Sometimes, I am not sure what to preach on. Some Sundays, none of the lessons might speak to me that week or they might be so difficult that I do not know what to make of them, any of them. And then there are the days like today - deciding what to choose among so many, and all so glorious. options, becomes the more difficult thing. What Lessons we have! Even the bad news is good news! The Old Testament Lesson has a good, if clouded, message of hope and promise. The People of God are just plain ungrateful, as we often are. Complaining, blaming, questioning God, pointing out what we want and what he should do about that, and scolding him for not doing what we want, when we want, when we ask. The not so good, but very obvious lesson is that this does anger God, offends him, hurts him. And he will be angry, possibly for years. And the good news? He gives the grumbling, complain Israelites, and us their heirs, what they ask for, he grants their requests, he will be angry, but he does not strike them down or condemn them. Some at our worst, God is then still always at his best. The Gospel, the very word means good news, is Good News indeed, with lovely aspects as well as hope and glory, with Jesus in that winsome, playful mood - "Go call you husband", he says to the Samaritan woman. "Oh, I have no husband" she coyly replies. He, surely smiling if not chuckling, replies - "you are so right! Though you have had a slew of them, the man you have now, the one you live with, is not your husband, is he?. Neighbors might think he is, but we both know better!" She artlessly changes the subject. Oh so suddenly and conveniently, she is not so concerned with her own personal life, and its shortcoming, rather she must know, must know, immediately, the answer to a question of the best location for worship. She is so transparent, but he clearly likes her, and will spend more time with her. The far more serious and timely and critical aspect for us, I think, is the end result of her evangelizing, the response to her saying directly and decently, but quietly, and a little hesitantly: "Can this be the Messiah?" She insists, but only gently, "You all, in my village, in my life, must, must look at this." And the Samaritans do come to believe, they are convinced, they are saved. But they themselves are the ones who decide, and they clearly say that they have decided for themselves, because of their experience, and the power of their words - to my great relief and doubtless hers. Yes, they declare, your words caused us to consider, but it is not because of your earnest by tiny voice, but rather because we have seen for ourselves that we now believe. So, there a lovely reassurance, even a necessary, a life-giving escape hatch in our responsibilities to make him know. Yes, you and I, we, must speak of Jesus to those around us, yes, we must make him known, and convincingly. But the conversion, their commitment itself, it just not our personal responsibility or our fault. It is up to them, whether or not we feel we may have been helpful, successful in our effort to bear witness. Whether, or not they believe and have their lives changed, depends on them, not us, and they are first to admit that. It does not rest of us ultimately. We need to take care to present him well to the world around us, but we do not need to accept the full and final, or even the decisive, responsibility for whether they do, or do not, believe. If they do, it will be because of him, and not as the consequence of how clever or effective or imaginative our evangelism was, how catchy our slogans, how convincing our witness. What a burden to be out from under! Yes, make him known, let us do our best. But it is up to them - if they will come to believe and respond or not, because of what they experience, not because of what we share, or fail to share well. But there even more riches strewn through our appointed prayers and readings: There is today's Collect: God, knows that I have no power to help myself, in myself, and by myself, neither does he expect it - he will do it for us! That is indescribably reassuring. But if the Bible is all about Good News, and it is, and if our faith is all about hope and joy, and it is, it really does not get any better, than in that opening of the Epistle. St Paul says, in one word more glorious after another - everything I could ever want to hear. I find it the single most reassuring passage in all of the Bible: reassuring, hope-filled, and true. "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained access to this grace in which we stand. And we boast in our hope of sharing the glory of God. And not only that, but we also boast in our suffering, knowing that suffering produces endurance and endurance produces character and character produces hope and hope does not disappoint, because God's love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Sprit that has been given to us." (Roman 5:1f) I have never heard, read, thought anything more glorious than that, ever. I can live on that, no matter what. And live, not in a resigned, and stoic way, but in glory and joy and sheer ecstatic happiness. For this promise, for me and for you, just as it is, is the best thing we can, or will ever, hear. And it is true. This is sublime. It is either a cop-out of me, and or else the most fitting, modest thing available to say, to say simply, "I will say no more." You need, I need, to hear no explanation, no sermon, nothing from me, That Epistle says it is all, means it all, redeems it all. It is everything. I can and should and will add nothing. Except my most honest, best comment: "Oh Thank God!"