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May the words of my mouth and the meditation of our hearts be acceptable in your sight,

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O Lord, our strength and our redeemer.

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Amen.

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At last week's Diocesan Convention in Montgomery, our keynote speaker, was a gentleman named

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James Moore. He is currently working on a PhD for Congregational Leadership and Change,

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and his presentation centered around a book called Growing Young, Six Essential Strategies

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to Help Young People Discover and Love Your Church. Don't worry, I'm not going to go through

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all six this morning. If you want to do that, you can buy the book. But during his presentation,

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he made this claim, which I think is very important. He said, people don't fear change.

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People don't fear change. Rather, people fear the loss associated with change. More specifically,

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people have a hard time involuntarily entering into a loss situation. And it is often those

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with the most, excuse me, it is often those with the most to lose who have the hardest

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time with the loss associated with change. After all, those with the most to lose have

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to give up their power. They have to give up their control. They have to give up their

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proverbial and metaphorical keys. This claim also seems to translate well in considering

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our own spiritual lives with God, especially during this season of Lent when we are called

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to repent. Repentance, after all, literally means to change one's mind or heart. Repentance

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means change. And inevitably, a change of heart or mind will cause us to give something

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up. But why in the world would we voluntarily enter into a loss situation? Why would we

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even want to repent, want to change? Now, in the verses leading up to today's gospel

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lesson, we are told that the entire Judean countryside and all of Jerusalem are flocking

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to the wilderness to hear John the Baptist preach. That is a lot of people. The entire

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Judean countryside, the entire city of Jerusalem is going out to hear this crazy guy preach

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in the desert. Why in the world are they flocking to this person? Remember that these people

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are living under the oppressive Roman government who have been occupying their land for generations.

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They are primed for change. They are tired of it. They have grown restless under this

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current state of affairs. They have been longing for this change since the prophets of old

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have told them from generation to generation. They are yearning for this time of liberation

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from oppression. They want change now. And any loss, anything they lose because of this

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change is more than worth it. In so many ways, they have nothing left to lose. Change is

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so much easier to swallow when there's nothing left to lose. But even then, we can be reluctant

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to change because we'd rather stay in the current situation no matter how bad it is

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than risk a new situation that is unknown. But that's where the good news of Jesus and

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His kingdom come into play. Jesus gives them a reason to believe that the change is worth

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it in His own life, in His own ministry, and ultimately through His death and His resurrection,

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Jesus gives them a vision of that heavenly kingdom that has been promised to them. They

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have reason to hope. This vision of this new kingdom gives them reason to hope and leave

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behind their old lives no matter the cost because nothing compares in value to life

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in the kingdom of heaven. In His letter to the Philippians, St. Paul says that he regards

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everything he lost for the sake of knowing Jesus as rubbish. Anything that St. Paul had

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before knowing Jesus, he counts as rubbish. The things that St. Paul valued before knowing

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Christ are no longer of importance to him. He was an important person in society. He

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was a Pharisee. He was blameless before the law. He was a Hebrew and a Roman citizen,

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which is really rare. All of that meant nothing compared to knowing Christ Jesus, compared

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to knowing that He is a beloved child of God. Now, for those of us with a lot to lose, the

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idea of repentance can be daunting, even impossible. Remember the lawyer who Jesus

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instructs to sell everything to follow him? If you look at the Gospel narrative, it is

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those with the most power who were the most threatened by Jesus. They had the most to

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lose should Jesus come into power. Because Jesus' kingdom, in Jesus' kingdom, the keys

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are given to those without earthly power, the least, the last, and the lost. Therefore,

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these with power try to find a way to shut him up, ultimately, by killing him. As we

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think about our own spiritual lives and a relatively affluent community, we must also

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consider the inevitable loss that comes with following Jesus. We are talking about this

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in our adult forum class, Finding God in the Suburbs. The first disciples drop their

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fishing nets to follow Jesus. This lent, what do you need to follow? What do you need to

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drop to follow Jesus more closely? What in your life do you need to let go of, to lose,

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in order to move closer to God in Christ? For those of us with a lot to lose, maybe there's

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more than one thing that needs to be dropped. That's fine. But let's just focus on one thing

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right now. Think about a quick win, something that will help you grow in confidence so you

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can drop something bigger the next time. Now, word of caution, you'll never drop anything

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left to your own devices. You aren't strong enough to drop something worth dropping by

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yourself. God knows this, and this is why God sent Jesus to reveal his kingdom on earth

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as it is in heaven. And the vision of this kingdom that he gives through his sermons,

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his miracles, his parables, the vision of this kingdom, this promise of new life is what

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ultimately gives us the grace and permission to drop those things we thought we needed

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to live a full life. Now, the best way I know how to keep this vision in front of me, this

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vision of God's kingdom, is through participating in the life of the church. I don't know about

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you, but I have a short memory. It doesn't take long after I leave this place to, for

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my vision to become distorted by my surroundings. I need to be reminded of what the kingdom

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of heaven looks like again and again and again. I need to be converted daily. Bishop Stowell

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once said that God reserves the most difficult cases to the priesthood. So I guess that's

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probably why. And even the hardest cases to the bishops, apparently. Anyway, don't tell

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Bishop Gee. The church community, through our weekly worship, through our study, through

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our daily prayers, through our fellowship, through our care and concern for each other,

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through our service to the community, and through the power of the Holy Spirit working

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in us all, God is giving us this gathered body of Christ, a vision of the kingdom here

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and now. So God is working through all of us and all of this to give a vision of the kingdom

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in the here and now. So at best, the church should inspire repentance, not in a negative

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way, but in a positive way, a change of heart, a change in our world, a change in our communities,

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a change in our own lives. And I think most of us would agree that the world is not as

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it should be. The world is not as it should be in the vision that we were given by the

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kingdom, amplifies that the world is not as it should be. But you know what God does?

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God loves the world the way it is. God loves us so much that he sends his only son to die.

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So that we might be inspired to pursue a new way of living, to live in love like he did,

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no matter the cost, no matter the loss. It is only through God's gracious action in

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Christ that change is possible in our world and in our lives. So yes, there's no doubt

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that you will experience some kind of loss the more and more you commit to the way of

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Jesus. But in time, I pray that you come to see this loss in the same way as St. Paul

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did, as rubbish compared to knowing Christ Jesus is Lord. I pray that your Linton disciplines

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help you experience your voluntary losses in this life as gains in the life to come,

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a life that has come near in Jesus. Amen.

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And now we proclaim this faith with the words of the team Creed, we believe in one God, the

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Father.