I think it's safe to say the early season optimism is draining pretty quickly you know. We never get beat by Westam, we never get beat that soundly by Westam, certainly not at home. That's six goals we've conceded in the last two games against them and that never ever happened. Disappointing thing about this, we sort of picked up where we left off against Huddersfield. There was no intensity again, the team disjointed, the attack wasn't flowing together and it was just nothing like what we've seen in the first few games, it's sort of like the team reverted back to type against Huddersfield and just carried it on against Westam. I went to see League of Gentlemen last night at the Echo Arena after the game and it was dead funny but one of the funny things about it was because you knew the characters and you kind of knew what was going to happen and that made it some of the scenes a little bit funnier. With Everton, it's kind of like the reverse of that, you know the players, you know what's going to happen but it's just not funny, you just don't want to see that anymore, we want it to change and it did change for the first few games but then we've just, it's frustrating to see us go back into that slow pedestrian style of play, we're not closing down again and Westam just came, they sat in but not like Huddersfield, they sat in and they got the extra quality and they hit us with that as if Jorma Lenko wasn't going to score yesterday and he went and scored two. I thought all in all, it was just really good up front for them, he gave Halligate a terrible time, he had his worst game in a long time and Calvert Lewinout on the left again, why? Why play him as a winger, he's a centre forward, Towson's game's on the wane by the look of it, he's not scoring goals which is fine while he was linking up well and knitting the plays together but he's not really doing that anymore, I think obviously the common denominator in this is not having with Charleston and you can say we're a one man team, we may well be but when you've got to play with that quality any team is going to miss that and we're missing that massively now, we can't come back quickly enough, it's Arsenal next, a place where we haven't won since 1996 I think when Graeme Stewart scored and Kacelskis but if you look at it Westamble have come to Guddison thinking they're not going to get anything, they were rock bottom, they were playing all right in some games apparently but they just weren't getting the result but they were rock bottom and they were coming into the game with Guddison, we're their bogey team and they beat us 3-1 so hopefully we can go to Arsenal and do the same, we'll have with Charleston back, we may have Mina in defence, he's going to have to come in and be a pretty big player now because our defence just looks, it looks shot to pieces again, I thought the positives from the game, Dean you played decent at left back, going forward he's very good and I thought Bernard when he came on he looked really lively, he's only small but he doesn't let that affect him, a couple of times he had the Armour Lenko off, he was about three times the size of him so he looks a class player and he looks like he gets stuck in as well, so then next week came in with Charleston up front making a massive difference but it's the defence, I mean Pickford's even off his game as well, he was off fault a few times and for at least two of the goals I think, it was just, it was just a really really bad game again and we need to pick ourselves up and get ourselves out of this rut, hopefully as I say, Charleston coming back will do that, Bernard having more influence in it, I think Sigurdsson's got to up his game now because he's been on almost the last couple of games, it's frustrating again but as we've said all along, we've just got to be patient, we said we were going to be patient in the summer, we can't suddenly turn round now and say oh that's it, now rip it up, start again because we keep doing that and if we do it again it's going to be like oh what should we just get Sam Ardys back in, steady this ship, we just need to stick with it now and it might be painful but we used to it, we used to go through pain, that's kind of what we do and but yeah just try and stay positive, that's all I'm gonna try and do, it's gonna be difficult next week at Arsenal and because they're usually batterers but just gotta hope that it doesn't pan out like last season and we go at them and we put in a performance like at Wolves or a performance like at Bournemouth until you know until like they pulled the background, the science to show that we can change the way we play and we can get better and hopefully we'll do that next week.


So, a key question here is, are we sure that the enormous rise of the global 1% was necessary for growth at the bottom? So, this is what we often hear, you know, in the trickle-down debates. Well, the answer is no. We're not sure at all. In fact, when we do a careful country-level analysis of growth and inequality trajectories, we see that it is fairly possible to combine higher growth and lower inequality. So, in order to discuss this, I will present two sets of regions that are broadly similar, that indeed have a lot of differences, but that are broadly similar in terms of size, of average income level, of exposure to global markets or of technology, so US versus Europe and India versus China over the same period. So, here we compare US on the left, Western Europe on the right, and in blue, you have the share of total income captured by the bottom 50%. In red, the share of income captured by the top 1%. In the case of Europe, in blue, same bottom 50% and top 1%. What is striking here is that at the start of the action, 1980, the two regions have more or less the same level of inequality. So, the top 1% capture about 20% of total income in both regions, and the bottom 50% about 20%. Over the course of time, you see a complete inversion of the relative positions of these two groups in the US, whereas in Europe, there is a rise in inequality, a rise of the top 1%, but it is much more moderate than in the USA. What happens in the US is pretty striking, because the bottom 50% had an average income of $16,000 in 1980, and they have an average income of close to $16,000 today. So, this stagnation is true before and after taxes, so before and after taxes and transfers. So, this explains the complete decrease, the sharp decrease of its share in total income. Now, let's look at China and India. So, again, relatively similar inequality levels in 1980, and trajectories that really differ from the middle of the period onwards, with China that's more able to moderate the rise of inequality than India, where we document a continued rise in inequality. And I will come back in a few slides on how we constructed this curve. So, often the arguments brought forward to increase the rise in inequality is globalization or its new technology. Well, when you compare EU and the USA, which have more or less the same exposure to global markets to new technology, in fact, this really highlights, this really stresses and points out the role of policy choices or lack of choices and of institutional changes in these countries, in particular in the US, and we discussed this in much more detail in the report, the sharp decrease in progressive taxation in taxation at the very top, very unequal access to education, to health, the importance of a falling minimum wage, the importance also of privatization policies in rich countries that didn't happen at the same rate. If we look at China versus India, well, that's another case where you see that higher growth is possible with lower inequality, so that's really the comparison between total growth rates. In China, 800% total growth rates a bit more, and in India a bit more than 200% total growth rate over the period, and the bottom grew much less in India than in China. One of the main reasons for that is not related to the kind of democratic regime you may or you may not have in one side or the other of the Himalayas, but really the important investment in education health infrastructure for the bottom 50% in China that really contributed to lift the bottom and the rest of the economy. Now, we note here that all countries accepted to meet the sustainable development goals in 2015. One of these goals is that the bottom 40% should grow faster than average, so here we show value of the bottom 50%, but it's similar for the bottom 40%. None of these regions that I discussed above actually met this goal, that the bottom 50% should grow faster than the average. One more on the Indian case, where we show that after historical decline from 1940 to the 1980s, income inequality has been increasing in India, and in our benchmark estimates, the top 1% captured 6% of total income in the mid-1980s. This has risen to 22% today, and the historical peak in 1938 was around 22% a bit lower in our benchmark estimate, so if anything, it is back to its historical level. But another striking fact here is that when you look again at all the growth generated in India since 1980, well, we show that the top 01% captured the same share of total growth than the bottom 50%, just a bit more. We hear in the news, and in fact the bottom 50% from 1950 to 2000, well, we see that they fare better in the post 2000 than before. That's not arguable, but what's also not arguable from this graph is that they fare much worse than the average, and much worse actually than the average is just half the rate of the average. So in India, is shining India a reality for the middle 40% of the population? So here we have the same graph, the full population at the top, and it's more or less the same for the middle 40%. They grow a bit better than the bottom 50%, but still much less than the average. So where really is shining India? So here we show the top 1% in red at the top of the graph, the top 10% in orange in between, and so this is where really you have these growth rates of national income above 6% per year on average when the average population is around 4% in the 2000. So let's compare again India, China, US, and here France rather than Europe. Here what we plot is the total income growth by percentile in these different countries, full population. So values are a bit different than before because we stop in 2014 here as the Indian data stops in 2014. So in other graphs when we stretch to 2016 we're making a very conservative assumption. Sorry, that is we assume that all income groups grow at the average rate. In effect we know that it's often rarely the case. In fact it's the top groups that grow faster than the rest. So again if anything our results are more on the lower bound than on the higher bound of the level of inequality and on the rise of inequality. What is very striking from this table is, well you can see by yourself a very sharp rise in the rate of growth as we go to the top of the distribution. Now at the very, very top, India performs better than China, but only at the very, very top. If you look at all of the groups, growth rates are much lower for the bottom 50%, the middle 40%, and even the top 10% in India. And this is what I was mentioning earlier, this very striking fact of near stagnation of income at the bottom of the distribution in the USA, which is indeed not unrelated to the election of the previous election. Now in the USA, now if we look at the share of growth captured by different groups, bottom 50% captured 11% of total growth, top 01%, 12% of total growth. So around the same share of total growth captured for the two groups. There will be three periods for inequality and growth in India to summarize very rapidly a complex set of events and of institutional changes. But rising inequality in the 20s and 40s with decreasing agricultural yield per capita, increasing large industrial output, which can explain this rising inequality aside with institutional changes, which favored the influence of an economic elite. On top of the colonial elite, 40s to 80s, decreasing inequality, but also low growth, nationalizations, sectoral regulations, high tax progressivity up to more than 95% top marginal income tax rates. And 80s to now, relatively high growth that is lower than India and actually low for the bottom 50% with the set of policy that you know. So what we argue here is that China in India is arguably a top 10%, even more top 1%, even more top 01% phenomenon. Third part of the report, we argue that this distinction between private and public capital is essential for the determination of the level of inequality in the country. And we document this sharp reduction in public capital over the past, sorry, of the past 80 years in rich and emerging countries. And indeed public capital is defined by the sum of public assets, whether physical assets like schools, like hospitals, like transportation infrastructures, plus financial assets held by governments minus the depths of governments. And private capital is the sum of financial and non-financial assets of the private sector minus the depths of the private sector. The sum of private and public capital make up national capital or national wealth. Here we use the two terms as synonyms. We show very large transfers of public to private capital, again with varying trajectories across countries, but there's more homogeneity in these transfers in the rich world than for the income trajectories. And what we say here is that the rise of private capital is in itself not necessarily a bad thing, but it raises new questions on the distribution, the role of taxation, the role of inherited wealth, because indeed private capital by nature is more concentrated, tends to more concentration and to self-accumulation. So this is perhaps one of the most, one of the most or second most important graph in this report where we show the value of private capital in rich countries and the value of public capital in rich countries expressed as a percentage of national income. So about 300% of national income for private capital in France or in Japan in 1970, so this means three years of national income as private capital in these countries at the start of the period, and this rises up to 500%. So a very sharp rise in private capital in the context of a very sharp decline of public capital, about 70% of national income in most countries represented here close to zero and even below zero in some countries. So what does below zero mean? Well, it means that if you were to sell all your schools, all your hospitals, all your public infrastructures, all your financial assets, you would not even be able to repay your debts. And then as a government, you would have, or as a citizen, you would have to pay a rent to the new owners of schools, of hospitals, really not a future that many citizens in many countries would want to live in, but this is the kind of trajectory that we're seeing. Indeed, this decrease is due to two important factors, first privatization, second the rise of public debt. Now if you look at China and Russia, well, this is private capital and you see that, well, they have been catching up very rapidly with the level of private wealth. So what is striking here is the speed of this catch-up in a few decades. And now let me express, that's again public capital, but we express it in a different way, so not as a percentage of national income, rather as the share of total capital. So here 70% of public capital in China in 78, so the rest is by definition private. So it decreases from 70% to 30%, which is approximately the level of the share of public capital that was observed in rich countries during the mixed, so-called mixed economy period. So it seems that China is stabilizing at this level, so indeed no one knows what is the future evolution, but clearly this puts the Chinese government in a much easier situation to invest in a lot of important sectors than rich countries, where you here see again minus zero values. You see a similar trajectory for Russia, we do not yet have the estimates for India, we're currently constructing them, but the trend would be most likely similar in India. To conclude, there's a series of policy discussions that we touch on in the report. Again, our aim is not to close the debate, but rather to open it, so to provide this amount of information to different individuals, different stakeholders that can then engage in national debates. And finally, the interest of comparing these countries in this world inequality report really has been to highlight the importance of different types of policies that can be implemented to tackle inequality, whether wealth inequality or income inequality, and to generate more equitable growth pathways.


Our sermon title this morning is God's Faithful Yes. God's Faithful Yes. And we're looking at this text in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 15 through 22. Now as we begin to consider our text this morning, I want to remind us of something. For some here I want to convince you of something. Maybe you're not convinced of this already. Maybe you believe that you are and you need further convincing. Maybe others are convinced they need reminding. I want to remind us of something here from the word of God so that by way of reminder in looking at our text in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 15 through 22, we might properly apply important lessons from this text, right? And unless you are convinced of this, it's going to be difficult for you to properly apply what Paul is speaking of here, what Paul is doing, what Paul is demonstrating by way of example in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 verses 15 to 22. Here's what I want to convince you of in our text from our text this morning. If you profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are called to great commission ministry. If you profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, then you are called by the Lord Jesus Christ to ministry, specifically great commission ministry. You are called to make disciples. As we think through that calling, we think through that ministry that every single genuine Christian has been given. We want to look at the example of Paul. Paul clearly understood his call to salvation as a call to a life of ministry for the Lord Jesus Christ. When Paul was converted, Paul was converted to ministry. He was converted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ in ministry, this side of heaven, for the glory of his name. Now as he opens this letter, Paul describes himself in 2 Corinthians chapter 1 as a sent one of Jesus Christ by the will of God. That's what an apostle is. An apostle is a sent one. He is a sent one of Jesus Christ by the will of God. He quite often in his letters describes himself as a bondservant, as a doulos, a slave of the Lord Jesus Christ. Philippians chapter 1 verse 1, Paul and Timothy, bondservants, douloys, slaves of the Lord Jesus Christ. Galatians chapter 1 verse 10, if I still pleased men, Paul said, I would not be a bondservant, a slave of Christ. Titus chapter 1 verse 1, Paul, a bondservant, a doulos, a slave of God, and an apostle, a sent one of Jesus Christ. So Paul is a slave. Paul is a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. To what end, or for what purpose? Turn with me to Romans chapter 1. Romans chapter 1. Look at Romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. Paul has been called as a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ, as a slave of the Lord. He is a sent one of the Lord Jesus Christ, an apostle of the Lord Jesus Christ, to what end or for what purpose? Look at Romans chapter 1 beginning in verse 1. Here it is again. Paul, a bondservant of Jesus Christ, was called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God, which he promised before through his prophets and the holy scriptures, concerning his son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who was born of the seat of David according to the flesh and declared to be the son of God with power according to the spirit of holiness by the resurrection from the dead. Now notice verse 1. Paul here is separated or set apart. Aphorizo is the Greek word. It means to be set apart, marked off. Paul is separated or set apart to the gospel. Now that word, the verb there, aphorizo, set apart is passive. It's considered a divine passive, meaning that God himself is the one who is setting Paul apart. God set Paul apart to gospel ministry. That verb there, aphorizo, is also in the perfect tense. Now I want you to understand a bit of the grammar here with respect to that. The perfect tense, Paul is separated, set apart. That's in the perfect tense. Speaks of completed action in the past. Paul was completed action in the past, set apart to gospel ministry. But the emphasis of the perfect tense is the present reality that exists because of that past completed action. In other words, Paul was in the past, set apart by God to the gospel, and that has unquestionable implications for how Paul now lives his life in the present. It makes sense? That point then is further emphasized by the fact that Paul was not merely separated by the gospel, but Paul was separated to God to the gospel, separated by God to the gospel. In other words, Paul was saved. He was redeemed on the road to Damascus, knocked off his horse, his eyes opened. He was set apart by God for God's work, set apart by God to the gospel. Now what does it mean then to be set apart to the gospel? Look at verse 5. Through him, Paul says, we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Now verse 5 is a statement of the Great Commission. Why was Paul set apart by God to the gospel? For verse 5, obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. Now obedience to the faith here, obedience to the faith among all nations for his name, is synonymous with the gospel called to salvation. Paul was set apart for obedience to the faith. That obedience to the faith is synonymous with the gospel called to salvation. That does not mean that people are saved by their obedience. Make sure we understand that correctly, right? People are not saved by their obedience, but rather that people are saved to obedience. See the distinction? Paul received grace, received a calling on his life for obedience to the faith among all nations for his name. People are saved to obedience. People are saved to good works, which God prepared beforehand that they should walk in them. In other words, they are set apart by God to the gospel. People are set apart by God to the gospel. Now notice also verse 5. This work is for the sake of his name, the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, for the sake of his name. Then, I want you to see, Paul makes a very important connection for them, the recipients of his letter, for you and I. He makes a very important connection in verse 6. Among whom? In other words, among the nations, among the nations, you, Paul says, also are the called of Jesus Christ. In other words, Paul says, I've not been called to this work alone. The word called there in verse 6 is the same word Paul uses, called in verse 1. Paul was called to be an apostle separated to the gospel of God in verse 1. You also are the called, the called of God, set apart to the gospel of Jesus Christ, the gospel of God, for the sake of his name. You also are the called. Paul is saying, I've not been called to this work alone. As I was called, verse 1, separated to the gospel, you also, you also are the called of Jesus Christ. You and I have been called to gospel ministry. You and I have been called into gospel ministry. Verse 7, to all who are in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints, grace to you in peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, how does Paul then, how does Paul view this calling? How does he view the work that he's been called to, this work that we've been called to? There are many ways in which Paul understands this, many ways in which he understands this. How does he view it here? And we already saw how this work of the gospel is for the sake of his name in verse 5. But look now, drop down to verse 14. How does Paul view this calling? He says in verse 14, I am a debtor both to Greeks and to barbarians, both to wise and to unwise. Now, Greeks and barbarians, wise and unwise, are parallel statements. Greeks were thought to be wise, barbarians were thought to be unwise. Paul was indebted to both. He was indebted to both. He was indebted to educated and uneducated. Rich, poor, slave-free. Anyone who was lost and in need of the gospel, Paul was indebted to them with the gospel. Why? Because Paul had been separated by God to the gospel for the sake of his name. Now, certainly Paul was indebted to Christ, right? Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 14, that because Christ died, we, those who are in Christ, we die in him. And we are no longer to live then for ourselves, but we're to live for him who died for us and rose again. So then what does it mean in verse 14 that Paul was not simply indebted to the Lord Jesus Christ, but indebted here to the lost? What does it mean that Paul was indebted to the lost? Paul's been given a treasure. Paul understands that. He says we've been given this great treasure in earthen vessels and clay pots. You and I, if you're in Christ, would you say amen to the fact that you've been given a treasure? Amen. That treasure has been entrusted to you. You've been given a great treasure. And that's a treasure that you are responsible to share. It's a stewardship that has been entrusted to you. Paul says in 2 Corinthians chapter 4, verse 7, that the gospel preached to us is a treasure that we, weak earthen vessels, have been given. Let me explain it this way in a very sort of mundane way. If I give you, if I give you a $20 bill and I tell you that I'm going to give you this $20 bill on the condition that you're going to share it with a friend, I've just indebted you to that friend, haven't I? If I give you the $20 bill, you're then indebted to share it with that friend. We've been given an immeasurable treasure. We've been given the unsearchable riches of Christ. We are indebted then to share it. Now what happens if I give you that $20 bill, you don't give it to your friend? What are you doing to your friend? You're robbing from your friend, right? You're robbing them of the treasure that I've entrusted you to share with them. We've been given an immeasurable treasure. Paul was given an immeasurable treasure and he viewed that gift of God's grace as an indebtedness to the nations, to the gentiles, to the lost. How then does Paul respond to this stewardship of the Gospel? Look at verse 15. Paul doesn't respond with heartless, dutiful, begrudging obedience. Paul responds with earnestness, verse 15. So as much as is in me, Paul says, with all zeal, with all earnestness, with all commitment, with all readiness, as much as is in me, I am ready to preach the Gospel to you who are in Rome also. This is Paul's understanding. Not only of the life of an apostle, but this is Paul's understanding of the life of a Christian. The life of a Christian. Now please don't get the wrong impression here. This was no cold heartless obligation on the part of the apostle Paul. Gospel zeal, verse 15, poured from Paul's heart. We see this in several places in Paul's letters. He said in Romans chapter 9, verse 1, listen. Paul said, I am telling the truth in Christ. I'm not lying. My conscience testifies with me in the Holy Spirit that I have great sorrow and unceasing grief in my heart for I wish that I myself were accursed, separated from Christ for the sake of my brethren, my kinsmen, according to the flesh. Paul had earnest zeal in his heart for lost people, wanted to see the Jews and the Gentiles saved for the glory of Christ's name. Now you may not be called on missionary journeys to Asia and Macedonia and Achaia and Rome, but you are called. If you're a Christian, then you are called to missionary work right here at home where the Lord has planted you. You've been given a ministry. You've been called, separated by God to the gospel for the glory of his name. For the sake of his name, for the sake of the lost, for the sake of your brothers and sisters here, if you are called. If you've been called, you've been called to that ministry. Look with me at 2 Corinthians chapter 5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. And drop down with me there to verse 17. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. You've been called. If you have been genuinely saved, transformed, in dwelt with God's spirit, you've been called to this ministry. 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verse 17. Therefore, Paul says, if anyone's in Christ, he is a new creation. Old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. Now all things, all things are of God who has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and what? And has given us. That's not an editorial us on the part of Paul. Paul is speaking of all Christians. He's speaking of his brothers and sisters. He has reconciled us to himself through Jesus Christ and he has then given us the ministry of reconciliation. That is verse 19, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to himself, not imputing their trespasses to them and has committed to us the word of reconciliation, the gospel. If you're a Christian, you're saying, I've been set apart to this work. I've been set apart to this ministry. This now is the life that I live. And I live that life for him who died and rose again. Now then, Paul concludes verse 20, now then we, not an editorial we, he's speaking to you and me. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you on Christ's behalf be reconciled to God. You can hear the emotive energy, can't you, in Paul's statement. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ as though God were pleading through us. We implore you to be, that's not how the text is to be read. It's not faithful to the emotion of the text. We implore you on Christ's behalf. We plead as though God were pleading through us, be reconciled to God. If you're here today and you are not saved, you are enemies of God by your wicked works. We implore you as his messengers, as his ambassadors, as his emissaries, be reconciled to God.  Be reconciled with God. He offers as a free gift of his grace, reconciliation in Jesus Christ that if you will turn from your sin and put your faith in him, you can be saved. Your sins can be forgiven and you can be given the unsearchable riches of Jesus Christ. Forgiveness from your sin. Eternity in heaven with him. For he, verse 21, made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him. Peter says it this way. First Peter chapter 2, verse 9.  The glorious good news of the gospel is that your sin-rect relationship to your maker, God, can be reconciled through turning from your sin and trusting in Christ alone. Your sin can be forgiven. Your guilt can be removed. God's wrath toward you satisfied. The enmity between you can be taken out of the way and nailed to the cross. And if you have believed, if you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for that good news, if you've believed in the Lord Jesus Christ for that word of reconciliation, then that word of reconciliation now has been entrusted to you. It's been entrusted to you. You have been made a debtor both to wise and unwise. You've been made now a debtor to Greeks and to barbarians. You've been made a debtor young and old, rich and poor, male, female, slave, free. You've been called to preach the gospel to every creature, the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Paul said of himself in Ephesians chapter 3 verse 8, Paul says, to me who am the least of all the saints, Paul says this grace was given that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ. By way of illustration, I'm reminded of the example of four leprous men in 2 Kings chapter 7, if you're familiar with that story from the Old Testament. Syria goes up and lays siege to the city of Samaria, the capital city of Israel, the northern kingdom, and because of that siege there's a great famine in the city. The text says that for food, a donkey's head was sold for 80 shekels of silver, about a pound of silver. For food, dove droppings were sold for five shekels of silver. In the account in 2 Kings chapter 6, there was a conflict during the siege during the famine where two women agreed to boil their sons and eat them. So they ate the first woman's son and then the second woman refused to give up her son and a conflict ensued. This was an unimaginable tragedy, a horrific famine, horrific circumstances in Samaria. But the account in 2 Kings chapter 7 tells of four leprous men sitting at the city's gate. They say to one another as they sit there in the gate. They say, why are we sitting here until we die? If we say we will enter the city, well the famine is in the city and we shall die there.   Now therefore, come, they said to each other, surrender to the army of the Syrians. If they keep us alive, we shall live.   Do you see what they were thinking? So that's what they do. These four leprous men take off for the camp of the Syrians. Well in the meantime, as they're taking off for the camp of the Syrians, the Lord orchestrates this glorious rescue of the city. This glorious rescue. You need to go back and read that text. He causes the army of the Syrians to hear chariots in the middle of the night. And in hearing these chariots, the Syrian army flees for their lives, leaving everything behind them. So by the time the four leprous men reach the camp of the Syrians, the army is gone. They're tense, abandoned. They literally left everything as it stood. Tense, horses, clothing, gold, silver, food. It was a vast treasure trove left abandoned in the camp of the Syrians. So then what do the four leprous men do when they come across this abandoned camp? They go, as you would think, they might, from tent to tent to tent, eating their fill, taking off gold and silver and going and hiding it and burying it in the ground for themselves. They're hoarding the treasure to themselves. They're hiding it, right? And they go on for a bit doing this until they finally come to their senses and then they said to one another, we're not doing right. We are not doing right. This is a day of good news. And we remain silent. If we wait until morning light, some punishment will come upon us.  And we can make the application, right? The application is clear. Those still lost in their sin are in a far worse condition than those starving in a city of Samaria eating one another's children to stay alive. We who were once covered in the leprosy of our sin have been given a far greater treasure from the Lord. Have we not? If we remain silent, we are not doing right. We're sitting before the Lord. This is a day of good news. Amen? This is an age. This is a time of good news. This is the time of the new covenant. This is the time of good news. If we remain silent, some punishment will come upon us. Paul says, whoa this is me if I do not preach the gospel. Necessity has been laid upon me. Necessity has been laid upon us as well. We've been called to preach the gospel. Paul says, if I do this willingly I have a reward. But against my will, I have been entrusted with a stewardship. If you profess to be a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ and you are called to great commission ministry. Are you convinced? Are you convinced? Then you see your indebtedness in much the same way that Paul saw his indebtedness. You see your responsibility to ministry in much the same way that Paul saw his responsibility to ministry. In Paul's example in 2 Corinthians, particularly Paul's example in the midst of great affliction in the midst of persecution Paul's example in 2 Corinthians is particularly helpful and particularly instructive and encouraging. Paul tells us in Philippians chapter 4 the things which you learned and received and heard and saw in me these do and the God of peace will be with you. God has called you and I to gospel ministry. You and I have been set apart. If you're in Christ you've been set apart by God to the gospel for the sake of his name. That's a ministry among God's people and it's a ministry to the lost. It's a ministry among God's people and a ministry to the lost. The sanctification of the saints and the salvation of the lost, right?  Because sin doggedly persists in the human heart that ministry is going to be conducted in some degree of affliction. The Lord faced it and we're not greater than our master the apostle Paul faced it and so will we. We'll face it also. So I want to continue to exhort us this morning, right? For us to think about our lives as Christian ministry whatever you do that's not your ministry.  The love of Christ compels us don't live for yourself. I cannot live for myself I must live for Christ who died for me and rose again as we think about that now turn with me to 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 in verse 15 we want to learn from the example of Paul in his ministry to these dear people in Corinth to the lost in Corinth certainly but to the brothers and sisters also in Corinth and how he ministered to them and we're to follow Paul's example we are to pour ourselves out as Paul did on the sacrifice and service of their faith on the sacrifice and service of the faith of the people here and on the sacrifice and service of the faith of God's elect outside make sense our text is 2nd Corinthians chapter 1 look at verse 15 and in this confidence Paul said I intended to come to you before that you might have a second benefit to pass by way of you to Macedonia again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea therefore verse 17 when I was planning this did I do it lightly or the things I plan do I plan according to the flesh that with me there should be yes yes and no no no Paul says but as God is faithful verse 18 our word to you was not yes and no for the son of God Jesus Christ who was preached among you by us by me Sylvanus and Timothy was not yes and no but in him was yes for all the promises of God in him are yes and in him amen to the glory of God through us now he who establishes us with you in Christ and has anointed us is God who has also sealed us and given us the spirit in our hearts as a guarantee as we consider Paul's example in Corinth I want us to examine here three fundamental necessities of effective and fruitful gospel ministry right I want us to consider three fundamental necessities of effective and fruitful gospel ministry as you think through the text we consider as a Christian how can I minister to my brothers and sisters in the church how can I minister effectively with the gospel to lost people in my circumstances in my life how can I be effective in the ministry and calling that God has placed upon me how can I fulfill my indebtedness with the gospel effectively, fruitfully for the sake of his name I want us to consider three fundamental necessities of effective and fruitful gospel ministry from the example of Paul first I want us to consider our heart and mind for ministry from verses 15 and 16 our heart and mind for ministry secondly we want to consider our character and conduct in ministry verses 17 and 18 and lastly point three we want to consider our foundation and motivation for ministry verses 19 through 22 our heart and mind for ministry our character and conduct in ministry and lastly our foundation and motivation for ministry so let's first consider the right heart the right mind for ministry exemplified by the apostle Paul here in verses 15 and 16 now Paul begins verse 15 by referring to the confidence that he expressed in verses 12 through 14 that confidence is the confidence that arises from the testimony of a clear conscience that we discussed last lord's day the confidence that is the fruit of godly character the confidence that is the fruit of godly conduct, godly integrity operating according to godly principles operating according to godly priorities when you do that it gives you great confidence in the lord doesn't it? when you prepare when you plan, think, act and hope and pray in accord with biblically informed with a biblically informed and affirming conscience it produces a certain faith filled confidence it's the confidence to say what needs to be said the confidence to do what needs to be done trusting the lord Paul tells it like it is and what you see with Paul is what you get it's that kind of confidence that comes from having a clear conscience before the lord this is not someone Paul is not someone who is tossed to and fro he's not someone who is unstable in all his ways anxious vacillating, right? duplicitous Paul has confidence in the lord and Paul says in verse 15 it's in this confidence that I intended to come to you before Paul is referring here in verse 15 to his travel plans those travel plans that we discussed in some detail last lord's day from 1 Corinthians chapter 16 verses 1 through 9 Paul had intended to stay in Ephesus until Pentecost, if the lord permits and then after Pentecost he would pass through Corinth by way of Macedonia and he was passing through to collect an offering for the poor in Jerusalem he intended to spend some time with them wanted to spend some time with them before heading on to Judea in the meantime although Paul had intended to do that in the meantime Timothy sent by Paul pays a visit to Corinth and when Timothy comes back to give a report to Paul he reports that in Corinth there is a full scale mutiny underway false teachers false apostles are accusing Paul left and right Paul's apostolic authority is being undermined it's come under fire and that work of the false teachers and the false apostles these accusations are hindering the work of ministry the people in Corinth begin to doubt Paul's authority for that reason for their sake for the sake of the church Paul determines to go to Corinth immediately and deal with the rebellion now it's likely at this point as Paul decides to go back to Corinth that Paul intends to make two passes through Corinth one on the way to deal with the rebellion and to take up the offering the collection for the poor saints in Jerusalem and another on the way back to come back through to collect another offering and in collecting that other offering having the church at Corinth send him with help to Jerusalem Paul considers this two experiences of grace two blessings, two benefits we see these plans referred to in verse 16 Paul intended he said to pass by way of you to Macedonia and to come again from Macedonia to you and be helped by you on my way to Judea Paul's first trip turns out to be far more difficult than anticipated and we have what's referred to in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 1 as a very sorrowful or a painful visit so Paul then returns to Ephesus he doesn't continue through Macedonia Paul returns to Ephesus and writes a very sorrowful or painful letter we see that in 2 Corinthians 2 verse 4 and Paul's plans change again look at chapter 2 verse 1 Paul said but I determined this within myself that I would not come again to you in sorrow for if I make you sorrowful then who is he who makes me glad but the one who is made sorrowful by me and I wrote this very thing to you lest when I came I should have sorrow over those from whom I ought to have joy so essentially Paul's travel plans change not only once but change twice and his opponents his accusers in Corinth have an absolute field day with what they refer to as Paul's duplicity or Paul's you can't trust Paul you can't even keep his word with something as simple and as mundane as travel plans how can you trust him with a word of God however in this context Paul displays here what Paul displays here is an undivided heart and a thoughtful mind for ministering to the people at Corinth I want us to pick up on this notice Paul's heart in verse 15 Paul says and in this confidence I intended to come to you before so that for the purpose that you might have a second benefit that little word that in the middle of verse 15 there explains Paul's heart motive for initially adding a second pass through Corinth that you might have a second benefit the Greek word there for benefit it means grace it means grace the ESV translates this that you might have a second experience of grace I think it's more accurate a second experience of grace so contra his opponents regardless of all the accusations flying around about Paul, Paul didn't decide to do this for selfish reasons as he was accused of doing he wasn't attempting to fleece the flock to come off the top for himself Paul wasn't being greedy Paul wasn't taking advantage of the believers in Corinth Paul's heart was to see them blessed do you see adding a second visit was an act of love on the part of Paul to the Corinthian church to have them experience the grace of God twice Paul's intention was for God's grace to be poured out on them abundantly and Paul thought of both visits to Corinth as the grace of God to them the Philippians also had proved to be very generous to Paul they care for his needs many times Paul says and where was Paul's heart and mind in this giving and receiving from the church in Philippi Paul's heart and mind wasn't on himself it was on the Philippians Paul said not that I seek the gift but I seek the fruit that abounds to your account so desiring now from the heart to see the Corinthians blessed by the grace of God Paul determined in his mind then to make it happen he was thoughtful he was creative Paul arranged his plans to accommodate more grace for them you see it seems simple doesn't it I'm going to essentially Paul is going to inconvenience himself make two trips through Corinth so that they could experience a second blessing of grace Paul's going to accommodate his plans so they can participate in a second blessing a second experience of grace as the ESV states it I'll pass through once and collect an offering I'll pass through on my way back so that whatever else they want to give I can collect that too and allow them to send me Paul to participate in that gift that is going to Jerusalem for the needy saints there so considering the very circumstance in which divisive men find opportunity to slander Paul we see Paul's heart and mind devoted to ministering to the saints at Corinth the application of this Paul's example here is straightforward really simple and we want to think about this for ourselves in our own responsibility to ministry am I thoughtful in this way do I consider my brothers do I consider my sisters in the plans that I make am I willing to go out of my way to help a brother help a sister to love them to minister to them to see some grace given to them do I consistently look for and take opportunities to bless my brothers bless my sisters am I willing to change my schedule for the sake of ministry for some it may be am I willing to show up am I willing to show up church life your ministry my ministry is not coming to church on a Sunday and listening to a sermon it's not church life it's not ministry am I looking out for my own interests or am I looking out for the interests of others am I willing to be inconvenienced for their benefit you know I was thinking about this I was considering this last few days that we had a group of people from our church that went to Puerto Rico they're I believe probably they're now and they're going to land in Puerto Rico and get a cab we understand the story get a cab to take them around Puerto Rico but we know a pastor in Puerto Rico and he's a busy man I know this brother he's a good brother and a busy man he's got a busy ministry a lot on his plate you know the storm went through Puerto Rico they're still recovering from all that so his response was now I'm not going to let them get a cab I'm going to come pick them up and take them right just willing to want to be a blessing to brothers and sisters from our church wanting to love them in that way they don't need to get a cab I'm going to take them and from what I understand he's going to drive them around Puerto Rico so there's a blessing right do we think of ministry in that way are we thoughtful in that way is that our heart to see our brothers and sisters blessed and then how do we go about seeing that that happens what kinds of decisions do we make to see them receive that blessing that grace from God Paul was thoughtful in this way Paul's heart was that way and then Paul's mind set to do these things set to do that set to see them blessed in Corinth Paul's heart and mind for ministry secondly consider with me our character and our conduct in ministry from verses 17 and 18 our character and our conduct in ministry look at verse 17 Paul says therefore when I was planning all this did I do it lightly or the things I plan do I plan according to the flesh that with me there should be yes yes and no no but as God is faithful our word to you is not yes and no despite what Paul's accusers say the changes to Paul's travel plans do not reflect a flaw a flaw in Paul's character this is not a flaw in Paul's character this is Paul's heart for ministry his mind for ministry flowing into his character his conduct in ministry Paul establishes that fact through the use of two rhetorical questions here that both expect an immediate and indignant no way answer the first question is this when I was planning did I do it lightly the expected answer was no way no way did I do it lightly the second question is this did I plan according to the flesh Paul would give an immediate and indignant no way answer the word lightly there in verse 17 has the sense of frivolously did I do it frivolously in other words did I do it impulsively without care did I do it thoughtlessly without concern for you Paul would say no way in fact in fact the concept of planning mentioned in verse 17 wouldn't even work in this sense the one who is impulsive, thoughtless, frivolous doesn't plan right Paul is here planning and we know clearly that Paul did not conduct himself in this manner we can see it all over the New Testament the testimony of his proven character bears witness against the notion that this was all done frivolously or done thoughtlessly and the Corinthians knew better they knew Paul they knew his pattern of life Paul had labored among them to plant that church for 18 months they knew Paul's character the second question then did I plan according to the flesh is equally as absurd right to plan according to the flesh is to say that Paul waffled that he vacillated back and forth like an unstable worldly lost person without the spirit of God walking, thinking, planning according to the flesh to the point where yes, yes and no, no are coming out of his mouth in the same breath right Paul here again is being accused of being duplicitous looking them in the eye and saying yes while thinking in his mind there's no way this is going to happen being duplicitous he's being accused of vacillating so how else do you explain all the changes to his plans his opponents might ask how else can you explain how fickle Paul is Paul is making decisions based on personal whim these accusations in Corinth took a foothold Paul lived at a time in the first century where keeping your word was highly valued and especially keeping your word under difficult circumstances fickleness was despised that waffling that kind of going back on your word especially among leaders it was despised today a basic character trait of this world is to abandon your word at a whim for the sake of personal gain look at our politics nobody keeps their word it's virtuous to get away with it so to speak everything today is political it's a virtual constant stream of lies and listen it hasn't been that long ago not that many generations ago where my word is my bond you have my word you can make an agreement with a guy on a handshake and expect that that would be kept we've come a long way from that but it's not just politicians Jeremiah 9.5 describes our day well where Jeremiah says everyone will deceive his neighbor and will not speak the truth they have taught their tongue to speak lies and they weary themselves to commit iniquity that describes our day and age a Christian Paul understands his ministry his character to his effectiveness in ministry for this church at Corinth on their behalf Christian listen your conduct your character is critically important to your effectiveness your fruitfulness in ministry you have to have a character you have to have conduct above reproach a Christian had better keep his word a Christian had better keep his word Psalm 101 verse 7 he who works deceit shall not dwell within my house he who tells lies shall not continue in my presence in other words all liars have their place in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone Proverbs 12 verse 22 lying lips are an abomination to the Lord a Christian had better keep his word Paul kept his word so Paul then back in 2 Corinthians 1 Paul defends his character and defends his conduct then in a very specific in a very interesting way and he does this by appealing to the faithfulness of God in verse 18 look at verse 18 there Paul's not a liar Paul doesn't plan on a whim he's not being thoughtless or frivolous Paul says in verse 18 but as God is faithful our word to you was not yes and no in other words as God is faithful my word to you is faithful also and I want us to make this connection this is important there are many that view this as an oath with God as my witness I was not being fickle or thoughtless or a liar and he does use in fact oath language in verse 23 we see it there clearly however in verse 18 this does not appear to be as much an oath as it is a statement of fact as God is faithful my word to you is faithful also God's faithfulness is the basis for or the grounds for Paul says my faithfulness God if you think about this God is immutable God does not change God never goes back on his word with God James says there is no variation or shadow of turning the basis of God's faithfulness is his divine attribute of immutability the fact that God does not change God never waffles God is never thoughtless God never lies God is never frivolous God is therefore our steadfast hope and all his promises in Christ are sure amen Numbers chapter 23 verse 19 God is not a man that he should lie nor a son of man that he should repent has he said and will he not also do or has he spoken and will he not also make it good so what does Paul then mean by a statement in verse 18 but as God is faithful our word to you is not yes and no one commentator put Paul's words this way Paul would say how could I possibly preach to you the good news of a God who always acts with your best interest at heart who never fails to fulfill his promises and then turn around and treat you with utter disregard by behaving in a double minded and self serving way you see what Paul is saying essentially Paul effectively says I can't do that my ministry to you would essentially be a complete contradiction if I did that nothing could be more incongruous in saying this Paul connects the character of God's servants directly with the character of God himself there cannot be incongruity this is how a Christian thinks how a Christian acts how a Christian conducts himself this is the character of God's bond servant that God's bond servant reflects the character and attributes of God he's going to be godly he's going to be Christ's like in his ministry and his love in his decisions in his planning and his thoughtfulness Paul says I simply cannot make it the practice of my ministry to be fickle and lying I can't make it the practice of my ministry to be neglectful or thoughtless or frivolous when God my master is faithful I must be faithful I want you to think about the gravity the weight of that statement for a moment can you and I say with a clear conscience before God that our ministry to the lost the ministry to God's people is a faithful reflection of the faithfulness of God you are his minister if you're in Christ you are his ambassador you're his emissary does your character does your conduct reflect well the character and conduct of God and staggering implications doesn't it that's essentially what it means to be Christ like isn't it we're to be like Christ in our ministry to God's people in our ministry to the lost we're to be Christ like this drives Paul's character this reality drives Paul's conduct in Corinth how can I Paul asks essentially how can I be insincere how can I play the hypocrite it's my calling right how can I avoid my responsibility to these people how can I be thoughtless how can I be frivolous how can I be careless how can I be selfish as my God is loving as Christ has loved me how can I not be loving as Christ has been selfless toward me how can I not be selfless toward my brother as my God is concerned with my spiritual growth and maturity in Christ how can I not be concerned for my brother's spiritual growth as God pursued me how can I not pursue them as God is faithful as his ambassador I must be faithful this also ties directly with another inference from verse 18 as God is faithful consider verse 18 as God is faithful as he has promised to work all things together for your good and as he has ordained to use means and accomplishing that good and because you and I are one means that God uses to effect that good Paul says my word to you is faithful it wasn't thoughtless it wasn't frivolous it wasn't vacillating as it should have worked out because I am God's means and God is faithful sort of see that inferred in verse 18 we'll consider more the character of God and its impact on the life and ministry of Paul as we pick up verses 19 and 22 next Lord's day we want to get back from Haiti so now for now consider the implications of our text second Corinthians chapter 1 verses 15 here through 18 if you're a Christian brother or sister you've been given a ministry you've been given a ministry you've been given a ministry priority if you've been given a ministry if you've been set apart by God to the gospel for the sake of his name then devote your heart and mind to that ministry following the example of Paul devote your heart and mind to that ministry and go into full time ministry or that you're going to travel and be a missionary somewhere you're a missionary here you're a missionary now you have disciple making work to do in this church for the benefit for the blessing of these dear people you have a ministry to the lost outside those doors with the gospel to see lost people saved devote your heart and mind to ministry you've been given that stewardship follow the example of Paul thirdly align your character and align your conduct with the character and conduct of the one who has employed you with the one who has employed you you are to be the faithful means that God intends you to be the faithful means that God uses to reach lost world with the gospel all praise, honor, and glory to the one who is faithful to his word amen let's pray just take a few moments and pray silently ask the Lord to convict you where you've sinned humble your heart ask the Lord to by his spirit instruct you correct you from his word let's repent of our sin and pledge ourselves to obedience to the faith among all nations for his name amen


If I could just do a service for Justin, you should have a wonderful seven-times, that will pull up a pill on you. That goes great, you know I get to think of it perfectly in our generation, I've heard of it. I invite you to join me for just a moment or two of Centering Silence. Now I invite you to center yourselves musically as we join together in singing, Oh We Give Thanks, the words are printed in the program, but if you're not familiar with the tune, then it's 10-10 in the Teal Himmels. And so good afternoon and welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian Universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual as together we seek to be a force for good in the world. And my name is Michael Shuler, I'm the senior minister of the First Unitarian Society taking on a slightly different role this evening. And on behalf of the congregation, I'd like to extend a special welcome to all of you and particularly to our visitors today.  Newcomers, as well as everyone else, is invited to stay for our fellowship hour after the service in the commons area of our atrium addition across from the parking lot. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to extend our welcome to you then. If you are accompanied by a young child, please remember that if they become restless or need to talk a little bit, the loja area over to my right is a good place to retire with them and you can still hear the service from that location. This would also be a good time for you to turn off all electronic devices, beepers, cell phones and tablets that might cause a disruption during the evening service. And I would acknowledge those individuals who help our services to run smoothly, but we actually didn't have many volunteers this evening, so the people that you saw were staff and other people that just pitched in to help at the last minute. That's kind of what happens at the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. So please note that there is a red florist insert tucked into your order of service, and in that insert you will find upcoming events described that are taking place at the Society and information about other activities that may be taking place today, of which I do not believe there are any. And we do not have any other special announcements for your edification this evening, so once again welcome. We hope that the evening service will stimulate your mind, touch your heart and stir your spirit. Poetry is the scripture of lived experience. The practice of daily human upkeep is what connects us to the world, to our bodies, to each other and to life as we were intended to live it. Those exempt from work have the room to wait agonizingly for God or something like it. Those who receive the grace of daily obligation know that the sublime is transactional, that you must live this life to love it. Let the scholars observe the living. There is a prophetic knowledge only available to the miners, the farmers, and dare I say it, the carpenters. Because God speaks most dramatically from the mountain or after the flood. But God speaks most often during the ordinary, routine, mundane, unspectacular work of being faithful to love. And I'm wondering if our worship associate would mind coming up to help me light the chalice today. And if all of you would please rise and say the words of the chalice lighting with us. The chalice is the fullness of life's experiences. As we light the chalice flame, let us explore the empire of the senses. Let us live into the work of the world. Let us be awed by the power of just our own hands. Let us celebrate, experience, and experiment. And maybe you can experiment with getting to know one another by exchanging friendly greetings at this time. So the story that we're going to read today, you could see us sitting here at our old scratched up homemade kitchen table. You would know that we're not rich. But my father is trying to tell me that we are. Doesn't he notice my worn out shoes or that my little brother has patches on the pants he wears to first grade? And why does he think that the old rattle trap truck is parked by our door? I say, you cannot fool me, we're poor. Would rich people sit at a table like this? My mother sort of passed the table and says, we're rich and we sit here every day. Sometimes I think I am the only sensible person in my whole family. I should mention that my parents made this table out of lumber that somebody else threw away. They even had a celebration when they finished it. Understand, I like this table. Fine, all I'm saying is you can tell it didn't come from a furniture store. It just doesn't look like a table where rich people would sit. Parents said they should both get better jobs so we could buy a lot of nice new things. I tell them I look worse than anyone in school. I hate to bring this up, I say, but it would help if you both had a little more ambition. Look surprised, you can see that they never think about all of the things that we need. Right here I might as well admit that my parents have some strange ideas about working. They think that the only jobs worth having are jobs outdoors. They want cliffs or canyons or deserts or mountains around them wherever they work and they must have a good view of the sky. As far as I can see, it's just an excuse to camp some beautiful and wild place. Planting sweet corn or alfalfa, they like to pick chili and squash and tomatoes and they'll put up strong fences or train wild young horses but they say they can't stand to be cooped up indoors. Now of course my dad is asking how many people are as lucky as we are but I've called this meeting here today to say I bet that you could make more money working in a building in town somewhere. Remember our number one rule my dad said, we have to see the sky. You could look through a window, I say, but they won't even think about it. Do you see what I mean about being the only sensible one? And finally my mother says, all right, mountain girl, we're going to explain to you how we figure our money.  And by the way, my name's not really mountain girl. They call me that because I was born in a cabin on the side of the mountain. They say it was the most magical place and most beautiful mountain ever that they've climbed and maybe it was, but you know how they like to exaggerate. Anyway, they wanted my first sight to be that mountain side so they held me up outdoors at sunrise when I was just about eight minutes old. The truth is, I still really do like sunrises a lot. No wonder I had to call this meeting about money though. Can you believe my father is sitting here looking me straight in the eye and saying, but mountain girl, I thought you knew how rich we were. I say, we can't get very far in this discussion if you won't even admit that we're poor. I'll prove it to you right now. He says, let me make a list of the money we earn in a year. How much is that? I ask, I'll write it down. But he says, well, not so fast. We have a lot of things to think about as we add them up. What kind of things? Mom says, we just don't take our pay in cash, you know. We have a special plan where we get paid in sunsets too and in having time to hike around canyons and look for eagle's nests. But I say, can you give me one single number to write down on this paper? So we start with $30,000. That's how much my father says it's worth to him to work outdoors where he can see the guy all day and feel the wind and smell the rain an hour before it actually starts raining. He says it's worth that much to be where if he feels like singing he can sing out loud and no one will mind. Then my father thinks of something else. When the cactus is bloom, you should be there to watch it because it might be a color you won't see again in any day of your life. How much would you say that's worth? $0.50, my brother asks. But they decide on another number, $10,000. So now I write $40,000. But I'd forgotten how much my father likes to make bird sounds. He can copy any bird sound, but he's best at white-winged doves and ravens and red-tailed hawks and quail. He's good at eagles too and great horned owls. So of course he asked to add another $10,000 for having both day birds and night birds around us. And I cross out what I had written. $50,000.  I'm beginning to catch on to their kind of thinking, so I suggest I'm worth $10,000 even though my little brother laughs at this. Don't underestimate your father's said. Don't underestimate yourself, my father said. Remember all those good lists you make for us. And he's right, I do. I make lists of the best books each one of us has read and a list of all the ones we want to read again. I also made a list of all the animals each one of us has seen and the ones we still want to see out in the wild and not in a zoo. They end up deciding I'm worth about a million dollars. I don't think I am, but I write it down anyway. In fact it turns out every single one of us is worth a million dollars. So we have four million and fifty thousand dollars. And then I realize I want to add five thousand dollars for myself for the pleasure I have in wandering an open country alone, free as a lizard, not following the trails, not having a plan, just turning whatever way the wind takes me. And they say that's certainly worth five thousand dollars. So that makes four million and fifty five thousand dollars. And finally, my brother says to put down seven more dollars for all the nights we get to sleep outside under the stars. And we all say seven dollars doesn't really seem like enough so we talk him into making it five thousand. And now my paper says four million and sixty thousand dollars and we haven't even started counting actual cash. And to tell the truth, the cash part doesn't seem to matter anymore. And I suggest maybe that shouldn't be on a list of our riches. So the meeting is over. And the rest of them have gone outside to see the new silver of moon, the new sliver of moon. But I'm here sitting at our nice homemade kitchen table and I'm writing this book about us. Kind of pat the table and I'm glad that it's ours. In fact, I think the title of my book is going to be The Place Where the Rich People Sit.  But we're going to keep you here today which is going to be so much fun, I hope. So I actually need you guys to help me a little bit with this next hymn. We're actually going to sing our raffy song. And I bet you guys know more raffy than a lot of the adults in the congregation. So why don't you go back and join your parents so that you can help us sing? Does that sound good? Too much information about almost everything. There's such a blessed relief in the weight of wetting the wicker basket to creek as I carry it out to the clothesline.  I smell the sun. Above all, I smell clean laundry. This is something concrete that I have accomplished. A rarity in my brainy life of largely abstract accomplishments. Most of the laundry belongs to my husband Ed, who can go through more clothes in a week than most toddlers. Hanging his laundry on the line becomes a labor of love. I hang each t-shirt like a prayer flag, shaking it first to get the wrinkles out of it, and then pinning it to the line with two wooden clothespins. Even the clothespins give me pleasure. I add a prayer for the trees from which these clothespins came, along with for the Penley Corporation of West Paris, Maine, which is still willing to make them from wood, instead of colored plastic. Since I am a compulsive person, I go through some trouble to impose order on the lines of laundry. Handkerchiefs first, then jockey shorts, then t-shirts, then jeans. If I sang these clothes, the musical notes they made would lead me in a staccato downward scale. The socks go all in a row and end like exclamation points. All day long, I watch the breeze toss these clothes in the wind and I imagine my prayers spinning away over the tops of trees. This is good work, this prayer. This is good prayer, this work. So as digging in the garden and cleaning the chicken pens and washing potatoes and doing the dishes, I know there are people who would give anything to not do these things. I know that there are people who would give anything to do these things. People whose bodies have become too numb, too busy, too old or painful to do them.  Not only my life, but the lives entwined with mine and the lives of all living beings. When I haul water, I am in instant communication with all other haulers of water around the world. We may have little else in common, but we all know the deep pleasure of being water bearers. To deliver water for drinking, for cooking, for washing, for bathing, this is what muscles are meant to do. To watch a thirsty creature dip its head into the bucket and drink, I'm happy to sweat for this. A long time ago, in the land far away, I was a young piano student. I had a teacher named Flavio Varani. Flavio Varani came from far away from a country called Brazil. When Flavio Varani was a young piano student, he went to study in the land of France with a man named Francis Poulet. And Francis Poulet happens to be the gentleman who wrote the pieces of music I'm playing today. And the pieces of music I'm playing are from a set of pieces called sweet francets. And sweet simply means a set of pieces. In this case, there are seven of them, and I'm playing just four of them for you today. And the music, the melodies and the rhythms that Francis Poulet used for the sweet process are from French folk music, from the songs and dances that the farmers and the hunters and the gatherers made and wrote in France a long time ago. The first piece I'm playing is called a bronzel, or a boron.  It's the very first dance that people ever danced as far as we know.  And what they did, it's really a circle dance. They would hold their hands up high, and they would curl around like that. And then they'd move in a circle and keep doing that. That's called a bronzel. So I'm going to play another bronzel in just a moment or two. The bronzel I'm going to play next is called Bronzel de Champagne, which means it's the dance called the bronzel from that part of France called Champagne, which is also the part of France where we get a delightful grave we call Champagne. And circle dances don't have to be fast at the first moment. Circle dances can also be slow. Let's see if this circle dance I'll play now makes you feel like dancing. The time that's filled with quite a lot of stress, filled with lights and songs and snow and family and food and shopping. And for some of us, sometimes the holidays can even be a sorrowful time because they're filled with so much silence that reminds us that we don't have enough lights and snow and family and food and shopping. So maybe you came here today because you know a secret that at times, at times in life when you can feel joy and stress and sorrow all at the same time, those are the times that you really need to come to church. Those are the times that you really need to find the place that fills up your soul. When I was younger I thought that I might cheat in doing this a little bit.  So I went to go work for a nonprofit whose mission I really believed in thinking that I could do soul work and regular work all at the same time. But it turned out that most of my days were filled with spreadsheets and money because I was the development person there and not really with programs and people. So I needed another place to fill up my soul. So I dedicated myself. I said I'm going to go to church every single week. And for a while I did. I did go to church every week and it did fill up my soul and I was so grateful for it that I decided that I needed to give something back to the church. I joined the board of trustees and the worship committee and the canvas team and the lay ministry team and I also joined the team that was going to help find the new minister. And pretty soon church kind of started to feel like work. There was that one hour that filled up my soul and then I was dragged into logistics and meetings. So I thought okay what is something else that can fill up my soul because the rest of it is starting to feel like work to me. So I found this program. I found an after school program that taught kids in the poor city music and arts and theater things that their schools couldn't afford to teach them in a classroom. And I made it work by getting to work very, very early in the morning and then getting off at three and going to this after school program where I could teach music and theater to these kids. And I thought I love music and theater. This fills up my soul and I love children. They fill up my soul. So it will just be a soul-filling experience between the work of work and the work of church. And then I got there and these kids they were brilliant and beautiful but their stories were rough. And every day my soul got filled up but not in a way that was replenishing and rejuvenating. So every week I would get up early in the morning and go to work. And then I would go to this after school program and then most evenings and weekends I would spend at church. And then I had Sunday night. I had this one time that was just for me when I didn't have to do any work. And I thought I'm going to find something to do to fill up my soul. I'm going to find a place where I can be utterly and totally useless. And so every Sunday evening I would ride my bike across the city and I would go to the Detroit Zen Center. I would take off my winter jacket and my anxiety and hang it on a peg outside one of the most peaceful, lovely rooms I've ever seen. This room was laden with cushions and a person wearing impossibly comfortable looking clothing would ring a chime. And all I would have to do was sit and be quiet for 45 glorious minutes. I would hear nothing but the sound of the trickling waterfall below the Buddha statue. And Buddha would sit there with me looking serene and jolly and I would try to mimic him. And this is where I found the thing that filled up my soul in the midst of all the work. And I would go back every Sunday. I would go back because it did fill me up so much. I would come in like a tornado carrying all of the weight of the world on me until I saw that peg where I was going to hang my anxiety. And one day, as I was making a beeline for that peg, Myeongju came up to me. Myeongju was a monk there. She was whatever level of monk you are when you've attained an inner peace that fills you up so much. It literally oozes out of your skin. That's the kind of monk Myeongju was. And she said to me in the most soothing voice, Julie, wonder about your practice when you're not here. And I said, you have to practice sitting and being quiet for 45 minutes? And she said, you have to practice sitting when you're not sitting. There's something I skipped over in describing this experience before the person in the impossibly comfortable looking clothing would ring the chime. They would talk for 15 minutes about lessons in Buddhism. And they would mainly center on two subjects that can be found throughout most teachings of Buddhism. Mindfulness and detachment. Mindfulness being the experience of being where you are, when you are. Of noticing all of the things that are going on around you. And detachment being of not getting too involved with interacting with those things and how they affect you. With not getting too involved with your own emotions and experiences. And I have a confession to make to all of you here today. The thing is, I'm a really terrible Buddhist. I really am just a terrible Buddhist. I love the idea of mindfulness. I love the idea of being in your experience here and now. But detachment is kind of where you lose me. Myeongju thought that I should pay as careful attention to every room that I walked in as I did to that room in the Zen Center with the statues and the cushions and the people in the impossibly comfortable clothing. Some rooms would be serene and jolly. And some rooms would be fraught and stressful. But it didn't matter, she said. Because I shouldn't be too attached to my experience of the room. I should experience it and let it go. The thing is, I have the ability to experience joy and stress and sometimes sadness. And I want to be attached to that. I want to deeply believe in and care about the mission of that nonprofit. I really want to care about the outcome of the stories of the children I taught. I want to be overwrought with how much my church means to me. And I want to be attached to the 45 minutes that I get every week to recover from caring so much. Being able to experience joy and stress and sometimes sadness, that is deeply part of being a human being. It's the covenant we make with existence in order to be alive. I want to feel joy and stress and even sometimes sadness. Because it seems like Myeongju's lessons were that I should detach from the experience of being in a body.  On this planet, in this body, and I want to experience all of it, I want every human experience. No matter what combination of bitter and sweet, I want every human connection. No matter what combination of broken and whole, I want to experience the grace of daily obligation. Because our chores remind us how to be in the world. I want all of my days to be full from sun up to sun down. And when these bones grow old and tired, I want them to feel as if they have earned it. And sometimes that's difficult. Sometimes that's difficult because sometimes I don't want to do the laundry. And sometimes I don't want to do the dishes. And sometimes I don't want to write my newsletter article. And I'm wondering if especially the kids would be able to help us with a little exercise right now. Is there anyone here that actually likes raking the leaves? Is there anyone here you guys like raking the leaves? Alright, let's do this. Stand up if you like raking the leaves. Would you guys be willing to say what you like about raking the leaves? Do you want to use the microphone? What I like about raking the leaves is that it's helping my community clear off their yards and there's no reason why you shouldn't like raking the leaves. Alright. Okay, so who likes helping their community? Stand up if you like helping your community. That's a whole lot more people than like raking the leaves, right? Okay, alright, alright, sit down. Who likes doing their homework? You like doing your homework? You do? Why do you like doing your homework? Because you're good at math, yeah, and you like doing things that you're good at? Who likes doing things that they're good at? Stand up if you like doing things that you're good at. Very cool, very cool. Who likes...  They're little brothers and sisters or they're children or they're grandchildren. Over here, do you want to tell me why you like doing that? For indulging, peers and philosophers talk about the grace of daily obligation, of learning to be in the world. A lot of people around this time have this practice, it's a gratitude practice where they say, I'm thankful for the dishes because it means I had food to eat. I'm thankful for cleaning my house because it means that I had a place to live. I am thankful for my homework because it means that I get a good education. And I was in the ministers meeting this week and I was playing with this idea with Michael and Kelly. And Kelly said, you know my dad used to say that to us when we were little kids and it was really annoying. It is, right? Telling people, again I'm not a very good Buddhist, telling people that they should have a certain experience with their emotions. So this service could be all about a gratitude practice that you can have, that you can do to attain some sort of peace or some sort of going about your daily work with grace. What if instead of a gratitude practice or a mindfulness practice, what if we had a practice of mindful, what if we thought about raking the leaves? What if we thought about raking the leaves and we recognized and we noticed that it was sort of cold outside and that it made our back hurt and that we would much rather be watching the new episode of whatever had just been released on Netflix and that we were helping our community, that we were outside in the beautiful fall colors. What if we could notice all of these things and be annoyed and grateful all at the same time? I'll leave you with the words of one of my favorite childhood philosophers. Piglet went to go see Winnie the Pooh one day and he said, Piglet, or he said, Pooh, what's the first thing you think about when you get up in the morning? And Pooh said, breakfast. And Piglet said, oh, but Pooh, don't you think about all of the things that you can do that day? All of the things that could happen to you, the things that you could experience? And Pooh said, yes, it's the same thing. And to that I say, amen. And part of living in a human body is that we must eat. And for those of us who have hunger, we are collecting our offertory for the St. Vincent food pantry. We give generously. Our offertory will now be taken. A famous musician who I don't remember who once said that music either dances or sings. The first two pieces of that favorite dance is now the last two pieces that play are songs. Sicilian is a French song that uses the rhythms of the island of Sicily, the Italian island of Sicily. The French simply call it Sicilian. And it's a sad song. In fact, the music, there's a big word for sad in melancholia that's in the music as I'm playing it. The last song I'm playing is called Carillon. And the carillon is the world's largest instrument. In fact, there's a carillon right here in Madison. Carillons live in towers. They're big towers filled with bells of all sizes. Little bells and big bells. And this piece called Carillon, the composer of Poulenc, is trying to make bell sounds with the piano. And at the end, let's see if you can tell when I'm making the bell sounds. Maybe I'll look up and see. Who are not parlor generals and field deserters, but move in a common rhythm when the food must come in or the fire must be put out. The work of the world is as common as mud. Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust. But a thing worth doing done well has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident. Hopi vases that held the corn are put in museums, but you know that they were made to be used. The pitcher cries for water to carry and a person for work that is real. May you go out and do real work. Blessed be an Amen.