclusions. In it, we are called, "beloved." And perhaps in the end that’s all we really need to know or say. The Psalms aren't just wonderful songs from our spiritual ancestors. They're also ways of learning from their faith struggles and triumphs. Psalm 96 is teaching me this week how to keep my focus on God. While Sunday's story of Elijah's battle with the highly entertaining prophets of Baal is a great illustration of what God is wiling to do to recpature our attention, a better way is to learn how to keep God front and center in the first place! It seems to me that Psalm 96 shows God's people doing ths by: Witnessing, Praising, Offering, Coming into God's presence, Inviting others to join us, Going out to witness and to serve the God of equity. Walk through these wonderful verses with me. WE WILL WITNESS O sing to the LORD a new song; sing to the LORD, all the earth. Sing to the LORD, bless his name; tell of his salvation from day to day. Declare his glory among the nations, his marvelous works among all the peoples. (verses 1-3) and PRAISE BECAUSE ...great is the LORD, and greatly to be praised; he is to be revered above all gods. For all the gods of the peoples are idols, but the LORD made the heavens. (verses 4-5) (WE ACKNOWLEDGE IDOLS ARE THERE BUT ALSO THAT THEY HAVE NO REAL POWER) COMING INTO GOD"S PRESENCE Honor and majesty are before him; strength and beauty are in his sanctuary. INVITING OTHERS TO JOIN US Ascribe to the LORD, O families of the peoples, ascribe to the LORD glory and strength. Ascribe to the LORD the glory due his name; bring an offering, and come into his courts. Worship the LORD in holy splendor; tremble before him, all the earth. AND GOING OUT TO WITNESS AND TO SERVE THE GOD OF EQUITY Say among the nations, "The LORD is king! The world is firmly established; it shall never be moved. He will judge the peoples with equity." (7-10) I'm going to practice starting and finish each day with these words to see if they help me steer a faithful course. I invite you to join mw and share how it goes! In Joy, Karen |
Karen L MunsonUnited Methodist Pastor & Liturgical Artist Archives
September 2015
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