"A Yard Sale at Winterfest" January 27, 2013

Nehemiah 8:1-10 Luke 4:14-21 After the extended season of campaigning and elections, the last few weeks have been a season of Inaugurations, as those elected and re-elected to leadership have been sworn into Office, as President, Congress, Governors, Mayors, etc. And now we are in the next annual cycle of State of the Union, State of the State, State of the County, State of the Town, State of the Village Speeches. But in Skaneateles, we are in a different place and time, for this is WINTERFEST, when all the world embraces the cold! Rather than baskets of flowers, there are Ice Sculptures. When men and women in bathing suits saunter through the snow to slip into a hole in the ice, as if this frozen over glacial lake were a hot-tub. And this weekend Holy Trinity Lutheran Church celebrates their 100th Anniversary, and in Presbyterian Fashion we gather in our 212th Annual Meeting. Having put all the Christmas decorations back in their boxes, before carrying them back up the ladder, I saw all the other boxes, televisions and VCRs, 8 Tracks and vinyl Albums, photos, decorations and books, children's clothes and toys, school supplies and letters, that had not been opened in decades, and began handling each item, questioning anew if this were something to save or purge. Like preparing for a YARDSALE in the season of WINTERFEST, everything needed to be handled, pondered and questioned for its value and importance. The Church does this same activity every 500 years! 500 years after the Crucifixion, The Empire of Rome had been destroyed by invading Barbarian hordes with the mix of traditions and Christianity being adapted to culture, Gregory I often called Gregory the Great created the Monasteries for Priests and Scribes and Nuns to focus on the faith, while the world went about our business. 500 years later, at the turn of the first Millennium controversy split the Church, in what was referred to as The Great Schism. The Central issue was over the Virgin Mary. The underlying issue of Dan Brown's DaVinci Code is whether Mary as MOTHER OF GOD should be treated as a Fourth person of the Trinity? With this, was Jesus a human being, a great Teacher and Prophet; or GOD masquerading in human form? Far more than a 21st Century Mystery novel about a secret cult, The Great Schism challenged the meaning and importance of the Crucifixion. Was this the Messiah of God atoning for our sins, or a man, a martyr, the son of a Carpenter? With this, whether the Center of the Church would be at Rome, and the language of the Church be Latin, the Bread of Communion be Unleavened? OR as in the Eastern Orthodox, the Center of the Church was at Constantinople, the language of the Church was Greek and the Bread of Communion a Risen loaf? 500 years later, Martin Luther, Henry VIII, Zwingli, Calvin, Wesley, Knox each challenged the authority of the Tradition, the authority of the Papacy and Rome, as well as each other, out of which arose all the separate Protesting denominations of Protestantism. In the 20th century, we have reached a time where the figures we are balancing are too cumbersome for us to sum in our heads and we punch numbers on a calculator. All our correspondence and information is too much to store on paper, in files, even in a single computer, so we have created “The Cloud” of information storage. Our entertainment are scripted shows of reality, dramas of REVENGE, SCANDAL, and DECEPTION, and replacing Game shows are Get Rich Quick Schemes trying to pitch ideas for Billionaire investors who describe their greatest even only priority is making money. In this climate and culture, we try to discern what the Church is and will be in the future. 500 years before Jesus. After the Babylonians had conquered the Nation of Israel and taken them away in bondage, destroying the Temple of Solomon, removing the people from their ability to speak Hebrew, to read the scrolls, to celebrate Passover, the Persians conquered the Babylonians. And the King of Persia, recorded in the book of Esther and our reading of Nehemiah this morning, was Ahasuerus. King Ahasuerus liked to surround himself with the very best and finest of things. He appointed as his CUP HOLDER a highly educated leader among the exiled Jewish people Nehemiah. Standing in the presence of the king of Persia, Nehemiah learned that the City of Jerusalem lay in ruins. Nehemiah was deeply depressed. Seeing this, the King directed Nehemiah to return to Israel, to rebuild the the City of Jerusalem. But, in addition to the people being beaten down by their economy, by war and enemies, there were factions among the people themselves. When the people have their first accomplishment of rebuilding, Nehemiah calls upon Ezra, a Scribe to act as Priest. Ezra takes the five scrolls of the Torah, the Law of Moses and all the people gather to listen. Ezra reads to them in the language of their ancestors, the Law of Moses. Certain words and phrases were familiar, but the meaning was strange to them. SO the priests and Levites interpreted the reading for them. This was NOT Law as in The IRS Tax Code, or Universal Health Care, what Ezra read for us was the COVENANT OF GOD, the promise of God to love us and never abandon God's people. And hearing the Words and understanding their meaning, the people wept. You are not to be separate individuals fighting over who has the most, but one people, a holy people set apart by God for God as holy! Being a holy people of God, you are to pray, and to feed those who are hungry, to care for those who are in need. Instead of a State of the Union speech, by elected leaders, this is the holy Word of God. Rather than description of new programs and appointment of officers, the reading of the Torah affirmed who we are as precious before God, what we are to do in care for others as our acting out our faith. According to the Gospel of Luke, 500 years later, immediately after Jesus was Baptized by John in the Jordan, he was driven into the wilderness where temptation was laid before him, temptation of Power, of Prestige, of Possibilities. Putting down all those temptations, according to Luke, the first public act of Jesus was to go to the Synagogue in his home village in Nazareth on the Sabbath. The custom at the time, was that any man able to read was able to come forward, to read the scroll for the day and offer a sermon. And Jesus came, and asked for the scroll and what was given to him was the scroll of Isaiah. He read aloud to the people the Charge to FEED the HUNGRY, SET AT LIBERTY the CAPTIVE, RESTORE SIGHT TO THE BLIND, and STRENGTH to the WEAK, that THE LAME SHOULD WALK and the DEAF SHOULD HEAR, and TODAY shall be made known as the Acceptable year of The Lord. And the people commented on how well he read, what conviction. But then as the sermon, Jesus sat down in front of them and said TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED! Where Baptism had served as an Anointing and Claiming of Jesus... Where the Time in the Wilderness had been a Temptation of anything and everything he could do and possess... Instead, the Reading from Isaiah became JESUS' Mission Statement. The Sermon became the rest of his life, as he did restore sight to the blind, and provide food to the hungry, hearing to the deaf and strength to the weak. There are thousands of Churches around the World, which worship their past and are limited by care for their buildings, their programs, the history of the things they used to do. There are thousands of Churches around the World being Created without any tradition, without the theological foundations of who they are before God, but instead the Congregation determine what they believe. In this WINTERFEST, like some GREAT YARDSALE, we lay everything out: where we have come from and what we have done, Music and Mission and Witness, Spiritual Development and Nurture, and we are humbled to serve this community in this time, that we truly wrestle with what it means to be the people of God, to live in Covenant, to try to forgive and love our neighbors.

January 20, 2013 "Whine Changed to Water"

Isaiah 62: 1-5 John 2:1-11 Whether it is a natural outgrowth of the latter days of January in Upstate New York, or the circumstances of the world in the 21st Century, for many many months the news of the world has been depressing, when as Christians we are to be a people of HOPE, of GRACE and ABUNDANT JOY. The context and settings for these passages from Isaiah and John, are Not placing a Wallmart Happy Face over life to mask sorrows, going on as if unchanged; but rather naming of what has been and Lament, a Whine and complaint, we long to have changed and transformed by the Grace of God into boundless sustenance as plentiful and pure as Water in Nature. Perhaps that is part of our difficulty with this familiar miracle in John's Gospel, that rather than replenishing our resource of what we desire, what we know we need is for the cause of our WHINING to be CHANGED to a Pure Abundance as of WATER. Yesterday, the sky was blanketed by thick cold grey snow clouds, and where the sky ended at the horizon, the waters mirrored the heavens with an impenetrable, unending gray. Even the black of roads and parking lots had been bleached to gray with the cascade of melted salts. For the last several years we have endured the robo-calls and prophecies concerning grid-locked government and the economy. With tomorrow's inauguration, little if anything will have changed. Unless someone does something, we are stuck where we have been, with hate and hurt and fear. First there were shootings in a Movie Theater, killing and wounding an auditorium of people in Colorado who simply had come to be entertained, to be distracted from life. Then a Hurricane... where every event seems to be described as the Storm of the Century, this was a Super-storm that caused unprecedented destruction of Neighborhoods and Cities and Industrial corridors, across 37 States. Then an Early Elementary School in Connecticut. The last many weeks over Christmas and the New Year, there has been at least one set of shootings a week of fire fighters and neighbors and schools, people who simply were in the wrong place at the wrong time. For 60 Chapters, the Prophet Isaiah has described the devastation and suffering of Israel, as they endured unending war and terrorism, aimed at who they were and what they represented as a Superpower. Once their safeties and securities were plundered, their leaders, their children, were carried off and seduced by other cultures. Those who were left, were unable to provide for themselves. The infrastructure of cities collapsed. For 60 Chapters Isaiah has preached and prophesied for the people to listen, and to change, preached and prophesied that God would overthrow the Babylonians. Suddenly, their tormentors, those who had conquered Israel and carried them off in bondage, were themselves destroyed. But simply because punishment has ended does make one redeemed. Endurance of time apart, does not make us new. In these verses the prophet Isaiah preaches and prophesies to God. FOR ZION'S SAKE, I will not keep silent! FOR THE SAKE OF JERUSALEM, I will not rest! This week, I visited several of our older members in nursing homes on the far east-side of Syracuse. One had gone from living alone, to Assistance at home, to Assisted Care, to Nursing Home, to Hospital, where they were trying with physical therapy to regain strength to walk. Lack of exercise and sitting had caused the water in their body to pool in their ankles and legs. Blood clots in their lungs were not only painful, but life threatening. Standing in the doorway of their room, they broke down in tears. “I didn't think anyone cared any more. I had even given up, God cared. I thought perhaps, having taken my spouse and my friends, God had forgotten me here. They tell me I need to walk, I need to eat better and grow stronger. What I have wanted to do was be with my husband. All I really need is to know someone cares.” Our role as a people of faith is not to try to be God to people. Our function as believers is not to be religious. Our purpose, our responsibility, is to be like Isaiah, LAMENTING to a Closed Grey Heaven, that God not forget, that God would be moved, for the sake of Jerusalem that we not rest until redemption comes. The truth of life is that God is consumed with care for the Cosmos, creating ever new worlds. Concerned with Poverty and abuse and slavery, pestilence and wars, and injustice. Sometimes it seems this world forgets, that God forgets, the purpose of LAMENTATION of prayers of petition, are not the same as a Wish List sent to Santa. Our prayers are not for our desires, for what we want or what would give us a thrill, but that God would change a hard reality to have life. Throughout the world, WATER is seen as a life-force. Marriage while laden with tradition and expectations is about finding a partner to share life. Even more, MARRIAGE is also about responding to make a change at a time in our lives. When I meet with couples in preparation for MARRIAGE, the first question we address is, “HOW DID YOU KNOW YOU WERE READY TO BE MARRIED?” Which is different from How did you meet, how did you decide tis was the right person, or even what does your mother think. This is a question of whether you are at a stage in life, where you are prepared to share who you are, and to live your life for the needs and sustenance of another. When Jesus and his disciples and the mother of Jesus went to a wedding at Cana in Galilee, it was a routine event of life. Weddings in the ancient Middle east, were not about the speaking of the Vows, or the sharing of the Kiss, or where they were going on a Honeymoon. Weddings were a six day long Feast of Celebration by the families for the world. To run out of food or drink, would be perceived as a lack of commitment from their family, a sign of scarcity, and possible end of love for the couple. We read how the Mother said to Jesus “They Have No Wine” then saying to the Servants, “Do whatever he tells you” and we react WHAT A JEWISH MOTHER! Here they are in public, and she is needling her son to do something, to fix the situation. We hear Jesus' reply to his Mother “WOMAN, WHAT HAVE YOU TO DO WITH ME. My Hour Has Not Yet Come!” And we think, HOW HARSH! But like God, Jesus is involved and pre-occupied with many important things, with his disciples, with being at the Wedding, he will not intercede unless called upon. The question of Jesus ability to turn WATER into WINE is not about MAGIC POWERS or How He DID It, but that this one who believed in him, believed he could do something. In the time of Slavery here is America, those who were bought and sold as slaves saw themselves as being like the Slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt. In the Spiritual “GO DOWN MOSES” they took the Biblical narrative of Moses pleading their case, and God setting the People free, as being their own story. The same had occurred for the Puritans leaving England. These saw crossing the ocean as being the crossing of the Red Sea and arriving in this new land as being the Promised Land, only to discover this was a wilderness. What occurs to me, is that Pharaoh's enslaving people, and all the occasions of oppression in our history are times of evil crushing people. And the plea, to set my people Free is a cry to God for compassion, for caring, to not forget. What also occurs to me, is how often we today overlook the miraculous. This week, in late January, in Upstate New York, the temperatures reached 60 degrees! This morning after the dark and grey, the skies are an iridescent blue. This morning gathered in this place, we do not forget those who are in crisis and in need. We know that the losses brought by Superstorms, as well as those from the death of children and neighbors we do not move on from and forget. Problems in our leadership and our economy, will not be fixed overnight, and must be corrected. SO let us name what needs to be named, but let us not only WHINE, let us change whining into sources of Sustenance and REFRESHMENT, recognizing the abundance, the super-abundance that comes from THIS BEING HIS BODY and HIS BLOOD, atoning for our loss and sin and believing in a new and EVERLASTING COVENANT.

January 13, 2013 Once, For All

Isaiah 43:1-7 Luke 3:15-17, 21-ff In order to begin the sermon this day, I would ask that you retrace the circumstance and events of the last week, of your life, and those of the week to come. A great part of our lives is the same week in week out, being worked on and worried throughout our lives. What if there were an idea, a relationship, a sudden awareness that everything you knew, everything we have ever experienced were true, but far greater than anything we have yet been aware? There are very few, truly unique moments in our lives, but what we are discussing is a once, for all time affirmation, that changes our perspective on life, changes us, from living in fear and regret to possibility. According to Scripture, God is the Creator of all that is. Whether we believe in Evolution, or Intelligent Design, or literally seven 24 hour days for Creation, before there was anything else in life, for reality to exist there was some cause and effect. Before there were nations, or cities, before there were people, before there were any creatures, birds, fish, or plants, before there were planets, a sun or moon, before there was an atmosphere, when the space we consume was nothing but a waste and void, some describe a cataclysm of gases, an accident of fate, a big bang, Hebrew Scriptures name that there was GOD. Rather than an accident of fate, a unique circumstance in which all the building blocks of life happened to be aligned, that the CREATOR formed everything that exists. From the majesty of Mountain ranges, Canyons and Seas, to the intricacy of dangling dew on a spider's web, the formation of snow flakes, a newborn's eyelashes and finger nails. Before there was TIME or SPACE, God Created all that is out of nothing. And according to Scripture, God chose to leave the Creation incomplete for us to serve as Co-CREATORS with God developing societies, developing ideas, developing futures for ourselves. Yet, what Isaiah names in this morning's reading is that we do not arise without history. We, none of us, are not a people created from nothingness. The God who created us, who formed every element of Creation, the same God is also our REDEEMER. We are a people with history, with systems, with abuses, a people with songs and stories. Recently it occurred to me, that as incredible a place as this community is, with all our advantages and all the people who give us access to the world, which it is, this is a community that has known great tragedy and loss. We are not a people created out of nothingness, we are a people who have been worn down and effected by one another. This week, a freelance reporter working with the Syracuse paper phoned to write a story for the coming weeks, about our Village affirming the relationship that has been forged between us and South Sudan. When she finished, her last question was, “So I understand how this developed. I understand what the people in Africa get out of this, but what do you get? Why are you involved?” I fumbled for an answer, but afterward wrote to her that it is because there is a relationship. A relationship is not about what do I get, or what does it cost me. A relationship is open-ended commitment, that come what may, we will try to make a difference in one another's lives, to redeem circumstances for the better. The same is true of why there is a Presbyterian Manor, or a Food Pantry, or the Skaneateles Festival, part of who we are (as those created in the image of God), is that we are in relationship doing whatever we can to effect the human condition. As co-CREATORS with God, we are also Co-REDEEMERS. That is holy, that is monumental, that is sacred. Our lives are not only about us. Recently someone sent me a photo on Facebook, that showed a toddler looking absolutely apoplectic, indignant, red faced, his eyes seemed to burn anything in their gaze. The caption on the photo read: “This stranger in a long dress, poured water on my head, while my family smiled and took pictures!” It was a clever way of describing a Baptism, yet it suddenly occurred to me that for a large percentage of the world's population, when Christianity is only cultural and not struggling with the reality of what we do, that is all the Sacrament of Baptism represents. A family occasion, the first time a baby is brought out in public, where whether the baby enjoys the experience or not, we take photos and smile, within the church the event has become as common as Communion. In the Sacrament of Baptism, the focus is not on The Water, nor upon the Baby, nor even the man or woman in a long dress.The Sacrament of Baptism is our affirmation, that no matter what comes of this life, this life is a Gift from God. As we are accustomed that when we receive a gift, we give a gift to the other, in response to God we give this life, our lives to God. Luke is different from the other Gospels, in that there are very few details about Jesus' Baptism. Recall how much we know from Luke about the Birth of John the Baptist. Different from all the other Gospels, in Luke we know the setting and circumstance and response of Mary. We know who was Governor, who was King, who was the Priest at the time Jesus was born. From Luke, we know all about the Angels and Shepherds and laying the baby in a feed trough. We also know about the ministry of John the Baptist, what he wore, what he ate, his Call for the people to REPENT. After all that detail, what John says about the Baptism of Jesus is “When all the other people were Baptized, Jesus was also.” Quite literally, everyone who heard John's Call recognized their need for change. Everyone recognized they were beaten down and worn raw by the circumstances of life. As a man of thirty, Jesus like everyone else affirmed the need for change, the need for redemption, the need for God, the need for commitment, and Jesus in solidarity with all who had heard was Baptized. And a Voice came from heaven: “You are my Beloved. With you I am Well Pleased.” That is what the Sacrament of Baptism is all about is an affirmation, YOU ARE LOVED. YOU HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN THE WORLD. Before you were conceived, before you were born, you had a name and identity to God, and claiming that identity claims responsibility as a Child of God. When is the last time, you (any of us) heard a voice from anyone, anywhere... when is the last time we took time and seriously said to those in our lives YOU ARE MY BELOVED, YOU HAVE MADE A DIFFERENCE IN MY LIFE. I AM PROUD OF YOU. Luke is different from the other Gospels in that this is where he chooses to include the genealogy of Jesus. Like many of us, doing family genealogies, Luke's version is slightly different from Matthew's and recounted for differing purposes. Where Matthew is emphasizing Jesus as descended from the Deportation in Babylon, and from King David and from Abraham; we recognize all the great names of ancestors, of Kings, but Luke also claims Jesus as the child of Noah, and a child of Adam, and a child of God. Where Matthew points out individuals among Jesus' ancestors who sinned, Luke lists them all as having fallen short, and the point of his Baptism is a new relationship for all living with God, after Jesus. What we have discussed this day is the TRINITY. Not only, that God is and has been made known to the world in three identities, though one; but that created in the image of God, all of us bear these three identities. We are Co-CREATORS with God, we are REDEEMERS making a difference in one another's lives, and we are able to AFFIRM ONE ANOTHER claiming each as a Child of God who is loved. Luke is also unique, in that when the Baptism took place, what follows immediately is not Family Taking Pictures, or the Temptation in the Wilderness, but that Jesus prayed. That is not recorded in the other Gospels, so for John to name it is recognition of the importance of our stopping to pray.

"An Event of Cosmic Proportions" January 6, 2012

John 1: 1-18 Isaiah 60:1-6 Matthew 2:1-12 Christopher & Jonathan Niebuhr in our Sunday School had a great grandfather who was H. Richard Niebuhr, and Niebuhr said something quite enlightening about “Epiphany.” When reading a book, you come across a sentence which makes you rethink and reframe everything you had read until this point, and provides a new orientation for everything to come, that is an “epiphany.” Throughout the Old Testament, there have been THEOPHANIES, Noah's Rainbow, Moses' Burning Bush, Balaam's Talking Burrow, experiences of the Divine, of the Miraculous in our midst. In the New Testament, the THEOPHANIES and EPIPHANIES, where the experience of God in Christ changes everything. When I was in Seminary, we had an Advisor who was brilliant and highly respected, who happened to be from Japan. In part because he had a thick accent, more because what he said was so spiritually profound, his lectures made you listen intently. Suddenly, the third in lecture, he used a word he had used over and over in earlier lectures but pronounced the word differently, and suddenly, everything he had said made sense, that one word changed everything, everything we heard him say, changed the way we thought. Two years ago, we asked this congregation for words that identify who we are as a Church. To someone who had no experience with this Church, who knew nothing of being Presbyterian, or being Christian, or of any religion; what words describe and identify who we are? COMPASSION, CARING, FORGIVENESS, RELEVANT, MISSIONAL, CHILDREN, MUSIC, BIBLICAL, FUN all were used. This is the same assignment, the Gospel of John is attempting to fulfill. Who is Jesus? What does the Christ of God represent? LIGHT, LIFE, GLORY, WONDER, THE WORD OF GOD. These words are incarnate and real in him. Forever after when thinking of LIGHT and LIFE we do not imagine a bulb, or an illumination, but Jesus. For the last Century, when we imagined a lightbulb, we imagined an Incandescent, and more recently, we have experienced and become familiar with something that lasts longer, is more brilliant and uses less electricity. When reading THE WORD OF GOD, throughout the Old Testament, if asked How you know the Word of God, we would have said LAW/ Commandment, but now when hearing THE WORD OF GOD we envision The Christ, his GRACE, his COMPASSION the LOVE of GOD which nothing could restrain, contain or kill. We have so many Words and Images in our culture. Every year, there is a new edition of the Dictionary because there are new words that have come into our vocabulary that define reality as we experience it. However, these words from John continue to define and describe a part of reality too familiar to us all... A PEOPLE WHO HAVE LIVED IN DARKESS, A People of Deep Dark Secrets, who have seen a great light. Last evening there was report of 4 people shot to death in Aurora, Colorado. Hearing SHOT in AURORA, COLORADO, brings back a shooting in a Movie Theater in Aurora, brings back the shooting at a High School in Columbine, Colorado, the shooting of teachers and children in Connecticut. I want to be able to celebrate the Packers Win over the Vikings. I want to be able to celebrate that our leaders found a way to avert The Fiscal Cliff on New Year's Eve. But we are a people who have dwelt in deep darkness, in hate and hostility for so long, we cannot remember any other way of being. It is to such a People, that Isaiah prophesies an event of Cosmic Proportions. “Arise, Shine, For your light has come! And the Glory of the Lord has risen upon you! For darkness covers the Earth, and thick darkness the peoples; BUT the LORD will arise upon you, and His glory appear over you. Nations shall come to Your light and KINGS to the brightness of your dawn.” Isaiah's vision was that one day, this people in bondage, oppressed and hopeless, a people with an ancient heritage, would become a light calling others, calling all the world to God. There is a drama to these words. There is a Drama to everything we have done in worship this morning. Because LIFE itself is a Drama, sometimes a Farce, sometimes Divine Comedy, but a Drama of God effecting a COSMIC SHIFT that the world can never go backward. There was a time, long long ago, when the Church attempted to add to the story, to fill in all the details. So the Isaiah's “NATIONS and KINGS will come to Your LIGHT” became Wisemen following a Star to Bethlehem. Not only that but there were three of them, because there were three gifts, and one was named Melchior who was Ancient and from the Far East; another was very young from Northern Europe and named Gaspar; the third from Africa was named Balthasar. The Greeks believed that the birth of a great King announced a new era, a change in the universe, and with this a new Star in the sky. This was a creative interpretation of Isaiah and of Matthew, but what the Word actually describes is that Nations and Kings had been searching for Salvation all their lives. From distant places the Light drew them to Jerusalem, perhaps Comets, Meteors that can appear each night at the same time. But when they reached that Capital City of Power and Governance they could not find the light. They were told that the Book of Micah says the Savior would be born at Bethlehem, so they went to Bethlehem, and arriving at Bethlehem, they found the light emanating from and shining down upon a common stable. The core of this story is that NATIONS & KINGS HAVE SOUGHT SALVATION and found it in CHRIST who is the embodiment of LIGHT and LIFE, COMPASSION, GRACE and FORGIVENESS. While the Wise brought gifts identified with being A KING, MAKING OFFERINGS TO GOD and ANNOINTING A SAVIOR WHO WOULD DIE FOR THEIR PEOPLE, what the Story emphasizes is that the wise went from this place out into the world.Would that we could take away from CHRISTMAS, NEW YEARS and THE EPIPHANY of the Savior living differently. That we accepted this as a AN EVENT of COSMIC PROPORTION that changes everything. Instead of being angry, that they got something we didn't, that they have power that we fear; instead to live out FORGIVENESS or COMPASSION or PEACE. No one of us needs to be all things to all people, but if we each manifested one of these gifts: How different might our world be?