WEBVTT

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In the Name of Christ, the sure Foundation.

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Amen. May be seated.

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The text that engages us this morning is the reading from first Samuel

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chapter 2 read just previously the song of Hannah in this ongoing

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Monday Morning series through the book of 1st Samuel.

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Two years ago when we entered into the first wave of the pandemic and

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had the lockdowns, my teenage son Benjamin, became a binge Watcher of

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Netflix. And one of the programs that he binge-watched was entitled,

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"Stranger Things."

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I sat in on a few episodes myself and was engaged by that TV program.

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It's about a group of middle school children who discover a secret

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government program to connect with another dimension of the universe.

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A parallel Dimension that is called the upside down.

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And in fact, in the program, when a character would go through the

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portal into this, alternate dimension, everything would 

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turn upside down. And it was a dark and kind of creepy existence in

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the upside down.

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Well, of course, that was strange, I guess that's why they entitled it

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"Stranger Things", but I'm here today to tell you that there is in fact,

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an upside down.

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There is another dimension, another reality that is upside down from

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the principles and the priorities from the standards and structures

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and values of this sinful world.

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And that upside down realm is God's Kingdom.

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The kingdom of Our Lord.

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Our text today from first Samuel to gives us a glimpse into that

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upside down kingdom.

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It takes us through the portal into that other dimension so that we

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can see it along with Hannah who raises this song of praise and

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thanksgiving but also provides us a vision of God's upside down

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kingdom.

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Last week, president eger inaugurated this series focusing on chapter

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1 of 1st Samuel, The Story of Hannah and how she was considered of low

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estate in her culture because she was barren.

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And she comes to the Lord's Tabernacle and prays to the Lord

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beseeching him, that he would provide her with a child and vowing to

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then dedicate that. child 

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to the Lord. The Lord answers her prayer positively she gives birth to

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a son and names him, Samuel, God hears.

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And now we have her bringing this young boy who has been recently,

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weaned to the Tabernacle to dedicate him to the service of the Lord.

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And as she does

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so she breaks out into a glorious song of thanksgiving and praise to

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God for his work in her life and his work in the world. And in so doing

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she has a vision and she provides us with a vision of God's MO his

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modus operandi in turning things upside down.

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First for her own life.

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She begins, my heart exults in the Lord.

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My strength is exalted in the Lord because I rejoice in your

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salvation.

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She says I who had been of low estate, have now been exalted by the

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Lord.

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And so now I exalt in the Lord and I exalt him because of his

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salvation.

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And she specifically identifies this circumstance of her own life in,

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which God had reversed her barrenness.

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She says t the barren has born seven, but she who has many

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children is forlorn.

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Indeed, Hannah will go on to bear many more children.

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But her vision expands eyond

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simply what God has done for her personally to the way in which God

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operates within the world, to turn things upside down. The standards

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and the structures and the values of this world, how he turns these

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things upside down.

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She says, the bows of the mighty are broken, but the feeble bind on

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strength, the mighty or made week and the week are made strong.

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Those who are full have hired themselves out for bread.

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But those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.

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Those whose bellies were were satisfied

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now are starved.

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Those who were hungry

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now, are fed.

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The Lord kills and brings to life.

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He brings down to sheol and raises up. Those who are alive

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He brings into death.

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Those her dead

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He raises to life.

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The Lord makes poor and makes rich.

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He brings low and he exalts, he raises up the poor from the dust.

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He lifts the needy from the ash heap to make them sit with princes

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and inherit a seat of Honor, a great reversal of Fortune.

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This is God's upside down kingdom.

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She sees a vision of this and she exalts in God's ways and God's works

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that are upside down from the world.

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But then she concludes this song by identifying how God's upside down

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kingdom will be inaugurated, supremely through his King.

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His anointed one.

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She says, the Lord will judge the ends of the Earth.

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He will give strength to his King and exalt the power of His anointed.

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The word their anointed is maschiach Messiah.

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And remember this is in the period before the monarchy in Israel.

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So she looks ahead and she sees God's King his Supreme King, the

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Messiah who will come to inaugurate this upside down kingdom of the

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Lord.

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Centuries later, a full millennia later, God fulfills that vision. And

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he fulfills it through a young humble, maiden like Hannah,

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named Mary.

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Mary who is chosen to be the mother of the Messiah.

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And as she receives this vocation, she cries out in a glorious song of

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praise to God.

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We call The Magnificat with the same themes of God's reversal of

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Fortune.

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How he raises up those of humble estate, like Mary,

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whose name now will be renowned throughout Generations.

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And when the Messiah is born, his very much upside down, from what

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anyone would have expected.

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He's born not in a gilded Palace placed to rest on plush velvet

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pillows, but instead he's born in a stable in the rough

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breeding and eating place of animals.

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He then is raised in the backwater town of Nazareth. Later

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even Nathaniel would say what good could come from Nazareth?

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And then begins his public Ministry.

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He is manifested Epiphany

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in the world in Galilee of the Gentiles.

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And he reveals himself as this itinerant preacher who goes to the poor

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and the lowly, who speaks to the common people mingles with them,

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engages with them.

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He communes with the outcasts with the tax collectors and prostitutes,

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the sinners.

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With those who are outcast the lepers.

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These are his friends.

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And most of all he is the friend of sinners.

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He is a poor man.

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Foxes have holes

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birds of the air have nests.

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But the son of man doesn't even have a place to lay his head.

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Who would have envisioned?

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The king

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of this Kingdom

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appearing in such lowly manner.

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And though, he had no sin.

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Since he was the friend of sinners, then he is identified as a sinner

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condemned for blasphemy and hung on a morbid execution post cursed

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of God.

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Crucified.

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This is far upside down from what anyone would have envisioned.

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And yet it is at that point that God carries out his greatest reversal

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of all.

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Because on the third day, he raises his son from the dead. Christ had

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humbled himself unto death, even death on a cross, but now God has

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highly exalted him and given him the name above all names, that at the

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name of Jesus, every knee shall bow

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and every tongue confess that he is

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Lord.

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And now, we

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enter into his upside down kingdom.

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Not by standing tall, and exalting, ourselves and holding forth our

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own merit.

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But by bending the knee going low in humble confession of our

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unworthiness and sin.

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And we live in this upside down kingdom, not by asserting our own

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authority

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but instead confessing him as Lord

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and following him.

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And following him means to be as he was a servant.

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To bend low and wash feet.

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In God's upside down kingdom

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now

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those who are his princes and princesses serve others.

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We deny ourselves take up the cross and follow him.

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Even as he came not to be served, but to serve, in this upside down

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kingdom.

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We live to serve others in humility and lowliness.

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One of the greatest exemplars of this upside down kingdom of God was a

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woman that I knew in my first

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Call a congregation in Peoria, Illinois, back in the 1990s.

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Interestingly enough

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her name was Anna, Anna Richter.

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And Anna was an octogenarian and she was not the kind of person that

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the world would esteem as being and any significance or importance.

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She had never been married.

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She had no children.

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She had worked in a drugstore

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all of her life, very poor.

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She lived in a two-room apartment.

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She was very plain in appearance her dress.

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She never wore makeup had a bun in her hair.

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Very, very modest humble person.

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And yet she lived to serve in the congregation for, over 60 years.

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She was a Sunday school teacher. Week

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after week, investing herself in sharing the story of Jesus with the

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children forming them in saving faith.

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And loving them and they loved her back.

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She had a special place in her heart for those with special needs,

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especially those with Down Syndrome our church had a Ministry to Down

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syndrome children, and she was always involved in that. Supporting and

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caring for those people of special needs.

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Her most distinctive Ministry though

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was this she was known as the card lady in our church because she

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would send birthday cards to every member in the church every year,

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every birthday they had. And this was a large church with over 1.300

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members.

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This was a great expense of hers of time and of money to do that.

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But she would send these cards with words of encouragement and witness

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and a prayer for each member of the church on their birthday.

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When Anna died, her funeral was held and the place was packed.

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Now this church, we'd have funerals for high upper level executives

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from Caterpillar corporation of governmental officials, doctors and

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lawyers those that the world would esteem as having great influence

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and importance in society.

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But very few had as many come to the funeral as this one with Anna.

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Why?

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Because not only Anna understood the upside down kingdom of God, but

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the church did as well.

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They saw how God had worked through this humble woman.

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This humble servant.

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To enact his upside down kingdom.

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May we also

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show forth Epiphany if you will, the upside down kingdom of God, as

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Hanna of the Old Testament did and Anna of the 20th century did.

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May we follow the one who came not to be served but to serve.

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And to give his life as a ransom for many.

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To inaugurate the upside down kingdom of God.

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The name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.

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Amen.