Sometimes everything seems easy. No matter which way we turn, it turns out well. Advancement comes our way unexpectedly. The deal goes through. The stock goes up. We ask, with some anxiety, "will you marry me?" and the one we love beams back at us and says "yes!" Lilies of the field have nothing on us...everything's coming up roses. Are we riding high, comfortable in our cushy life? Wait a minute, it will change.

We have less control in this life than we would like but also receive more grace than we can ever imagine. The way we look at the world has an awful lot to do with how we experience it.

The Gospel according to Matthew offers us a glowing view into the Kingdom - a panorama of gratitude, love and peace. But in order to perceive this vision we need to draw near. We must turn in the right direction and let our eyes focus- first on the edges of the Kingdom and then on the heart of the matter. We must open our ears, our eyes and our hearts to the call in the distance, the horn on the hill.

In the beginning of our life we are focused on ourselves. Babies spend a great deal of time discovering the limits and bounds of their own bodies. I remember watching an infant lie on her back and reach for her own wiggling foot. When she had successfully captured the waving pink thing, she bit it- hard. Then there was a look of great surprise on her face as she painfully discovered that the wiggly pink thing was part of her. Months later she would pull herself up and walk on her own two feet, knowing they were her own two feet.

First we discover that we are the sum of our parts. Then we learn how to use them in concert to move through the world around us.

With this increased self-awareness, and mobility, we begin to explore the objects in our world. We reach for things and learn how to manipulate them. There are times when a child can rightly rejoice and proclaim in exultation-"I did it by myself!" Many of us can remember watching the first time our child or our grandchild successfully tied a shoe. Perhaps we watched our younger brother or sister learn to hold a spoon such that the contents did not become part of the eater's apparel. There are many times when a growing child can truly say, "I did it by myself."

But as we grow even bigger we begin to get the sense that there is more than our own will at work in the world. We are surrounded by other people who have their own will: their own ideas, needs and desires. There are forces in the world beyond our control. We cannot actually do everything, have everything, or be everything. There are limits and bounds to our life just as there are to our bodies.

Most of us know that we are not birds and cannot fly. But most of us also from time to time forget the limitations and dependence that are built into being a human being. "I did it myself" is not a universally applicable statement.

We did not create ourselves nor do we sustain ourselves unaided. This truth is what is being addressed in the passage from Deuteronomy and the reading from the Gospel according to Matthew. We adults may work to make a living but we did not create our life. All of us, whatever age we may be, are much more than the sum of our parts. All that we have is a gift from God. Whether we work hard, or not, it is ultimately not the strength of our arm that brought us to where we now stand. Things that seemed like calamities at the time turned out to be blessings. Objects of our desire once acquired were sometimes revealed to be less valuable than we had previously imagined. God is always drawing us forward. God is always walking by our side. Even in darkness there is a small light that will not go out and is within reach if we only turn to see it.

But in the bright light of good times we easily become distracted and can forget both our companion and the larger contours of the journey. Moses reminded the Israelites of their trek through the desert - how God had led them from hunger and thirst to the edge of the Promised Land. We too have been led on a path we did not design to a destination we could not even imagine. "Don't forget," Moses said. We need to remember God's place in our life - in good times and in bad. We are not the masters of the hunt for righteous or the authors of our own salvation.

If you believe that you are in control of the outcome of your life and that the path is of your own making please talk to one of our spiritual metaphor consultants in the red jackets.

Hunters can tell you that there is a great distance between our intent and how things actually turn out. A morning's anticipated pleasant jaunt can end up as a fall into cold muddy water. The quarry one seeks may double back, lead one on a merry chase, and then slip away. If people were not prepared to enjoy the journey for the journey's sake no one would ever get up on a horse and ride off after a pack of hounds.

We are all hunting for something. And God is searching for us while sort it all out. In time we can learn to focus on the joy in the journey God has given us rather than on some destination we have predetermined or some prize we hope to gather on the way.

We do not need to be anxious about the cut of our clothing, or the size of our house.
The stuff in our closets, or in our bank accounts, is not the measure of our worth.
Nor does our toil establish our value as a human being.

We do not become better by working harder and harder- we just get worn out. Let us remember that Jesus tells us that God loves us more than grass and sparrows, more than the beautiful lilies of the field. And as Jesus reminds us those flowers neither toil nor spin. God loved them into being and then loves them for being lilies.

We need to remember to focus on first things first. God made us. God loves us. God wants us to grow and be fruitful and to do so in a way that respects the world that God has given us. This world is full of other people, creatures and things and we need to be mindful of them.

Our work is not to grab all we can for ourselves but to make hospitable space for others in the name of God.

We will be fine if we keep first things first whether the journey is in the sunlight or through the woods. The good news is that we do not have to worry about everything- not our grades, our jobs or the state of the world. We do not hold the universe in balance through an act of our will.

This doesn't mean that we have no work to do, simply that the ultimate results are in God's hands. God is the creator and sustainer. We are God's creatures.

Our work is to be faithful and to follow God's lead How do we do that?
We start by remember whose we are. We remember to give thanks for all God's gitfs. Then we move forward by following the commandments that God has given us to show the way to life and to the Kingdom. These commanments mark the boundaries and the way forward in life as surely as a hunting horn draws trusting riders over the crest of a hill with the promise of a vista yet unseen.

The Ten Commandments lead us to life, and the sense of them can be boiled down to two clear notes sounding across the bright fields and the dark woods:
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind and soul,
and love your neighbor as yourself.

Listen to the sound of it. Listen to the call.

Let me close with my own litany of Thanksgiving:
I am grateful for my family whom I love. For the joys of the journey and the growth we have experienced through the challenges we have faced.

I am thankful for this parish and its people- for the decade of exploration we have shared, for the times when God was clearly present and the times when we had to search hard to find the way forward. Each turn in the path takes us to a new vista and God has still more to show us.

I am thankful for the safe, solid and beautiful church in which we are worshipping. It would be tempting to say "we did it by ourselves!" but I see the grace of God shining off the chalice and the cross and well as through the work of our hands.

I am thankful for the growing relationship we have with the Hunt and the ways in which we are working together to make the wider community stronger and more compassionate. I am grateful that we take the time to worship together and I appreciate the Hunt's contribution to the restoration of the church.,

I am thankful for the work and presence of the Rev. Loree Penner and her family. I look forward to the possibility of a third priest in 2006. We have a very interesting candidate whom we will be interviewing in January if this fall's pledges enable it. Next Tuesday we begin the process of finalizing the 06 budget. Now is the time to pledge if you have not already done so.

Thank you all for your prayers, your pledges and the promise that God created in you when he made you. I rejoice in the gift that each of you is to this community.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving.
Remember to give thanks, and to do good,
for these things are pleasing to God who loves you. AMEN.