Jesus Calls Us

A Reflection for 3rd Sunday of Easter St Luke & St. Anne. Roper and Grace, Plymouth May 4, 2025 Thomas E Wilson, Guest Celebrant/Preacher Acts 9:1-20 Revelation 5:11-14 John 21:1-19 Psalm 30 Jesus Calls Us We started off the service with the old Hymn, “Jesus Calls Us”. The words were written by Cecil Frances Alexander, a 19th Century Anglo-Irish writer and poet, and here she calls us to, and the lessons underscore, being called to a deeper relationship with God and the Creation. In the Gospel of John. This Gospel should have ended at the 20th chapter of John, for there is a colophon, a literary formula, an ending which sums everything up. But, there is this chapter added on; a new ending at the end of the ending. I think it was probably added in by an editor of the Gospel who just had to add one more story, a story of Jesus inviting his followers to bring his spirit into their daily life and work. I think it is a nice way of reminding us that the Jesus story does not end, but it continues in our lives. Or, the author's way of saying that the story of Jesus has no ending; as long as two or three are gathered in God’s name the Good News continues. 1. Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea; day by day his sweet voice soundeth, saying, "Christian, follow me!" In the lesson from the Acts of the Apostles, Jesus calls Saul, an enemy of the Jesus movement, to totally change his whole perception of his own faith. Saul, famous for being zealous in the persecution of those who followed Jesus; now is called to be Paul, the one who becomes the chief interpreter of the meaning of the Christ. The name Saul means “asked for” as in the name of the First King of Israel, Saul, whom the people called for a King. Saul will change his name to Paul which means humble 2. As of old the apostles heard it by the Galilean lake, turned from home and toil and kindred, leaving all for Jesus' sake. Saul starts off his religious career as being a devoted Pharisee; one who is determined to obey all matters of religious dogma and practice. He sees in the Jesus movement of the Christians a neglecting and disregarding, and even a hi-jacking of the Pharisee spirit by the followers of Jesus. So, in the name of religious purity, he works overtime, using all of his strength and powers to viciously get rid of these heretics. He works so hard that he collapses. In his collapse, a power greater than his religion gives him an invitation to healing. Saul is told to place himself into the hands of Ananias, a follower of Paul’s enemy, Jesus. The healing is a new sight for Saul, a way of seeing all things in a different way; seeing things through the eyes of Jesus. The vision he receives gives Saul a whole new vision of life and it will give hima new name “Paul” which means humble, as he empties himself out for the Gospel. 3. Jesus calls us from the worship of the vain world's golden store, from each idol that would keep us, saying, "Christian, love me more!" Six decades, more than a half of a century ago, my draft board sent me a note to go get a pre-induction physical. The docs did all the things they needed to do and told me that I had a cataract and was functionally blind in one eye. It was news to me, but then I am a male and by definition, do not pay attention to my own body. I pointed out to them that during the Arab Israeli Conflicts, General Moshe Dayan only had one functioning eye. The doc pointed out that the Israeli armed forces had different standards. After different operations over the decades, I see all right, but not perfectly. It is a reminder to me that I need to pay attention, to look deeply and see what is really going on in my life and in my world. As Proverbs remind us: “There are none so blind as those who will not see.” 4. In our joys and in our sorrows, days of toil and hours of ease, still he calls, in cares and pleasures, "Christian, love me more than these!" How much of a change is it when we make a commitment to truly see? Let me give you an idea. You have heard me tell you over and over again, of my religious beliefs; but I have not told you of my political beliefs. I am what is called a “Yellow Dog Democrat”! That is a term that came from the time after Reconstruction in the South after the Civil War. They were men, only men could vote then, who said they would vote for a “Mangy Yeller Dog” before they would ever vote for a Republican.. Where am I on the political scale? I am so far to the left that I consider Bernie Sanders much too conservative. Yet, regardless of my political beliefs, I pray every day for the current President of the United States, with whom I disagree on almost everything. Prayer is not a matter of agreement but of entering into the sacred space between each one and to see each other as brothers and sisters of Christ and children of the living God. 5. Jesus calls us! By thy mercies, Savior, may we hear thy call, give our hearts to thine obedience, serve and love thee best of all.

Hope or Belief?

A Reflection for the the 2nd Sunday of Easter Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Gatesville, NC April 27, 2025 Acts 5:27-32 Revelation 1:4-8 John 20:19-31 Psalm 150 Hope or Belief? Today’s Gospel lesson is the one that is the reason for the phrase “Doubting Thomas”. It is when I wonder what was in my father’s mind when I was born and as he was filling out the forms in the hospital in St. Louis gave me the name “Thomas”. The story he used to tell was that as my mother was in labor, he took a break from the waiting room and went next door to a bar where the man sitting at the stool next to him was named “Thomas”. My father liked telling stories; believing that stories should be mainly enjoyable, the bigger and taller the better, and where truth was a negotiable factor. Shakespeare must have had my father in mind when he has Hamlet say: “There is nothing good or bad, but thinking makes it so.” I grew to get used to the idea of being a “doubting Thomas” and I grew to expect to ask questions and use my brain to doubt. I understand the difficulty that Thomas had, when the other disciples told him that they had seen Jesus, the dead Jesus, alive as he could be. Doubt was a good fall back to have. I found it helpful when I made a living being a counselor who understood when people felt the need to shade an elastic truth. It was helpful when I taught in a College as students had so many reasons for papers being late, with so many parents being ill or dying. When I became a Priest, I got used to hearing stories from parishioners, and indeed other clergy, which omitted certain details that they did not want to be a cause of my Priestly dissaproval. C.G Jung, the 20th Century Swiss Psychiatrist, had the concept of “Persona”, which is a mask that we humans begin developing about the time we start interacting with the world outside our home, like going to school. We develop and wear our persona as we interact with, or hide behind from, other people in our daily life. In order to really know someone, we have to get past their persona. When I met a person called Pat the month after I was ordained in 1984, I focused on her “persona”. I figured I knew everything about her the first time I attended a meeting she was running. I walked away from that crowded meeting figuring she was a waste of space and my time. Luckily, I had to attend a lot more meetings with her, and five years later we got married for 34 years of the happiest times of my life. The longer I worked as a Priest, the less important it was to be judgmental of a person who might be shading the facts of his or her life, and the more important it was to focus on the hope in each person. It is what St. Francis called, and the late Pope Francis, who died this last week. echoed in his life, is “Listening with the ear of the heart.” I am reminded of the old television show I saw in my youth, “Dragnet”. There was a character called Joe Friday, who is pure “persona”, who wanted “just the facts!” You can hear the “Persona” in his voice and see it in his face. What a sensible way to look at crime and misdemeanors. Just the facts! The story in the Gospel is the story of “Doubting Thomas” who is pure persona. Thomas is a man who looks and wants to get just the facts. He wanted the facts of Jesus’s body being dead, the nail riddled hands, the gaping wounded seared side. However, he discovers there was a deeper reality than the facts. In the 150th Psalm for today, the Psalmist says that when we enter the Presence of the Holy, we are encouraged to enter with Thanksgiving and praise. So how did each of you enter the church for today's service? Was it a look at how well the church was all fixed up, or not fixed up, to meet your standards? Did you come to the sanctuary to give or withhold your approval based on your exacting standards? Or did you come to listen with the ear of God’s heart, and see with the divine vision? When I was in Seminary, we would have daily morning prayer and a weekly Holy Eucharist and each of us would have times of Chapel duty getting everything ready for the service. Oh, how important it was to get everything right. After all, when we finally graduated and got ordained, it would be important that we would make sure the Altar Guilds in the Parishes, we might be called to after we graduated, would get it right. Getting it right! That is one of the issues in the lesson from the Acts of the Apostles. The local authorities want to have a well run community and urge the disciples not to stir up emotions. The Disciples, on the other hand, want hearts to be moved, hopes to be raised and faith to be deepened. In the same way, we ask ourselves why we do services? Are we here to make sure our religious duties are done, or are we here to give ourselves, to give prayer for our neighbors in our world and to forgive others. Hope or Belief ? First seeing her was a stab of belief, thinking; it’s all I needed to know, not allowing for any hope to grow; but it did; sneaking in like a thief. It was mixtures of some new laughter with tears as she read some of my pain, then deciding to pray for a help again, in an here and now; not the hereafter. She, of course, wanted to be perfect, but Savior’s job was beyond taking, so she had to settle in the making, stabs, showing love more respect. Trusting each other’s vision scope; years of believing in blessed hope.

Starting All Over Again

A Reflection for Easter Sunday Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher April 20, 2025 St. Luke/ St Anne, Roper, & Grace, Plymouth, NC Starting All Over Again Isaiah 65:17-25 Psalm 118:1-2, 14-24 Acts 10:34-43 John 20:1-18 The day after I graduated from college, I got married to my then girlfriend. I was not a success as a husband. When my daughter went off to college, my wife and I got a divorce. In 1989 I got married to Pat. She also had been married before. Both of us, who had failed in marriage, both of us were damaged goods: yet we decided that we would take a chance and start all over again in being married people. The odds were against us, but both of us learned from our mistakes and entered into the best 34 years of our lives. She died a couple years ago, and I am still in mourning. Part of the reason I keep showing up here is that there is an empty part of me and I need to fill up my time. Sharing the good news of God is one of the ways I can spend energy. I have not allowed myself to even think about any romance and starting over with that part of my life. However, one of the real problems with being a Preacher is that you have to be faithful to the lessons from which the spoken message of a Sermon is to take place. The Message I hear in these lessons is about urging people to start all over again. In the Hebrew Testament lesson for today, the prophet Issiah is dictating words of welcome to the people coming back from Exile. He is saying that while the exile was a result of the arrogance the people practiced, a new day is coming when the relationship between God and God’s people will be renewed. Issiah says he heard God give the promise to start all over again, God’s very self, will change to make it better for God’s people and the impossible will happen. Before they call I will answer, while they are yet speaking I will hear. The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox; but the serpent-- its food shall be dust! They shall not hurt or destroy on all my holy mountain, says the Lord. So, option number one is to pick up the pieces and with God’s help, start all over again The Psalm for today gives the message that the past is shattered but we are free to build a whole new foundation. Go back to before the beginning, and start all over again. 22 The same stone which the builders rejected * has become the chief cornerstone. 23 This is the Lord's doing, * and it is marvelous in our eyes. 24 On this day the Lord has acted; * we will rejoice and be glad in it. So, option number two is to take the wreckage of the past and paste as much as you can together to create a new place in this world.With God’s help we are able to start all over again. In the Acts lesson, Peter says “for as all die in Adam, so all will be made alive in Christ.” He is telling the people that the Death and Resurrection of Jesus means that we can start over with God; sins are forgiven. There is no need to hold on to the past; the death and resurrection of Jesus means that the past is dead and the present calls us to live deeply in faith in a new way of living. So, option number three; it is not a matter of starting over on the same old path, but to start with that new pattern of living in this world. In the Gospel lesson from John we get the story that Mary comes to the tomb to anoint the dead body of Jesue. Except the stone has been rolled away and it looks as if the body has been stolen, Except it isn’t a plundering job. There is a clue: the face cloth that was placed on Jesus' face is still in the cave. If it was left by a grave robber, it would have been tossed on the floor of the cave. But the face cloth had been rolled up and set reverently to one side. It was not discarded, but it was given reverence. It is a sign that the body was not stolen, but the body has been changed. Jesus does not return to the old life but rather, he shows us a new dimension of what life is all about. So option four is we, like Jesus, are to die to the old life we are used to living, and be raised to a new life that connects to mysteries whose dimensions are those that are beyond our imagination. Four ways of starting over again in life. The more we read in scripture the more we are exposed to hope. If we did a full Bible study, we could find even more ways to start over. The problem for me is that I don’t want to stop mourning, I want to still hold on to the past, because I do not want to leave her behind. I still find meaning in the fact that I was loved, way beyond reason. I know my shortcomings only too well and yet she loved me. When I was a child I learned the song; “Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me . Yes, Jesus loves you. The Bible tells me so.” I have to keep remembering that truth. Just a suggestion, but you might want to sing that song quietly to yourself before you go to bed at night, or when you are brushing your teeth in the morning. I am 78 years old, and have not grown out of needing to sing that song. It is a way of starting over again. If we sing the song to ourselves at night; we can start to expect dreams that tell us how we are loved by God. If we sing it to ourselves in the morning; we set ourselves up to share an act, or disposition, of love with our neighbors. We have more love showered upon us than we know what to do with. That is where I am right now; instead of feeling so empty because the object of my love is gone from my sight; I am aware I was loved beyond my imagination and beyond my ability to earn it. It was grace. In thanksgiving for all of that love given to me; it is only right that now I am free to do acts of love in return for what I have been given. Starting All Over Again There are times we want to just swallow, and feel all sorts of sorry for ourselves, fitting all our feelings in bookshelves, so that in our memories, we can wallow.. But we are not made to live in a past, wanting to cling to with all our heart, not allowing a present to take its part, so that we might have futures to last. The futures with dreams which spawn hopes; this’ll be the day it all begins, this’ll be an hour, when prayer wins, as we’re to live into a brighter dawn. The past is where the gift was given; but today’s when the hurt’s forgiven.

Standing Up Together

A Reflection for Palm Sunday St. Andrew’s Episcopal, Nags Head, N.C. April 12, 2025 Thomas E Wilson, Preacher Luke 19:28-40 Psalm 118:1-2, 19-29 Isaiah 50:4-9a Philippians 2:5-11 Luke 22:14-23:56 Standing Up Together We have just gone through a heck of a lot of scripture in this service so far and It took me a while to try to figure out what I might focus on. So, when in doubt I write a poem, and let that lead me. The poem was about when we finish the service and we stand up together to go into the world as witnesses of the Cross. In this story, there are four times the disciples stand up together. The first time is when they are with Jesus walking with him as he rides into Jerusalem, all of them praising God joyfully. We do like to follow Jesus when all is going well. The second time is when the disciples are at the table and get into an argument about “Who is the Greatest Disciple!” Like the disciples, we like to compare ourselves with others, which allows us to pass judgment on others. The third time is when the disciples all get up and run away from the government forces arresting Jesus.after Judas betrayed him and them. Like the disciples, we do like to make ourselves scarce when times get rough. The fourth time is at the place of Golgotha when they stand with the women at a distance as witnesses to the Crucifixion; and that is when we all stand up together as witnesses. As the old Gospel song goes: “Were you there when they crucified my Lord. Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” There was nothing they could do to fix the world going wrong. Yet, there is a fifth time of standing up together and that is at the end of the service when if we are captured by love, we are unleashed into the world. Or we can just leave and beat the Methodists to lunch. In the 1970’s, before I went to Seminary, I was teaching Social Work in a college in Virginia and spending the summers in Boone, North Carolina where I was working for some summers in an Outdoor Drama and had to grow a beard for the part. My priest at the church in Boone told me that a call went out for people with Beards to pose for an artist named Ben Long who was doing a Fresco of the Last Supper on the walls of an neglected Episcopal Church at Glendale Springs in the next county over.. My white hair and beard was red at the time. A few years later when I finished my second year at Seminary, the Bishop sent me to the Episcopal churches in that county as a field placement as an assistant to the Priest, and one of my job duties was to be available to give lectures about the Fresco paintings to visitors who came to see beauty and a hope these visitors might grow in faith. I spent a great deal of that summer using insights from Ignatian Spirituality to grow deeper in my faith. Ignatius Loyola had been a soldier but when he could no longer fight, he turned to finding peace. When he was a soldier, after the battle, he would go over the battle in his mind, step by step, searching the things he did right and the things that were not helpful;.using a two step method to go deeper. When he became a man of peace, he used that two step method to go deeper in faith. The first step was to enter into God’s vision; to look at a situation where Jesus is following God’s calling to help us go deeper into our faith. Putting our egos aside, he would take the stories of Jesus and see the world from the loving vision of God. The second step was then to use imaginations to enter into each of the participants in the story, vision or dream. This particular Fresco was of the Last Supper, at the moment when Jesus is telling them that one of us would betray him. That Fresco opened up my world for me. The fresco was of dynamic tension in the space in, and between, each of the disciples at that moment. The Fresco itself was an invitation for visitors to live into a moment of decision or betrayal; decide to enter into love and follow the vision of Christ, or into betrayal for our own advantage. In the Fresco, most of the disciples are living into the moment between love or betrayal. As I posed for one of the disciples; I was acutely aware that betrayal was not a stranger to my behavior. As I posed, I thought of how much I was unworthy to be a disciple of Christ. I had, and still have, so many flaws. There were so many barriers in committing myself to God. I approved of God in the abstract, and as an anchor in the middle of a storm, but a day by day relationship was not my style. I did professional work as a therapist and as a teacher, but there was always a comfort in a professional distance. But God has this habit of elbowing God’s self into my imagination. How could, if I became a Priest, place my trust in people who might disapprove of some of my actions and turn on me, as so many clergy knew from first hand experience? Being a minister of the Gospel meant that I would be judged by my flaws; and I knew only too well that there were far too many of them. I could do lectures on what I knew, but could not then speak about any personal relationship with the divine. Prayers with God were not dialogs, but rather a series of spoken memos directed at the Ether, As I went deeper into the character that I was posing for and yet who was really me, I came to understand that the disciples were all made of equal portions of saint and schmuck. They were like me, and yet they were the ones chosen by Jesus. He knew them (and us) well and yet, he still loved them (and us) and gave them (and us) charge of his ministry on earth.That Fresco experience that summer was over, but when I went back to the college to teach, I came to a decision that I needed to make a commitment for a deeper spiritual life and a change in the way I was working at a job, and I went to seminary. My plan was to be a worker Priest, where I would be ordained and be a pastoral Counselor and stay away from Parish Work. My first job after Seminary was to be a College Chaplain. There is an old line that keeps coming back to me: “If you want to hear God laugh; tell God your plans.” Standing Up Together After the services we tend to go home, Alone in all our separate ways keeping Our visions closed until we’re sleeping, Dreaming until our imaginations roam. Into crowds of dangerous waving palms, All of us together as if we really believed, From all our mourning we’d be relieved, Replaces our dirges with hope in psalms. That what we feared might be a myth, For there’s so much challenging hope Fearing that the story was a fond trope, Which we’d package nice dreams with. Yet, death is not just the final chapter, But finding we know love’s our captor.

Nikki Felton

A Reflection on the Occasion of a Service in Honor of Nicola JoAlice Harrell “Nicki” Felton St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Gatesville, April 12, 2025 Thomas Wilson, Officiant Wisdom 3:1-5,9 Psalm 23 2 Corinthians 4:16--5:9 John 14:1-6 Thank you for being here today. You all knew Nicki much better than I do. I met her about three years ago when my wife and I would come to this church and I would do a fill in service about once a month. We always got a big kick out of being here; the people were all so incredibly nice. The last time we, my wife and I, were here was when a covered dish supper followed the service and as we got ready to drive away back to the Outer Banks, the Senior Warden, a wonderful man, he still is, came running out to our car loaded down with all sorts of good food to take home with us. We did not know this would be our last time here as my wife’s illness got so much worse and I stopped filling in at churches in order to stay with her, until she died months later. I associate this church with lovely faith and simple kindness. When I talked with the family this week, they told me of the many kindnesses you shared with them during Nikki’s illness. They told stories about how strong she was in helping her friends, neighbors and family before she got ill. Especially the family. They reminded me how she found so much to laugh about and so much of herself to share. They also acknowledged that she was the “Boss” of that household and the heart. She may have been the Boss of the House, and not of her mother, but she did have a Boss, we call the Good Shepherd. Keep them in your prayers. I will because I knew my wife was the Boss of my house and the heart. One of the things I was well aware of was the difference between a house and a home. A house is a building in which you need tools like hammers, screwdrivers, plungers and brooms to take care of. A home is where you go to when you need love, and hope, and forgiveness, and fights to clear the air, and places to welcome strangers who become family and friends, and places to remember the past, and places to work and hope for the future. It is a place where you can go and have the last word. That was one of the things that Nikki used it for; it was her house and ghosts would not be allowed to have voice to say the last word. Robert Frost wrote a poem called “Death of A Hired Hand’ where the characters reflect to each other: ‘Home is the place where, when you have to go there, They have to take you in.’ ‘I should have called it Something you somehow haven’t to deserve.’ The reading from the Wisdom of Solomon reminds us that Nikki is now fully in the hands of God, so her soul can rest and find peace in her forever house, and the 23rd Psalm underscores that she can rest without having one more darn thing to take care of. When Jesus was preparing his disciples for his death telling them that his own death is not the end of the story. Tomorrow, when you go to church, it will be Palm Sunday and you will probably have as the Gospel lesson that in His Father’s House there are many dwelling places for all who love him. The message to hold on to this day, that Day before Palm Sunday, is that Easter is coming. Try all you like, but nothing will stop New Life, nothing will stop forgiveness, nothing will stop hope, nothing will stop the people in our hearts from receiving our love..

Looking At Sinners

A Reflection for the 5th Sunday of Lent Thomas E Wilson, Guest Preacher April 6, 2025 Grace, Plymouth and St Mark/St. Anne, Roper Isaiah 43:16-21 Philippians 3:4b-14 John 12:1-8 Psalm 126 LOOKING AT SINNERS The opening line from the Collect for today is, “Almighty God, you alone can bring into order the unruly wills and affections of sinners:” Usually the church likes to take a look at Saints for the edification of its members, but today we will look at Sinners. I am not going to pass out any mirrors, but a Sinner is someone who commits a sin. On line, I came across a list of 82 behaviors considered to be identified as sins by passages in the New Testament. The list was in Alphabetical Order from Adultery to Wrath. On the list were three just before wrath and they contained the only three on the list I had not committed; Woman cutting her hair short—1 Corinthians 1:14-15 Woman with her Head uncovered—1 Corinthians 11:5-16 Woman speaking or teaching in public—1 Timothy 2:11-15; 1 Corinthians 11:33-37 Mathematically my batting average of purity percentage of my time without being involved in sin is 0.036 % purity. We like to think that saints are people who have no faults and always keep themselves pure; Saints like Paul for example. Paul always wrote to people to remind them of their behavior. In the translation of his letter to the Phillippians today he writes :”For his (The Christ’s) sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him,” “Rubbish”, isn’t that a wonderful word. So precise and yet gentile. Except, that is not what the original Greek says at all. The word in Greek is “skubala”, one of my favorite swear words, a word I discovered in my Greek class in Seminary, that I would mutter ‘skubala “under my breath whenever I was frustrated with something or another, The Greek word, the one Paul would have written in his letter is σκύβαλον (skubalon), In English, it is a four letter word starting with a letter “s” meaning human excrement. It is one of those very rude words that are not supposed to be said by Pious folk. Paul said it because he was angry that people are missing the point. But Christians don’t like people to get angry, usually we feel better if they just sulk quietly. Paul’s translators want not to offend people, so they add watered down words, so the little old ladies, male and female, of all ages, would not be exposed to anger. Because Christians are supposed to be nice, and especially well behaved and not associate with people who are sinning. . Jesus had that problem in the Gospel lesson for today. And here he was, the Holy One and this woman, to whom he is not married with, or related to, is kneeling at his feet, pouring a small fortune of oil to anoint and wash his feet and dry them with her hair. This is way beyond appropriate; as Judas points out. But Mary is one of those people who is often not well-behaved. We have seen her in an earlier incident when Jesus is visiting their house, where she leaves her sister Martha to do all the work while she sits at Jesus’ feet to listen along with the men. She just does know her place; because she loves Jesus unreservedly. I remember being a Rector of one church where it was a habit for a number of the women being upset with other women members of the church who were not doing the work that was expected of them in the dinners, and bazaars. They also quietly disapproved of and resented people who went way overboard. Paul’s sin of using a swear word in church would have been seen as on the same level of Mary’s going way overboard with welcoming Jesus. Paul and Mary are both committing the sin of having their heart go faster than their brain out of love for God. Mary’s action reminds me of the old Sam Cooke song of 68 years ago; some of you might remember the song “You Send Me” I know, I know, I know, you send me I know you send me Whoa, you you you you send me Honest you do What a wonderful sin to have! To have the power to overwhelm someone with your passion, with your love.. When we do something out of love rather than duty; we live into the moment when we are surrounded by Grace, hope and thanksgiving. I should have sung that song to my wife every day in our marriage, but I was so self conscious because I knew that I couldn't sing worth a damn. In a polite society of following all the rules, sometimes we have to apologize for slipping free of our leash of self-control, and allow ourselves to sing along with Sam or swear along with Paul. I remember when I was a Rector of a Church about 30 years ago, and I wanted every little thing to go “right” in a service, because I was supposed to be in control. One Sunday; suddenly, as I finished my sermon and was about to go into the Creed, there was this very loud woman’s voice coming from a back pew, joyously proclaiming that Tom Wilson was the best preacher in that city and county. I knew her as a parishioner and was well aware that she had times when she would have a slippery.hold on her mental faculties. She was trying to bless me, but I was so embarrassed that she had chosen me. She was outside of my control. George H.W. Bush was President at that time, although I am a Dirty Dog Democrat, I would have preferred she had said something nice about the then resident of the White House instead of me. You may ask yourself if my response would have been different if it were a man who stood up. It probably would, I tend to give women a lot more slack than I give men, I came across a quote from 20th Century French writer, Marguerite Duras, who had more than a few lovers in her life: "You have to be very fond of men. Very, very fond. You have to be very fond of them to love them. Otherwise they're simply unbearable.” In the Hebrew Testament passage for today, the Prophet is seeing the people in Exile coming back to Jerusalem after being set free to return. He sees God providing water in the wilderness for the exiles, so they would have the strength to return. Years later, I am able to look back at that moment when the woman stood up at the back of the church and I bless her for wanting to make me feel better. I think the Holy part of her was trying to provide me with some spiritual water on my journey. Today, a little bit later in the service, we will do the prayers of the people and then we exchange the Peace of the Lord with one another, even the ones, or especially the ones, those sinners who we need to forgive.. Looking At Sinners There are those embarrassing moments, That we wish we could better control, Like having a better behavior patrol Trying to keep into line our opponents. What about, if we took some jeopardy Using the exchange of peace touching Almost enemies, the past declutching The engines of all our wrath’s energy. To take the moment to boldly forgive. Before resentment is allowed to rest, In our sulking and so resentful chest, Now making decisions to clearly live, Sending our precious anger fleeing. With love as the center of our being,