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Welcome to this weekly sermon from Trinity Episcopal Church in Vampiren, Arkansas.
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Thank you for joining us.
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Now let's listen to today's message.
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Oh my God.
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Well, the story's turn to the story is um we have your heart.
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And uh I just want to back up for a moment before I begin, and I just want to say, so uh last minute spiritually, and this ended, we heard a reading from Paul's letter to the Bible.
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That's the Lord.
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And do you know one of my favorite places in the whole world comes from the Holy Scripture?
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And we get to hear it again, again, again.
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And lastly someone said, and I'm so excited, and so I just had to reiterate it this morning, and sometimes you're a banduran person.
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What does that make you?
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You know?
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Um here, but that's a lot of means.
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Where does that even come from?
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That's a monica.
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That's the mica! That's right! The priest gets the open line.
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That's the Micah! Isn't that a great word?
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That's the Lanica.
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It's important to remember where things come from, is it not?
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We know that we come from Vancouver in Arkansas in this place.
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We know that we are God.
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But do we have him in our heart?
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And does he own ours?
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Could someone say that Christ lives in us?
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In 1997, a freshly mentioned high school graduate rather naively began applying for scholarships for college.
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He scoured the resources provided by the counselors at their school and ended up with one that sounded promising, sponsored by Signified Epsilon Fraternity.
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And guess what?
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It was in the school of their toys.
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And it was called the Balanced Man Scholarship.
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Sounds good, right?
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And it was so name because based on their position, that through membership and signified and so on, you would become what?
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A balanced man.
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The Frenchman to be embarked in a time of a great exploration and education to discern what the fraternity was all about and to be a better candidate for said scholarship.
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Because they were expert.
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And they found on November 1st, 1901, at
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Richmond College in Richmond, Virginia, that fraternity was founded on three principles: virtue, diligence, and brotherly love.
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There were the largest fraternities in the country.
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That would later be known as Sigma Pi Epsilon or the Sig F.
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The men who joined him were interested because they found in other fraternities there might have been some of the reasons behind them not joining.
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After all, most of them were divinity students.
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Jenkins would found that fraternity on this Jenkins lesson.
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This is the first dividend, and the second is my first women.
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This morning's gospel is a piece of scripture, so many of us know by heart, and that's a good thing.
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And if you're a signature, you absolutely know it by heart because you have to memorize it during your pledge period.
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But how many have truly delved into what it actually means to get at the nuts and bolts of it?
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How do we love God with our heart, our soul, and our mind in the day-to-day?
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Or better yet, maybe even just how do we love our neighbors as ourselves?
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Christianity has been at answering these two questions for over 2,000 years.
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For the moments, those words slipped past Jesus' lips.
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And so, thanks be to God.
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God has imparted to me once and for all the great answers to these two questions and how we carry them out in our lives.
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Aren't you excited?
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You don't sound excited.
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And perhaps God has not told me.
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I'm not most ridiculous as they say.
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But people like St.
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John of the Cross, he thought he had it figured out.
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And he talks about loving God in a most essential kind of way.
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Like a showtime kind of way, didn't I?
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Or for those who have ever seen and been to Rome the Bernini statue of the ecstasy of St.
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Teresa.
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But I don't think that that's it.
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Although perhaps possibly for some, this ecstatic kind of love and experience of God.
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But in the Bible, the meaning of the heart in Hebrew understanding refers to much more than just our physical organ in the middle of our chest or our fleeting emotions.
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The Hebrew word for heart is love and represents the entire inner person, the center of our thoughts, your will, and your choices.
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And while we often contrast the head with the heart, the biblical authors solve them as one.
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You think with it.
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And that's why the Bible often links the heart to understand.
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If your heart is hard, it means that you're close to the truth.
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And if your heart is open, it means that you're willing to learn and grow.
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So when Jesus says heart, soul, and mind, he's really saying, love with your heart.
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Love with your heart.
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That's a big task.
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But I'm also cautioned that we shouldn't do it in some sort of sing and patronizing love.
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But instead of authentic love.
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For those of you who have been married a few years, perhaps in this place, or living together, or whatever the circumstance may be, you might find a kinship to this.
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It's the kind of love that wakes up next to your spouse or loved one after 20, 30, 40, 50, 60 years, and you still don't care for them.
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And what's more important?
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That you care that they still care about you.
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It's not a long-com type of love that makes a great comfort movie, but doesn't provide lasting comfort once the film ends and the world still.
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We would call this in the Greek agape.
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The love of God.
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That transpires even some of our understandings of who God is and how great God's love is for us.
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But what enough to be remiss?
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We can't forget to mention about the second that is like unto it.
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To love our neighbors.
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This is probably the most difficult for us as humans.
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Some will say that in this passage, the gospel is telling us in the Greek philea.
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It's the type of love that it is.
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But once again, the type of love that is described and used in the Greek New Testament translation is not philea.
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It's not just in addition, the word translated light means of the same kind.
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Jesus is not softening the second one.
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The love of neighbor does not come second to the love of God.
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He instead is placing it in the exact same category.
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Where the second is like unto it.
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Love it.
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Because the lawyer asks for one commandment.
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And Jesus gives him a twofer.
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It's a Black Friday special right there in the middle of Israel.
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A twofer.
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And lastly, remember the words thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
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Where else did we hear that this morning?
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In our first reading in Leviticus 19.
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In 18, specifically, these words.
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Leave cleanings for the poor.
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Pay wages the same day.
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Do not curse to death.
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Judge fairly.
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Do not stand idle while your neighbor is in danger.
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You see, beloved, as thyself sets the standard by the care everyone naturally extends to their own interests.
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For if you were hungry, would you not ask that someone would leave scraps on the table for you and your children and your grandchildren?
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If you needed to pay your rent, would you not ask that your employer pay your wages on time so that you could live up to your commitments to landlord?
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Do you ridicule those who have some sort of disability?
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You never know the day or the time or the hour when you too might find yourself in a place of uncertainty around health.
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And wouldn't you like to be judged fairly in this world?
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And wouldn't you?
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If you were in danger, you want someone to say that and say no.
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Because it moves us from a sentimental faith to a deeply integrated commitment of the whole person.
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That's why we are called to feed the hungry and vampire and our surrounding area.
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That's why we offer Sunday school classes for those who hunger and thirst after righteousness.
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That's why we celebrate these holy sacraments.
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That's why we invite new believers to the waters of baptism.
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For we know that our loving God calls us to love with our love.
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Our everything.
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And why it is important.
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And ask yourself, what can I do to show God's love?
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We always make time to show God's love for our actions of Trinity.
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And continually ask God really have our heart.
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Thank you for listening to this week's sermon from Trinity Episcopal Church.
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We invite you to join us each and every Sunday and to follow the podcast so that you can stay connected with future messages.
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Until next time.
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God bless you.