How Typical!

The scriptures referred to are Micah 6:1-8, Psalm 15, 1 Corinthians 1:18-31, and Matthew 5:1-12.

According to an article in New Scientist, the average person in the world is a 40 year old Chinese man, who has 2 children and makes $30,000. A National Geographic study in 2011 would add that he is right-handed, Christian and lives in a big city. Of course averages flatten out the differences between the two extremes, so let's look at the median, the number that divides the world's population exactly in half. The median age is 30. Half of the people in the world are younger than 30 and half are older. The median income is $850. Meanwhile, the median number of children a woman has is 2.39.

I couldn't find a median life expectancy but the average life expectancy in the world is 72.9 years. The country with the highest life expectancy is the world's richest country by GDP per capita, Monaco, where the average for men is 85 years and the average for women is 88. On the other end of the scale, Lesotho has the lowest life expectancy for men at just 50.3 years and Nigeria has the lowest life expectancy for women at just 53.9 years. The difference between the countries with the highest and lowest life expectancies is 35 years.

How does the United States stack up? The median age is 38.1 years old. The median income is $31,133. The median number of births per woman is 1.64. As of 2022, the average life expectancy in the US is 76.4 years, a decline of 1.8 years since 2020. The average life expectancy for men in the US is 73.2 years and for women 79.1. And it is even lower for various ethnic and racial groups. Overall, life expectancy in the US ranks at 45^th in the world. Which is weird since we spend more money on healthcare than any other country in the world.

You're probably thinking about how you compare to these numbers. Some of them may make you feel better about yourself and some may make you feel worse. I hope some of them make you think about how bad off a lot of other people in the world, or even in this country, are. Half of the world makes less than $850 a year, or about $2.30 a day, while raising more than 2 children. Some people die more than 3 decades earlier than others.

Why did I look up all these numbers? Because all of today's readings from the Bible are about what God values and it contrasts rather starkly with the priorities of the world.

In Micah God reminds his people of what he has done for them and what he expects in return. It is not more sacrifices. Instead we read, “He has told you, O mortal, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Contrast that with the injustice, cruelty and arrogance we see in how the worldly act.

In our Psalm we are told that those who can dwell in the temple with God “lead a blameless life and do what is right” and “speak truth from their heart.” “They do not slander with the tongue, they do no evil to their friends; they do not cast discredit upon their neighbor.” “They do not give their money in hope of gain, nor do they take bribes against the innocent.” Contrast that with the lies and slanders we hear every day. People are not only to willing to insult their neighbor but to say anything against others, even if they're innocent, to get money or attention or a book deal or something else for it. And a large sector of our economy is based on lending at interest.

Paul speaks of how things that are considered foolish and weak and lowly and despised are what God chooses to work through. This is exemplified in Jesus, whose death on the cross is a problem for a lot of people. Contrast that with the way the world glorifies what is worldly wise and strong and highly prized. If people were honest, more would admit that by the world's values, Jesus was a loser. They like people who aren't arrested and executed. They like people who clearly win out over their enemies by crushing them.

In the Beatitudes Jesus is turning many of the things the world thinks are blessings on their heads. He says those who are spiritually destitute are blessed. As are those who mourn and are meek and are merciful and are pure in heart. He blesses those to whom righteousness, being right with God, is as important as food and drink. He blesses those who make peace with others. He blesses those who are persecuted for doing the right thing. Contrast that with a world which promotes a spirituality that is more concerned with making you feel good, that tells everyone to just get over it and cheer up, that thinks the meek are weak, the merciful are soft, the pure in heart are hopelessly naive; a world that denigrates those committed to justice and being a straight arrow, that only wants peace on its own terms, ie, the total defeat of the other side, and that prefers popularity to persecution, even if it's for a good cause.

It is interesting that the world's fictional heroes are largely committed, not to improving the world, but to restoring the status quo. Almost all are warriors who are more interested in fighting bad guys than in changing everyday injustices that make the lives of average people worse. Wouldn't Bruce Wayne do more good if he used his billions to fund mental health clinics and hospitals rather than equipping himself as a one man army to personally beat up psychopaths? Couldn't Superman personally guarantee to maintain world peace so the military budgets of the world could be spent on fighting poverty and starvation and sickness rather than each other? But who would pay to see that? We want to see a fight. 8 of the top 10 grossing films in 2022 confirm that.

Changing the world for the better would not only turn the way we do things upside down but require us to change ourselves. That's what we really hate. Those who had wealth would use it to help others rather than buy multiple mansions or bigger yachts or spaceships. Those who were elected to government positions would actually work to solve our nation's problems rather than concentrate on paying back big contributors with lower taxes and looser regulations or scoring political points over the other party. Pharmaceutical companies would stop paying millions to advertise directly to consumers in an effort to make them to harass their doctor into giving them the latest repackaged pill and instead funnel that money into research on creating antibiotics that germs haven't built up a resistance to and keeping down the prices of drugs that people already rely on for their health and lives. Health insurance companies would evaluate paying for medical treatments based on whether the patient needed them rather than whether it would cost them higher profits. CEOs would be content with making 10 times what their average worker makes, like they used to, and not insist on making 350 times as much. They would then use that money to pay their workers enough to live on, as they used to before the 1970s.

But that's not going to happen. Because we don't want to change. Not even if it makes the world better and more stable. Not if it means benefiting people other than ourselves.

Remember when I said that the typical person in the world is Christian? That's because 2.2 billion people on earth claim to be Christians. That's 31% of the world's population, a larger proportion than any other religion. So why aren't things more just?

Because for a lot of people Jesus is their mascot, not their Lord. They put pictures of him in their bedrooms and fish decals on their vehicles. They hang crosses around their necks. But they would never deny themselves, take up their cross and follow in his footsteps. That could get you in trouble with a world that doesn't operate on Jesus' values. It got Jesus killed. That seems foolish to some so-called Christians.

Some other people think that their cross to bear is simply their own problems. But Jesus didn't take up his cross because it was his problem to deal with. He took up his cross in order to deal with our problem: sin and stupidity, or as the Bible calls it, foolishness.

In a sense, you could even say that sin is foolish. Because our sin, our selfishness and short-sightedness, our destructive habits, don't just harm others. They harm us too. The God who is love made us in his image. We are meant to act in love. When we don't, we are neglecting what we need to function. We are misusing and abusing the gifts God gave us. And when you use something in way it was not designed to be used, eventually you break it. We have ruined a world designed to run on love. And while the initial effects are mostly seen in the disadvantaged, inevitably the whole system will start to fail and we will all feel it.

It's like climate change. Yes, its impacts will first been seen in poor countries when crops fail and fires increase and water becomes more scarce and islands in Micronesia are swallowed up by rising oceans. But so will those expensive condos in Miami and in Key West. And our cities and towns will see their aquifers and rivers and lakes dry up. Farms will not have adequate irrigation. The fires of California will spread. This was foreseen long ago by the industries responsible. But they didn't tell us. And when the information did come out, they used bogus science to distract us. And we let them. We don't want to deny ourselves our luxuries. Our greed and stupidity are our worst enemies.

Jesus didn't come to bless the status quo, the average or typical way we live and do things. He didn't come to tell us we were just fine the way we are. He came to tell us we are spiritually sick. And it will kill us. The good news is he can heal us. But we have to trust him, the great physician, and follow the doctor's orders. It won't be easy.

My recovery from my accident was not easy. It took a long time and it hurt. I had to do what the doctors and the therapists said. I had to do things I'd rather not and refrain from things I wanted to do. I had to push myself when they told me to and rest when they told me to. But after breaking both legs and both arms, collapsing a lung, and bruising my heart, I can once again walk and breathe and I've been told by a cardiologist that I have a “beautiful heart,” whatever that means. I was able to see my grandchildren grow. I was able to return to serving the churches I love for 7 more years.

We were designed to run on love. And if you love people, you treat them fairly. Doing justice is simply treating people fairly. And if you love people you show them kindness. And if you love the God who made them and you and this marvelous world and vast universe, you walk humbly with him. And, what's more, you are willing to make any change necessary to see that all the people in the world are receiving and running on love.

For Arnie and Chuck

Mark Twain was born in August 1835 when Halley's Comet appeared. And it comes back approximately every 75 to 76 years. So in 1909 he said, “It is coming again next year. The Almighty has said, no doubt, 'Now there are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'” And he was right: he died in April 1910 when the comet made its reappearance. Was it a coincidence that this spectacular celestial phenomenon and this spectacular literary phenomenon came and went at the same time?

Today we are remembering two people who basically did the same thing. Arnold Steinmetz was born March 7, 1936. Charles McCormick was born March 12, 1936. 5 days apart. And Chuck left us on November 7, 2022, followed by Arnie 2 days later. Two stellar people who greatly enriched the lives of those around them.

Arnie was born in Saginaw, Michigan and came to Florida as a child, growing up in Fort Lauderdale. Chuck was born and raised in Buffalo. When he was 10 years old he was in the church choir where he met a 9 year old girl named Jane. They weren't childhood sweethearts but they were childhood friends. They only started dating in high school.

After getting out of the army Arnie moved to the Keys in 1958. He was impressed with how the community came together to help one another in the wake of hurricane Donna. He fell in love with Marathon and opened its first dive shop. In 1968 he started Coral Construction. Chuck worked as a carpenter his whole life. Both were builders. Chuck made our conch candlesticks, the wooden cross downstairs, a bench for our proposed prayer garden and more. Arnie helped build 2 Lutheran churches, one in Marathon and this one here.

Chuck and Jane made visits to the Keys beginning in the '80s and finally bought a home in '96. They were active in the choir here. Chuck also sang in a barber shop quartet. Chuck and Jane loved music and musicals, a taste they passed on to their son, a composer.

Arnie's love of classical music led him to join the board of directors of the Florida Keys Concert Association. But while he loved music, he refused to sing. He knew his limits.

Chuck loved amateur theatre and Arnie became a part of Marathon Community Theater, building sets and even acting. He and I were in Fiddler on the Roof together. He joked that if he wanted to see his wife he had to be where she was: in the theatre.

Which reminds me: both he and Chuck loved to tell jokes, even if the response from others was groans rather than guffaws. I can still hear Chuck's guttural chuckles.

For fun Chuck raced cars and motorcycles off road. Arnie went diving and did crosswords in ink. So both men liked to live dangerously.

Both were also active Christians, dedicated to the good news of what God has done and is doing in Jesus Christ. Chuck once used his work experience to write a brief homily about the parallels between building a house and building a faith. Arnie would often approach me after the service to make astute comments on my sermon and ask about my take on things. We spent a long time talking the day before he had his heart attack.

But it wasn't all talk. Arnie, for one, drove cancer patients to their treatments and encouraged others to do the same.

And not only were they men of faith, trusting and following Jesus in this life, they were also men of hope. Paul said, “For if only in this life we have hope in Christ, we should be pitied more than anyone.” (1 Corinthians 15:19) A lot of what Jesus said—love your enemies, turn the other cheek, deny yourself, take up your cross and follow me—make no sense if this life is the only one. As Paul says, “ If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die.” (1 Corinthians 15:32) If this life is the only one there is no justice in this universe. Chuck and Arnie didn't believe that. They believed in the God who is love, revealed in Jesus, who will make all things right in the end. In that Spirit they lived and reflected the love of God in their love of others.

It goes without saying that they loved and were loved by their wives and families. They loved and were loved by us. Both were big men who had big hearts and have left large holes in our hearts. The news of their passing in the same week in November hit hard. 

But Halley's comet will come again. And if there is a loving and just God we will see Chuck and Arnie again. Hopefully, they will have new jokes to share with us.

The Center

The scriptures referred to are 1 Corinthians 1:10-18.

A man was walking across a bridge when he saw another man standing on the edge about to jump. The first man runs over and says, “Don't do it!”

The other man says, “Why not?”

The first man says, “You have so much to live for!”

“Like what?”

“Well, uh, are you religious?

“Yes.”

“Me, too. Are you a Christian or maybe a Buddhist?”

“I'm a Christian.”

“Me, too. Are you Catholic or Protestant?”

“Protestant.”

“Me, too. Are you a Lutheran or a Baptist?”

“Baptist.”

“Me, too. Are you Baptist Church of God or Baptist Church of the Lord?”

“Baptist Church of God.”

“Hey, me, too! Are you original Baptist Church of God or Reformed Baptist Church of God?”

“Reformed Baptist Church of God.”

“Me, too. Are you Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1879, or Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915?”

“Reformed Baptist Church of God, Reformation of 1915.”

“Well, then—die, heretic!”

I once had a person ask me, “What is the difference between Catholics and Christians?” And of course I had to explain that Catholics are Christians. The person may have meant “What is the difference between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism?” But from what I've seen there are a lot of people who were brought up to think that the Roman Catholic Church is actually some type of pagan religion. They have no clue that Catholics and Protestants have much more in common than they have differences. We both recite the Apostles Creed as a summary of our faith. We both believe the Bible is the Word of God. We both practice baptism and celebrate communion. We both believe that we are saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ. More to the point we both believe that Jesus is the Son of God who died to save us from our sins and who rose again from the dead.

The differences tend to be things like which doctrines we emphasize and how we interpret the things we both believe. Yes, there are some important differences in other beliefs and practices which I don't want to downplay but when we make too much of them, to people outside the church, and even to some within, we sound like the first man in that joke. Christians have tended to treat other Christians who don't believe or practice in exactly the same way that they do as if they were not really Christians. And, unfortunately, this goes way back.

We see it in our passage from Paul's first letter to the Christians in Corinth. People in the church were joining factions based on which preacher they liked. Some followed Paul; some followed Apollos; some followed Cephas, better known to us as Peter. Peter and Paul we know a lot about. Apollos we first meet in the book of Acts. It says, “Now a Jew named Apollos, a native of Alexandria, arrived in Ephesus. He was an eloquent speaker, well-versed in the scriptures. He had been instructed in the way of the Lord, and with great enthusiasm he spoke and taught accurately the facts about Jesus, although he knew only the baptism of John. He began to speak out fearlessly in the synagogue, but when Priscilla and Aquila heard him, they took him aside and explained the way of God to him more accurately.” (Acts 18:24-26) After the married ministry team of Priscilla and Aquila set him straight on baptism, the church sends Apollos to Greece where he turns out to be a real asset in debates about Jesus being the Messiah. Eventually he ends up in Corinth. (Acts 19:1)

So Apollos was a really great preacher. Paul was the “apostle to the Gentiles.” (Romans 11:13) And Peter was one of the twelve disciples who lived with and was taught by Jesus for 3½ years. Each had their appeal. And no doubt each was better at some things than others. But Paul is, well, appalled to find that cliques are developing in the church, depending on people's personal preferences and possibly, their ultimate allegiances to certain leaders. This he wants to nip in the bud.

How does he do it? By pointing out that Jesus is their savior, not various church leaders. It was Jesus who was crucified for us, not Paul or the others. They all had a part to play in the life of the church but as Paul puts it, “I planted, Apollos watered, but God caused it to grow.” (1 Corinthians 3:6) Our faith is about what God has done in Christ and is doing through his Spirit. When Christians get too far from God, they go off course.

You have probably heard me use this analogy before but please indulge me. Our beliefs and behaviors are like a bicycle wheel. It consists of a hub, the spokes and the tire.

The hub is essential. Without that, you are not going anywhere. And not only is the hub essential, it has to be in the center of the wheel. If not, your ride will be eccentric and you'll wobble and even fall a lot.

The spokes are important but not actually essential. You can lose one or two of them and the bike will still operate fairly well. Spokes don't often break or need to be replaced but it can happen. What's important is that they are connected to the hub. They in turn are connected to the rest of the wheel.

The tire is where the wheel makes contact with the earth. The tire's purpose is to make the trip smooth. Tires not only can be replaced they inevitably have to be from time to time because they get worn out.

So it is with what we believe and what we do. Some things are essential and need to be kept central. Some things are important but not, strictly speaking, essential. They can be changed but rarely. And some things are neither. They have to be changed periodically.

For example, the Eucharist is an essential practice of the church. Jesus tells us to do it in remembrance of him. The Presbyterian church I grew up in did it 4 times a year. We do it every Sunday. But I understand that until the 1970s Lutherans and Episcopalians usually did it only once a month. Everyone agrees it is essential to do it. But not how often to do it. It is an important part of worship but it is not essential we do it every time we worship. As to how we do it...well, the Presbyterians used grape juice. We offer grape juice as an option. I can't use wine in the jail, so I use grape juice. We also give gluten-free wafers to those who are allergic. And during the pandemic we had to make some changes in how we distributed the elements. Some things, which are neither essential nor important, we can and do change because of circumstances.

So what is the hub, the essential center of Christianity? Jesus—who he is, what he has done for us and is doing in us and how we should respond. You can't remove Jesus Christ from the center of our faith and get very far. He is God's son, who became a human, died to save us and rose from the dead to give us his eternal life. Through his Spirit he is restoring the image of God in which we were created but which has been distorted and buried under our sins, our destructive and self-destructive habits of thinking, speaking and acting. On the cross he saved us from the penalty of sin. Through the Spirit's action we are being saved from the power of sin in our lives. When Jesus returns we will be saved from the very presence of sin and the suffering it causes.

What should be our response be to what God has done and is doing out of his great love for us? Love him back. And because he loves everyone, we are to love them too. How we express that love can vary from person to person and from situation to situation but we must always do everything in love, to help and not to harm.

Those are the essentials in a nutshell.

This is not to say there aren't other very important issues we need to deal with but we must not confuse them with the essentials. Nor must we separate them from the essentials. Everything radiates from the hub.

To switch the metaphor, think about triage, the process by which doctors in the ER decide whom to treat first when they are dealing with mass casualties. This idea came from battlefield medicine. Basically your first priority is those whose injuries are a matter of life or death. If you don't treat them now, they will die. Your next priority is those where the issue is not whether they will live but whether timely care will improve the quality of that life. Lastly you deal with those whose injuries or illnesses do not threaten their life or their future quality of life. That's why when there's a major accident on US-1, the ER treats those victims ahead of you and your sniffles.

Sadly there are a lot of people who do not think in terms of what's essential, what's important and what is neither. And so some people take issues that are rarely or never mentioned in scripture and make them deal-breakers when it comes to whether someone is a Christian of not. And we have people who confuse certain political issues with theological ones. “If you don't vote my way on these issues, then, die, heretic!”

Part of the problem is one my college professor Don Lake made me aware of. For a lot of people, the elements of their faith and practice are not like a wheel but like links in a chain. And of course a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. So they defend everything fiercely. They cannot concede a single thing or compromise on anything. Unfortunately, when they do discover a fatal flaw in one of the links, their whole faith is in danger of being shattered.

Sadly I know gays who grew up in churches where they were told that what they were was irredeemably evil and who finally left all belief in Christ behind. This is an important issue but seeing as neither the Ten Commandments nor Jesus say anything about it, and out of 31,000 verses in the Bible it is only mentioned 7 times, it can hardly be considered essential. And gays are not the only casualties of confusing this issue with the essentials. Westboro Baptist Church made it so central that when spokesperson Megan Phelps-Roper, the granddaughter of founder Fred Phelps, came to have serious doubts, she not only left that church but lost her faith in God. She lost it because she was taught to elevate an non-essential issue over the core belief in a God who commands us to love everyone.

Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” (John 13:34-35) This is so essential that Jesus says it 3 times in these two verses alone and 2 more times in this long speech given the night he was betrayed. In fact the words “love one another” appear 14 times in the New Testament alone. (John 13:34-35; 15:12, 17; Romans 12:10; 13:8; 1 Thessalonians 3:12; 4:9-10; 1 Peter 1:22; 4:8; 1 John 3:11, 23; 4:7, 11-12; 2 John 1:5) In addition we are told to honor one another, welcome one another, have fellowship with one another, live in harmony with one another, be kind to one another, forgive one another, bear one another's burdens, comfort one another, care for one another, pray for one another, build one another up, sing with one another, stir one another up to love and good works, serve one another, submit to one another, not to speak against one another, nor are we to judge one another. And lest we think this only applies to fellow Christians, Jesus tells us that we are even to love our enemies. (Matthew 5:44-45; Luke 6:27-28)

Which makes sense because God is love. (1 John 4:8) God—Father, Son and Holy Spirit—is the love relationship at the center of reality. We are most like God—we most fully reflect his image—when we act in love towards one another.

And we have an illustration of how we should treat other Christians who are different from us. In Mark we read, “John said to him, 'Teacher, we saw someone casting demons in your name, and we tried to stop him because he was not following us.' But Jesus said, 'Do not stop him, because no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon afterward to say anything bad about me. For whoever is not against us is for us.'” (Mark 9:38-40) This is Jesus speaking. And he says not to stop someone working in parallel with him and in Jesus' name. And apparently the guy was effective at healing, which means he believed in Jesus. In Acts 19 we learn what happens when people who don't believe in Jesus try this. It not only doesn't work; it ends disastrously. (Acts 19:13-16)

So Jesus doesn't want us trying to stop other Christians from preaching the gospel and displaying God's love through helping others. Because he didn't say that people would know we are his followers by the fact that we agreed with one another on everything; he said that the world would recognize his followers by their love for one another.

Today society feels that being a member of a church is no longer considered an essential part of being a good person or citizen. So we have lost a lot of people who were never that committed to the faith in the first place. The real scandal is that we lose people who were committed but who just gave up on the church because it was focusing on things that were not essential and not really putting Jesus at the center of what we believe and do. Jesus criticized the Pharisees for so concentrating on minutiae in the Bible that they were neglecting things like justice and the love of God. (Luke 11:42) Have we been guilty of that?

22 years ago when I was only Lay Pastoral Leader of St. Francis, Carl Kaltreider who was Interim Pastor of Lord of the Seas approached me and proposed that our two churches start working together. It began with doing mid-week Lenten services and the Easter Sunrise service together. 11 years ago I was asked to become Interim Pastor at Lord of the Seas in addition to being Priest in Charge at St. Francis. Around 5 years ago people like Jayne and Chuck McCormick, Arnie Steinmetz, Steve and Bobbie Wanta and others brought up the idea of doing combined services during the off-season. Now because of my health this arrangement has been extended till my retirement. Pastor Kaltreider died in 2019 and Chuck and Arnie just last year. I really hope that what they achieved in bringing these two parts of the body of Christ together doesn't die. I know it is not in my hands. It is in God's. But I'm grateful to have been a part of this display of the love that Jesus commanded us to have for one another and I hope it somehow continues.

Having It All

The scriptures referred to are 1 Corinthians 1:1-9.

In The Wizard of Oz, what Dorothy wants most is to go home. In the end it turns out that she had the means to return home all along: her magical shoes. After leaving the land of Oz in good hands, she clicks the heels of her shoes three times and returns to Aunt Em and Kansas.

A lot of American films and cartoons play on this idea of “you had it all along.” But often it is not something that was given to you, like Dorothy's shoes. More often the sentiment is “you had it in you all along.” And usually if the hero lacks anything it's not ability but self-confidence. “Believe you can and you can!” is the motto of almost every Disney film.

Most American entertainment goes along with this. Offhand I can only think of two films that don't say that all you need is to believe in yourself. Both are biographies of real people. In Florence Foster Jenkins Meryl Streep plays the real-life New York heiress who wanted to be an opera singer. While she lacked the talent, through her money and position in society she managed to live her dream, oblivious to her inability to stay on-key. Still the film makes you root for her even as you laugh at how bad she is at singing. And over the closing credits they play a recording of the real Jenkins to show that they didn't exaggerate her inability to carry a tune. Meryl Streep should have won an Oscar simply for managing to vocalize so badly, something that's really difficult if you know how to sing.

The other film about a person who probably shouldn't have followed his dream is Ed Wood. If you've ever seen one of his films, like the notorious Plan 9 from Outer Space, you know just how incompetent he was as a filmmaker. In every department—writing, directing, casting, and special effects—Wood shows more enthusiasm than ability. There is a wonderful and probably apocryphal scene in his biopic where Wood has a fight with the people financing his film—a Baptist church, of all things—and goes to a bar where he commiserates with another beleaguered director. Knowing someone else has the same problem encourages Wood to try again. At the end of the scene, we discover the other filmmaker is Orson Welles. The point of the scene seems to be that you may run into opposition because you are a misunderstood genius—or because you are simply inept at what you are trying to do. Confidence is no guarantee of competence.

The reason I brought these up is in our New Testament passage, the opening of Paul's first letter to the Corinthians. The church had a lot of issues it was dealing with. Scholars would love to have the letter that had been sent by the church to Paul laying out all their conflicts. (1 Corinthians 1:11, 7:1) One issue concerned the gifts of the Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12, 14) Some of these gifts were spectacular, like healing or prophesy or speaking in tongues. Some were less so, like helping or administrating. But not everyone had every gift. And people were apparently upset about this. Either people envied the gifts of others or else those with certain gifts looked down on those lacking the same gifts.

In chapter 12 Paul will address this controversy by using the analogy of a body. It is made up of different parts, each of which has different functions. Not every part can do everything the others do. But they are all important and they are all part of the same body. And so it is with the church, which is the body of Christ with Jesus as the head.

But I noticed for the first time that in his introduction to this letter Paul says “you are not lacking in any spiritual gift...” (v.7) Paul is thinking ahead to this issue. But is he contradicting what he will say in chapter 12 of the letter about not everyone having every gift? Is he just giving false confidence to those who feel they are lacking?

No, and part of the problem is that unlike in Greek we cannot easily see  in English if the word “you” is singular or plural. This is where the Southernism “y'all” would be helpful. Still it should be obvious from the context that Paul is addressing the whole church at Corinth here and not any one individual. So Paul is saying that the assembly of Christians as a whole has all the gifts. It's just that they are distributed by the Spirit to different individuals.

Besides the belief that "if you dream it, you can do it," another very American idea is that of the self-sufficient individual. But the myth of the person who can do it all also clashes with reality. Sure, some people are polymaths, knowledgeable in many different subjects, but nobody knows everything, or has every talent, or has mastered every skill. Thomas Jefferson was a gifted musician, inventor, and politician but he was terrible at his own finances. He was in deep debt at the time of his death. You could probably beat him at a game of Monopoly. Einstein was brilliant at math and physics but he was so prone to getting lost in his own town that the Princeton police were used to finding him wandering the streets and taking him home. If not for them, he might have ended up on a milk carton: “Have you seen this physicist?”

We all need each other. And that's Paul's point. Which is why between chapters 12 and 14, which discuss gifts of the Spirit, there is chapter 13, where Paul asserts the supremacy of Christian love. Love is more important than having a flashy spiritual gift. Without love having a gift is hollow. Without love the gift is not being used for its true purpose: to build up the body of Christ, the assembly of believers. (1 Corinthians 14:12)

But to return to what Paul says in today's reading, the church in Corinth was not lacking any vital gifts of the Spirit. And that wasn't because it was a megachurch. Remember that at this time, there were no church buildings. All of the early churches, for the first 300 years, were house churches. That meant they could accommodate maybe 30 people.

Based on the organizational model of the synagogue, a church would have a president and a group of elders to organize and run things, and deacons to help with those in need. Once Paul had planted a church and saw it begin to thrive, he would lay hands on the elders and appoint one to oversee things. (Acts 6:6; 13:2-3; 20:17, 28; 1 Timothy 4:14; Philippians 1:1) The Greek word for overseer is episkopos, which we call today a bishop.

As a church grew in a city, the group would have to spread to other houses. In fact, that's probably how the office of bishop grew. When there was just one house church in a city, the bishop would preside over the worship and the Eucharist at that house. As the number of Christians in a city grew, he could lead services for different groups in different houses at different times of the day. When the increasing number of Christians precluded him actually officiating at every church in the city on a Sunday, the bishop appointed a presbuteros, Greek for elder, to be in charge of an individual church and to take over his immediate pastoral duties. The presbuteros, which over time became the word “priest,” would also keep the bishop informed of how things were going and of any needs they had. So the priest both represented his people to the bishop and the bishop to his people.

This structure of bishops, elders and deacons was only in its early stages at the time of Paul. (1 Timothy 3:1-13; Titus 1:6) Still Paul is telling this one house church of a little more than 2 dozen people that they have all the gifts they need. Instead of everyone vying for the more attention-grabbing gifts, people needed to trust God's Spirit and find out what their particular gifts were.

In Romans 12 Paul lists some gifts that are less eye-catching and probably more vital. They include things like serving, encouraging, giving, and showing mercy. (Romans 12:6-8) Yes, we need leaders and preachers and teachers, but we also need people who can organize things and motivate people and support the church financially and do counseling and all the rest. Again it is a very American thing to emphasize leadership and offer books and seminars on it. But we tend to ignore the fact that not everyone can or should be a leader, any more than a body can be made up of nothing but heads. I spend a lot of time in my head and one thing God has been showing me, painfully at times, is that I need to pay attention to the rest of my body. You can't write a sermon if you have a leg or foot cramp nor lead worship if your body is shutting down.

God has not left us without the gifts we need to function and grow as a community in Christ. They are here. Some are in each of you. Some you know you have. Some you may suspect. Some of your gifts are known by those around you who see them even if you don't. We had them all along because the Spirit has given them to us. We simply need to recognize them and develop them and use them to build up the body of Christ.

Some gifts can be found in the resources we have through the bishop and his staff. It is important to our bishops that we stand and prosper as ambassadors of God's kingdom in this community. And as I said on New Year's Day, it is vital to remember this as we prepare for the changes this year will bring.

Finally we need to remember that we are not in this alone. Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered in Jesus' name, he is there among them. (Matthew 18:20) And if Jesus is with us, we have what we need. In him we can have confidence. 

Justice, Mercy and Grace

The scriptures referred to are Isaiah 42:1-9 and Matthew 3:13-17.

In my sophomore year of college, I was assigned to off-campus housing. It was simply an old house with its back fence next to some train tracks. The first day I was there, moving in my stuff, I was startled by the way the whole house shook when the train roared past. And it was a commuter line so the house shook several times a day, every day. But by the end of the week, I no longer registered the seismic disturbance. I had acclimated. (By the way they tore down that house the next summer.)

Once you get used to something, you cease to notice it, no matter how good or bad it is. Someone has to point it out before you seriously think about it. If you decide that it is not a good thing, you need to think about changing it. But as a nurse I know that people can tolerate a heck of a lot before the situation becomes so painful they decide to do something about it.

Things were bad for the Jews in what was once the land of Israel. And I think that was why so many people came to John the Baptist. John was pointing out how far the people had strayed from what God wanted. And he proposed a fairly novel solution. Baptism was a purification rite mostly reserved for Gentiles converting to Judaism. However, some Jewish sects did require ritual immersion to purify new members. That meant that when a Jew decided to get baptized it was a sign that they thought things were so bad spiritually that they essentially had to start over in their relationship with God.

John preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. (Luke 3:3) So after getting baptized, people were supposed to show their repentance by living differently. Luke tells us that when people asked John what should they do now, he gave them very concrete examples. They were to share their food and clothing with those who lacked them. Tax collectors were not to collect more than required. Soldiers were not to shake down people or threaten them with false accusations but to be content with their pay. (Luke 3:10-14) In other words, they were to be fair in their dealings with others and generous to the poor. Or in biblical terms, be both just and merciful.

Jesus coming to John to be baptized created a bit of a dilemma. John knew that Jesus had nothing to repent of and didn't need to start his relationship with God over. So why did Jesus come to be baptized? He says, “Permit it for now; for it is appropriate for us to complete all justice in this way.” (Matthew 3:15, my translation) In other words, Jesus is doing everything a Jew should do in this case to comply with God's will. He is not starting off by saying “The rules don't apply to me,” the way some leaders do. Remember what we said last week about Jesus not holding onto his privilege as God the Son. Instead, he humbled himself and became a servant.

Notice I chose to translate the word usually rendered as “righteousness” here by its other meaning, “justice.” Jesus being baptized is just and fair. If we have to undergo baptism, so will he. Jesus never asks us to do anything he is not willing to do.

The other reason I translated it as “justice” is to show its connection with our passage from Isaiah. Three times it mentions justice as something God's servant is active in doing: “he will bring forth justice to the nations,” “he will faithfully bring forth justice,” “He will not grow faint or be crushed until he has established justice in the earth.” Justice is an important part of his mission.

Justice or fairness is a subject Jesus touches upon again and again. One place you see it is in the Sermon on the Mount. Those who mourn will be comforted; those who are merciful will be shown mercy; those who suffer for Jesus' sake will be greatly rewarded in heaven. (Matthew 5:3-12) This is even more stark in the version we find in Luke, where those who lack the basics of life will be compensated while those with more than enough will suffer reversals of their fortunes. (Luke 6:20-26)

Jesus actually tightens up the meaning of various moral laws to go beyond superficial observance. It is not enough to refrain from murder; one must not attack people verbally. It is not enough to refrain from sexually assaulting a woman; you shouldn't even be entertaining the thought. (Matthew 5:21-23, 27-28) If you pass judgment on others the standard you use will be used in judging you. (Matthew 7:1-2) The rule of thumb is to treat other people in the same way you would like to be treated. (Matthew 7:12)

But why didn't Jesus then go on to establish justice as Isaiah predicted? Remember how we pointed out that John preached not only justice but mercy? So did Jesus. But he emphasized mercy. Because not only did Jesus preach repentance leading to the forgiveness of sins, he was actually able to forgive people their sins. (Matthew 9:2) Giving people what they deserve is justice. Not giving them all they deserve is mercy. Strict justice would eliminate all mercy. Forgiveness is forgoing absolute justice. God's justice is tempered with mercy.

But God is more than simply just and merciful: he is gracious. Grace is being given what you cannot possibly deserve. Jesus really emphasized that. So he said we must not retaliate but turn the other cheek when struck. And we must love our enemies, for even God gives sun and vital rain to everyone, both good people and bad. And we are to be like God. (Matthew 5:38-48)

In his parables, Jesus emphasizes God's grace. He is like a shepherd who will go off to find one lost sheep. (Matthew 18:12-14) He is like a vineyard owner who pays everyone the same good wage regardless of how late they are invited to the work. (Matthew 20:1-16) He is like the father who welcomes back his screw-up son when the kid comes to his senses and returns and then the father throws a party. (Luke 15:11-32) Jesus also commends the person who goes above and beyond to help a total stranger in need. (Luke 10:30-37)

In fact, Jesus is so much about mercy and grace that old “hellfire and brimstone” John the Baptist asks Jesus if he misidentified him as the Messiah. (Matthew 11:2-6) What nobody understood was that Jesus' first coming was to offer the good news of forgiveness and reconciliation to God. He did not come to condemn the world but to save it. (John 3:17) And to all who received him and put their trust in his name, he gave the right to be children of God. (John 1:12)

But offering mercy and grace is not the same as justice. And we see that despite all that Jesus said and did, the world is not filled with justice. Just listen to the news. People murder and cheat and harm one another in a million ways. Jesus knew that even some who call him Lord would do evil. (Matthew 7:21-23)

God is not oblivious to the existence of evil. In fact the first disobedience takes place in the 3^rd chapter of the first book of the Bible. The first murder happens in chapter 4. And in chapter 6, it says, “But the Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind had become great on the earth. Every inclination of the thoughts of their minds was only evil all the time...The earth was ruined in the sight of God; the earth was filled with violence.” (Genesis 6:5, 11) That's the reason for the flood and God rebooting creation.

But evil persists. So why doesn't God do something about it? Anti-theists often argue that there can't be a loving or just God because he lets such things go on. They ask, “Why would God allow this?” But since they don't believe in God, the real question they should ask is “Why do humans allow this?” If humans, and not God, are the actual superior intelligence in the world, and we see how bad things are, why don't we stop it? And they can't simply say it's ignorance, because a lot of evil is done knowingly. People know that what they are doing or planning to do will harm others and they do it anyway. It's almost as if there is something fundamentally wrong with humans morally that needs fixing.

As we said, God knows this. His prophets point it out frequently. His laws tell us what we should and should not do. We choose not to obey them or to only do so when it suits us. The key word is choose. One way to eliminate evil without eliminating people altogether would be to eliminate our ability to choose. That way we couldn't choose to do evil. But I doubt those who criticize God would want him to turn us all into robots or puppets.

But while people created in God's image continue to use the gifts he gave them to harm others, God won't let that go on forever. Judgment and justice are what Jesus' second coming is about. (Romans 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:1)

But why the delay? Once again it is mercy. As it says in 2 Peter, “God is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is patient toward you, because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.” (2 Peter 3:9) When everyone has had a chance to respond to the gospel and all who will turn to God have done so, only then will the final act begin.

But for now we live in the time of grace. As Paul says, “Look, now is the acceptable time; look, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Corinthians 6:2) If we put all our trust in Jesus, following him wherever he leads us, we need not fear judgment. (John 3:16, 18) And indeed when we give our lives to Jesus, who gave his life for us, he also gives us his Spirit to guide and empower us, so that we are transformed by the renewing of our minds. (John 16:13; 2 Timothy 1:7; Romans 12:2) That's the way God has chosen to eliminate evil: by changing us into people who use our power of choice to choose the way of the God who is love.

And it starts with baptism, as Jesus shows us. But it doesn't end there. In the prayer Jesus taught us, we ask God that “your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” And we are the ones who are to do God's will. This is not a contradiction of the idea that we are saved by God's grace. As Paul says, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast. For we are his workmanship, having been created in Christ for good works that God has prepared beforehand so we may do them.” (Ephesians 2:8-10, emphasis mine)

While we are not saved by our good deeds, if we are saved the natural result is that we do good works. You don't fix a broken leg by walking on it. But once the doctor has fixed your leg, and you have healed enough, it is natural to want to walk on it. And in fact the physical therapist will help you get strong and flexible enough to walk again and help you take your first steps. Think of the Holy Spirit whom we receive at baptism as our therapist, helping you in your walk with God. The Spirit will show us how and help us do the will of the one who created us to do the good works he has prepared for us.

And there's a lot to be done. As we said, the world is full of injustice. People are not being treated fairly. People are suffering and not getting help. Jesus helped people who were suffering and hungry and burdened by their past sins. We can do that as well, if not exactly as he did. As the body of Christ, we believers should also be doing what Jesus began. We will not finish it all. He will. But he wants to see us doing the work he's given us to do when he returns. (Matthew 24:46)

People do not listen to those who preach the gospel while ignoring suffering or justifying injustice. Christians in the past understood this. In the New Testament we read of how churches shared their resources to take care of the poor. (Acts 4:34-35) The apostles appointed the first deacons to take care of the daily distribution of food to widows. (Acts 6:1-6) Paul encouraged a collection be made by his churches for the poor in Jerusalem. (Romans 15:26; Galatians 2:10) After Christianity became legal and the first church council was held in Nicaea in 325 AD, every cathedral town in the empire started building a hospital. Beginning in the 5th century, cathedral schools were founded. Christians were in the forefront of the movement to abolish slavery. Christian leaders were prominent in the civil rights movement. And a lot of these things are just considered things any society should do, however secular it is.

Life is not fair. And while we believe that this will be totally remedied when Jesus returns, that doesn't let us off the hook. We can do what we can to make it fairer now. Jesus scolded the religious leaders of his day for focusing on minutiae while they “neglect what is more important in the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness.” (Matthew 23:23) And if we are to be faithful to Jesus, we must not neglect these things either. As Jesus said, “let your light shine before people, so that they can see your good deeds and give honor to your Father in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16)

Changes

The scriptures referred to are Galatians 4:4-7 and Philippians 2:5-11.

Made your New Year's resolutions yet? If you think about it, what we designate as New Year's Day is arbitrary. The church year begins with Advent, 4 Sundays before Christmas. Chinese New Year always falls between January 21 and February 20. In ancient Rome the year began in March. The Jewish New Year once fell in spring 2 weeks before Passover but later was moved to the fall 10 days before Yom Kippur. And of course for the federal government the fiscal year begins on October 1. But you have to start the year sometime, so January 1^st is as good as any.

The idea behind New Year's resolutions is that if you are going to start something new you might as well do it at the same time that a new year begins. Still it would be stupid to put off doing some things until January 1^st. Like getting sober. Or quiting smoking. Or beginning to exercise.

But sometimes the beginning of the year is a perfect time to consider making changes, like when a change is coming that year anyway. That's what's happening for all of us here. I'm retiring after Easter. And that means changes to my life and to both churches.

Some people talk as if change is always a good thing. Today it's called disruption and some people, especially in business, are proud to call themselves disruptors. But while disrupting a dictatorship or changing an ineffective way to do something is good, some changes, like getting sick or experiencing a natural disaster or a war, are bad.

That's not to say that some good can't come out of such terrible changes. Death is the ultimate change for the worse. In 1825 painter and inventor Samuel Morse was in New York for a commission when in New Hampshire his wife had a heart attack after giving birth to their third child. By the time Morse got a letter telling him of his wife's death and he was able to get home, she had already been buried. Morse wished he had found out earlier but there was no way to get word to him faster. So he started working on a way to send messages quicker and over distances. He came up with the concept of the single-wire telegraph and developed the Morse code so that messages could be sent in real time 30 characters a minute. His response to a tragedy was to come up with a way that others need not suffer as he had.

God takes the prize when it comes to making something good out of something bad. He created humans in his image, which means among other things, we have the capacity to use our intelligence and creativity to do so much good. But we almost immediately started misusing his gifts to make things good for ourselves and worse for others. We have used our ingenuity not only to make things that help people, like tools and medicine, but also to make weapons that harm and kill others. We have created systems of government that make life safer and better for its citizens and we have created systems of government that oppress or enslave some people while making more prosperous others who show loyalty to those in power.

So God gave us his law, which told us the things we should and shouldn't do. (e.g., Exodus 20:1-17, Leviticus 19:9-18, 29-36) But that wasn't enough. In fact, when people weren't ignoring the law, they perverted it, observing the letter and being technically correct, but not acting according to the spirit of it. They took that which should help us with our relationships to both God and to our fellow humans, and turned it in a method of dividing people from both. People have even made religion into a weapon, to harm and oppress others.

So God does something new. As Paul says in our passage from Galatians, “When the fullness of time had come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, in order to redeem those who were under the law...” What does he mean by the “fullness of time?” We're not sure but it could be a number of things. Jesus was born in the time of the Roman empire. It was a ruthless military dictatorship but it did do some things right. The empire built good roads, primarily so that its army could go anywhere within its borders and put down rebellions. Rome suppressed piracy, which made the Mediterranean Sea safe for travel as well. These things also made it easier for Christian missionaries to take the gospel to every corner of the empire. They allowed Paul to stay in communication with the churches he founded by letter. And since Rome was in large part reconquering the remnants of Alexander the Great's empire, they inherited a vast territory where everyone spoke Greek at least as a second language. This allowed the gospel to be spread to people everywhere, regardless of their native tongue. Whatever else Paul meant, he had to know about these advantages to the mission God gave him.

So God sent his Son at a time when his message could be heard by a huge number of people, potentially the 59 to 76 million people in the empire. But this time the message was not just a bunch of do's and don't's. The message was all about Jesus, who he is and what he has done for us. And in our two passages from Paul's letters he elaborates on those two topics.

Who is Jesus? In Philippians, Paul says Christ was in the form of God. The Greek word does not mean merely the outward appearance but the embodiment of the essence of something. Cups may come in somewhat different shapes but the essential form is present in all of them, distinguishing a cup from, say, a bowl or a spoon. By saying that Christ was in the form of God, Paul is saying that Jesus Christ is divine.

He goes on to say that Christ did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited. Now the Greek word the NRSV translates “exploited” means to be eagerly grasped. I think a better translation in this context would be “clung to.” Christ has equality with God but did not cling to it or try to hang onto it. Why? Because his Father was sending him to live in the world as a human being. That's a big change.

So he emptied himself. Of what? His prerogatives as God. He gave up his omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence to take on the form of a human. As J.B. Phillips put it, Jesus is the vast, unimaginable and eternal God focused into a single human existing in time and space. In a sense, Jesus, the Word, is God translated into a form we can grasp.

In practical terms, this means Jesus limited his use of his divine powers. We see this when he is tempted in the wilderness to make bread out of stones or float from the pinnacle of the temple, and he refuses both times. (Matthew 4:1-7) He refrains from calling on God for help when he is arrested. (Matthew 26:53) He doesn't know everything. He is able to be amazed. (Matthew 8:10) And he admits that in his time on earth not even he knows when the end of the age will come. (Matthew 24:36) One effect of this is, as it says in Hebrews, he can sympathize with our weaknesses and limitations. (Hebrews 4:15)

Paul says Christ took the form (same word as before) of a slave. In other words, he gave up his place as the God we should serve and took up the form of a servant. As Jesus said, “For the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.” (Mark 10:45) This is a big change. This is not something that you'd think God would do.

But not only does Jesus voluntarily give up his powers and position as God, he humbles himself and becomes obedient to his Father to the point of death—even the painful and humiliating death of being crucified. That is the worst thing that could happen to Jesus. This change is above and beyond what we would expect from even a loving God.

And why does he do it? As Paul says in Galatians, “so that we might receive adoption as children.” Paul uses the metaphor of adoption because an adopted child is legally entitled to the same rights as a natural born child. In ancient times childless men could and did adopt slaves and make them their heirs. Abraham was planning on doing that at one point because it was starting to look like he was not going to have a son. (Genesis 15:2-3) So in essence it would be the reverse of what Christ did. Though he was God's Son, he takes on the form of a servant. Though we are at our best servants of God, through Christ we can be adopted by God. To paraphrase C.S. Lewis, the Son of God became a human to enable humans to become sons and daughters of God.

A lot of people think that humans are automatically God's children. But as Lewis points out, we are actually God's creations. Though created in his image, we are not the same kind of being that God is, any more than a sculpture is the same thing as the person it is modeled on. Or to put it in other words, our relationship to God is like Pinocchio's relationship to Geppetto. Geppetto made Pinocchio; he didn't beget him. The puppet might look like a boy but he isn't really one. Now Geppetto wants Pinocchio to be his son, and Pinocchio wants that as well, but his creation will have to changed into a living human being like his maker. In the same way, for us to become God's children we have to be transformed spiritually. The person who makes that possible is Jesus.

By taking on the brunt of the evil we have done to God's creation and to each other, Jesus makes it possible for us to start over. As Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” (Romans 8:1) Because of what Jesus did on the cross, we are forgiven for our sins. God graciously accepts Jesus' righteousness as ours. Our status has changed. We are able to be adopted by God.

But we do have a part to play. In Florida children over the age of 12 must consent to their adoption. And we too must consent to God adopting us. That's one reason not all humans are God's children. Some people do not trust or love God and do not want him as their Father. Again as Lewis said, some people say to God, “Thy will be done.” And to those who won't, God says, “Very well, your will be done. You don't want any part of me? So be it.” But since God is the source of all goodness, that is not a wise decision.

Children are supposed to take after their parents. But how can we be like God? Paul says, “And because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, 'Abba! Father!'” In most situations, we know what we should do. But our spirits often rebel against it. So God sends the Spirit of his Son, the Spirit that empowered Jesus in his earthly mission, into our hearts to enable us to follow Jesus. And, as we see in small children, we are motivated to be like our Father out of love for him.

And this really helps us in those situations where it is not obvious what we should do. The Bible does not spell out what to do in everything we might encounter in life. We live in a different time and a different culture and face issues that didn't exist 2000 years ago. Like the internet, weapons of mass destruction, end of life decisions, democracy, corporations with the rights of persons, individuals with personal wealth rivaling that of entire nations, and the tremendous freedom of choice we have. We need to stay in touch with the Spirit of God in Christ to guide us in the complicated decisions we face today.

As I said, this year will bring changes that will require decisions on things we haven't faced in a while. I have been priest-in-charge at St. Francis for more than 20 years and interim pastor at Lord of the Seas for more than 10. Decisions that in the past I would normally make will have to be made by others. Things we have done one way for decades may have to be done differently. Some things will change. And change brings uncertainty and uncertainty brings discomfort.

So make one of your resolutions to rededicate yourself to taking up your cross daily and following Jesus. And to have that same mind in you that was in Jesus, a mindset that does not cling to the past or to privilege but is willing to humble itself, and be obedient even to the point of making sacrifices for the good of all, so that Jesus Christ is seen as Lord of all.

And remember—one thing will not change: “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today and forever!” (Hebrews 13:8) The specific ways we show this may change but not his love and grace. And if we stay connected to him through his Spirit, God within us, we will be able to carry out God's will for us, whatever this or any year brings our way.