THE FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER PENTECOST
June 16, 2002
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The Old Testament lesson today –
is one that asks us to remember –
To remember -
And not to forget –

All that God has done for us.
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A friend of mine insists that actually each of us –
has a photographic memory -

but –
that some of us don’t have film.
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In Exodus -
God said to Moses"

"Thus you shall say to the House of Jacob,
and tell the Israelites:
You have seen what I did to the Egyptians,

And
How I bore you on Eagles Wings and –
brought you to myself."

Exodus 19:3
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The History of the World and the History of
the Human Race has been marked by various periods –
or more correctly by –
"Ages."

We can recount any number of Ages:
the Mesozoic Age – The Neolithic Age –
The Bronze Age -

The Age known as the Middle Ages –
The Modern Age & the Post Modern Age.
Not to mention what someone has coined as –
the Age of Aquarius.

But what about today –
What are the characteristics of the Age –
In which we live today ?

Some years ago –
British Theologian Anthony Townie –
wrote a satire on the then current,
"Death of God Theology."

He called his book:
"Dairy of the Late God."
In his book,

He asks us to imagine –
that after God died,
killed by contemporary academic theologians,

A Diary was found among God’s belongings.
The entries in God’ Diary –
Are a wonderful satire on contemporary theology –
Or the lack of it.

As one reads the:
"Diary of the Late God,"
One is immediately struck with the notion
That for somepeople –

one of the characteristics of –
the age in which we live at least –
in this country is –

"The Age of Arrogance."

The unabashed Arrogance and
The Smuggness of
An age which has so much –

And has been blessed beyond measure -
And yet –
And yet –

Is so unwilling to give God the credit He so
Greatly deserves –
Or to put in it another way –
We live in an Age –
which has a very difficult time:
"In Giving God the Glory."

In the Book of Exodus –
God asks Moses to tell the Israelite to remember –

to remember what God has done for them –
and not take His Blessings for granted

It is so easy to forget –
For some people –
Sometimes it is hard to remember –

For somepeople –
Memory is a fickle thing.
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"One entry in God’s Diary reads:
"In spite of my People’s transgressions -

No one else –
could have ever been more long suffering
and forgiving -
than I -

I gave them all I could –
A grand and a glorious World -
In which to live -

A
World
Filled with beauty and rich resources

A World full of Peoples of
many kindreds and tongues –
and yet -
All of One Blood -

God contionues:
I stood by them –

And
in their adversity -
I bore them on Eagles’ Wings -
I even gave them my own Son –

And yet –
in their own blindness and –
in their own Arrogance,
and ingratitude,

They committed the ultimate
Presumption:

They
Presumed that their ways were
Superior to My Ways –
That in the scheme of Things –
I was no longer necessary –

That
Mankind had now come of Age –
And that Humanity –
didn’t need to be burdened down or

to be inhibited or held back –
any longer by –
Such primitive and superstitious beliefs –

And then after this statement -
God writes:
And Yet" -
the real truth was -
This:

Sadly – He says:
Many People were not interested in
Believing in a God that one –
could not control –
Or manipulate –

Who didn’t run things they way they wanted –
For so many people –
The kind of God they wanted –
Just did not exist –



And if a God did exist –
He was completely irrelevant -
To them & their needs
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And yet –
It is in such an age –
That –
People of Faith -
That -
Christians Witness to a God

Yes –
To a God that one cannot –
control or manipulate –
But Whose
Love overflows throughout
The world –

Even in the darkest of places and –
in the blackest of nights.

It is in such as World –
That our God continues to Reign –

And that His People
Continue to manifest His Love –

In spite of the evil that tries –
to grip and to overcome the world –
and which fiercely tries to deny –
God.
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Yev-tu-shen-ko –
A great Russian Poet,
Writes in his autobiography –
of a moment in 1944 when –
20,000 German War Prisoners –

were marched through ice & snow –
through the streets of Moscow –
wearing blood-stained bandages –

hobbling on crutches –
and –
leaning on one another.

At one point –
an elderly Russian Woman –
herself ill-clad –

pushed through the Police line and –
went up to the column of ragged German Soldiers –

and –
shoved a crust of bread into –
the pocket of a German Soldier –
who was so exhausted –
that he was tottering.

And then suddenly from all sides –

Women were running to these enemy Soldiers –
pushing bread, cigarettes and –
whatever they had –
into the hands of
the Soldiers.

This event – this story –
Is a reminder -
that Human Compassion

Has sources that transcend –
the powerful Hatreds –
that attempt to engulf
Humankind.

The Story suggests that –
the roots of reconciliation -
Are not alien or foreign to the human spirit –

But have their origin in the Grace and –
the Love of God –

and though such compassion -
is sometimes buried deep within us -
and even crusted over -


It still nevertheless –
is in each Human Heart.
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Is it possible –

In Faith –
Is it possible to –
Conclude –

That though the past few years –
God has borne us on Eagles’ Wings -
Through some
Hard & difficult & painful times ?

How many times have we come to –
the aid of our children -
And we have helped them through some tough times
Without them ever knowing about it ?

And in our own lives -
Is it possible –
to recognize the hand of God in our Lives -
and -
To Give God the Glory ?

Is it possible –
through His bountiful Grace –
To come together –
Not only to accept one another -
But to glory in our differences ?

For if the Christian Faith means anything at all –
It means Reconciliation –

Reconciliation not only to God –
But also to one another.

For there can be no true Unity –
Without diversity –

For who in the World could ever imagine –
Or -
How realistic is it to believe -
That any group of People –
No matter of what Denomination or Religion –
That they would ever -
Think or act or believe exactly
The same -

Every dot & tittle?

Just possibly – just possibly –
The future & the survival of
The Human Race –

depends on us all –
getting along –
and making room for one another –
with all of our differences.
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In the Christian Faith –
the very opposite of –
Arrogance –

Is:
Thanksgiving & Gratitude -
The Acknowledgment –
that we came from God –
that all that we are -
is of God –

and all that we have –
is the gift of God –

and -
Rather than arrogantly –
declaring the death of
a God -
who is no longer needed or relevant –

Christians emphatically proclaim –
Their dependence upon –
"The One in whom we live and move and –
have our being."


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And so on this Father’s Day –
We remember –
we remember all that our Fathers
in Love have done for us –

and even –
we give thanks for those things that they did for us
of –
which we are unaware.

And especially –
We give thanks –
And we remember –

That -
Through thick & thin –
Through dark & light –
Through Good times & hard times –
Through sorrow & pain -

That through the Ages –

This God in whom we live and have our being –

Has not been indifferent to our needs -
But –

Our God
has borne us on Eagles’ Wings.


A M E N & A M E N !!!


jdp+