On the 31st of October 1517, a little-known professor of theology sent a letter to his bishop outlining his objections to the sale of indulgences. The indulgences were being sold all over Germany in an attempt to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. Buying an indulgence made it possible to be forgiven for a sin before one even committed it and the poor were the targets of this sale. Little did this theologian know that his letter would be the spark that lit the fuse of the reform of the church universal.

Martin Luther was the one who wrote the letter, and today we commemorate the anniversary of what has become known as the Protestant Reformation. Luther did not intend to challenge the authority of the church he was asking for an academic discussion to be held on several issues, indulgences being one. The letter he sent to his bishop is what we now call the 95 theses of Martin Luther, and going against conventional belief; he did not nail them to the door of the cathedral instead he sent them in the form of a letter. The nailing to the door bit came much later in history.

But what the reformation calls us to is not so much about what it was against but what it was for. Luther had no intention of starting a new religion or what we now call a denomination, but events would eventually get to a point where a new church was inevitable.

Luther focused on two fundamental points in his theology; salvation was by the grace of God freely given, in other words, there was nothing you could do to earn it. And that everyone, all of humanity, is created on equal footing regardless of your station in life. Keep in mind that at this point in history there was the belief that the ruling class was given its position by God and therefore they were “better” than the poor people. One needed to keep poor people poor to secure their place. If the poor rose up, look out, and the church of the day was complicit in that. For a king to be a king, he was required to pay tribute to Rome and thus he was appointed by God.

Whatever else we want to believe about the Reformation it did not begin with a physical break with a Rome in mind. Luther’s Reformation was a spiritual Reformation just as Jesus spoke about in the Gospel of Matthew we heard read this morning.

The purposes of the words of Jesus are quite evident in this passage but if we return to Matthew 5:17 we find the real goal. Jesus came not to abolish the law but to “fulfill the law,” and that is what he was doing when he summarized the “law” meaning the “Law of Moses” with love God and love your neighbor.

Jesus is quoting from the Shema: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind.” Deuteronomy 6:5 and he continue with a quote from Leviticus, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Lev. 19:18 these two Scriptures together provide a summary of Jesus’ mission and ministry.

What Jesus is doing here is moving the emphasis away from the externals of the “law” do this and then this will happen, and more towards God. However, one cannot love God without loving what God loves! One cannot love God and oppress or exclude any of God’s creatures – even one’s enemies. If one truly loves God, then they MUST love everyone.

To love God is to love the way God loves, indiscriminately.

To love God is to love what God loves, everything.

Because God is the source of all being and God loves all of God’s creatures.

What Jesus is proposing is a reformation of thought in 1st century Palestine. He is telling people that the Law has been fulfilled in Him and the “new” way if you will, is to focus on how we treat each other. The Jewish ritual law required sacrifice to please God and thus turn God’s anger away from the.  The new requirement of love was fulfilled in the Cross of Jesus Christ, and no further sacrifice is needed. Luther was saying the same thing.

The Lutheran Reformation, which was only the start, by the way, launched a new era and a new way of thinking about what it means to be a Christian. Luther wanted people to focus on the internals of their spirituality, love of God, but also needed to be concerned about their neighbor.

I am often asked what one person can do in the face of the world today, well here was one man who wrote a letter that changed the world and is still changing the world. The challenge for us today is what do we do with this idea of the Reformation?

I have mentioned the writing of Phyllis Tickle before and her idea that every 500 years the church goes through a reformation or what she calls a rummage sale. Her basic thesis is this: every 500 years, the Church goes through a rummage sale, and cleans out the old forms of spirituality and replaces it with new ones. This does not mean that previous forms become obsolete or invalid. It merely means they lose pride of place as the dominant form of Christianity. Constantine in the late 4th century, early 5th, the Great Schism of the 11th century, the Reformation in the 16th century, and now the Postmodern era in the 21st century have all been points of reference for these changes.

The challenge has always been how does the new coexist with the old. It usually leads to bloodshed as we have seen throughout history, but it does not have too. The Reformation made people, the ruling class, nervous because they were no longer able to tell people how to live and what was required for salvation. This put their position in jeopardy. Today we are seeing the same pattern emerging. People want an authentic encounter with God, they want to feel the presence that is outside of themselves, and they want to be shown how to get there. They do not want to be told they want to be shown. They want to encounter the holy in other people not be judged by them or excluded by them because they do not fit a particular mold.

The universal truths are still the universal truths how we get there and how we talk about them has and needs to change.

Martin Luther lit the fuse that started a movement that continues today. He called us to focus on what matters about our faith, love of God and love of neighbor. He reminded us that God loves us and forgives us and does this freely because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. He told us that we are all created equal no matter if we are popper or prince; we all come into and go out of the world the same way. He reminded us that each person is created in the image and likeness of God and what we have within us a divine spark that needs to be recognized and honored in each human being. This was and is the message of the reformation 500 years ago and today.

In the 1740’s not far from here in Northampton, Massachusetts Jonathan Edwards stepped into the pulpit and began what we now call the Second Great Awakening. He awakened with those who heard him the desire to find God again and in some ways started another reformation, a spiritual reformation. What the world needs more than every today is not a political church, not a judgmental church, not a church that says if you conform to our ways you can come in, but a church, like Luther’s church, that welcomes all for no other reason than God loves us.

I like to watch the History Channel.  Most of their programming is fun and entertaining, and you learn a little something along the way.  There are two shows that I like. One is a program about two guys that roam around the United States picking through other people’s stuff and finding treasure. I enjoy the banter between the two hosts but what I enjoy is not only the history of the objects they see but the stories behind each object. We are our stories, and the things we leave behind will tell our story.

The other program I like is about a Pawn Shop on the Vegas strip. In each episode, people bring stuff into the shop to sell or to pawn, and they always think their stuff is worth millions.  Time and time again they are reminded that just because something is old does not mean it is worth a lot or anything. But, from time to time, something magnificent walks in the door.

A few episodes back a gentleman brought in a Roman coin that he had found while cleaning out a house that he had just bought.  The attic was filled with “junk, ” and he was going to just throw it all away but he decided to take a closer look. At the bottom of one of the boxes was a small piece of cardboard with a plastic center and entombed in that cardboard was a Roman coin.

As is always the case, they bring in an expert to check the items out. So the coin guy comes and takes one look at this coin, and he is like a kid on Christmas morning. He goes on and on about this coin and the fact that he had only seen one other and it was not in this, near perfect condition. The coin, a similar one to the one that Jesus was holding in today’s story. Yup a coin, almost 2,000 years old, was found at the bottom of a box in an attic. How much was it worth?  I will tell you after we come back from the commercial.

The Pharisees were always trying to get Jesus. They were always trying to put him into situations to see how he would answer and they would very often lead him into a trap, or so they thought. This was another example. The Pharisees were anti-Roman, and so the question they were asking was designed to put him on the wrong side of the Herodians who were supporters of the Roman Occupation. Either answer would have put him into a position that would not end well for Jesus. But, Jesus being Jesus, he knew the question before they even answered it and went right up the middle with his answer.

He takes a coin and asks whose image is on the coin. The response is Cesar, but it not only bears his image there is an inscription on the coin as well, “Tiberius Caesar, august and divine son of Augustus, high priest.” So not only did the coin bear the image of Cesar, a direct violation of the first commandment as far as the Pharisees were concerned, it also called Caesar divine and high priest, these words were repugnant to the Pharisees as well as the image.

So we hear the famous words of Jesus, “render unto Cesar the things that are Cesar’s and render unto God the things that are God’s.”

The first point is very clear, give Cesar back the coin with his picture on it, in other words, there is no theological proscription against paying taxes. Jesus, and Paul will go on later and speak about the support of leaders and so on, but for now, we are dealing with what is right in front of us. But what about rendering unto God?

Jesus takes the question he was beings asked and takes it out of the realm of politics, Jesus does not exist that world although his message was very political. He widens the question and says that everyone has to decide and reconfigures the question around what is it that bears God’s image?

In Matthew 6:24 he says, “No one can serve two masters” no one is exempt from the decision, the choosing. What belongs to whom? In this passage, we want to hear two parallel arguments service to the government and service to God, and in a sense, we see that. We are required, as Christians; to be good citizens and do all we can to make this world a better place for everyone. But again, Jesus is not talking about our civic responsibility here he is talking about our responsibility to God.

Caesar can stamp his image and his resume on everything, but that does not come close to the commerce that animates us. Caesar will get many of the coins back, and he will be flattered by how well his likeness is rendered in the medium of cold, hard cash; but the coin of the realm of our flesh and blood is the image of God. What is rendered to God is whatever bears the divine image. Every life is marked with that inscription, and icon of the One who is the source and destination.

The inscription on the coin makes a theological statement about Caesar that the people of Jesus day would have found ludicrous if it was not accompanied by the bloody oppression of the Romans on those same people. But the theological claim that Jesus is making about God’s interest has nothing to do with power. The God to whom we render our days is the God of tender compassion for God’s children. We bear God’s image; we are the hands and feet of Christ.

A few moments ago I spoke about two guys looking through other people’s stuff and telling their story about who they are and what they did for a living. The stuff, the material possessions they left behind tells part of the story; the other part of their story is what image are we leaving behind for other people embossed with the image of God? What impact have we made on those around us, is it good or is it bad. Do we truly see the Divine image in each person we come into contact with and do we treat them as a living icon of Christ?

Today we begin several weeks talking about stewardship and what that means from a theological position for each of us. We each have to make a decision not only about the image that each of us will leave behind but also need to be concerned about the image the church is leaving behind in our community. What is the story of Bethany here in Quincy? I told you last week that we are at the comma and what comes after the comma has yet to be written, but it will be written by us. What do we want that story to be? Over the next few weeks I will be asking each of you to prayerfully consider your financial commitment to the Church, and on November 12th I will be asking you to submit that commitment in writing. The decision should come about through prayer, and we should not use our giving, or withhold our giving, based on some philosophical position that we hold or to try and force the church into a position, that is not a commitment that is ransom.

I will not ask you for a certain amount I will not even ask you for the biblical mandate of 10%, all I ask is that each of you contribute from your resources an amount that you believe God is calling you to give, and yes my friends, God is calling us to give.

So, what was the coin worth? It was in near perfect condition, and the expert put the value at over half a million dollars.  Go home and look through your stuff!

At my Ecclesiastical Council held back in January, I was asked about my theology of the Lord’s Supper. When I pressed the person asking the question to probe exactly what they were looking for in answer the questioner wanted to know what I thought happened during the Lord’s Supper.  My answer was something along the lines of it does not matter what happens on the table it matters what happens after the table. In other words, I am not concerned about if a change takes place here, among the bread and the juice we have laid out for the celebration today, I am concerned about the change that takes place in you and me. The miracle, if you will, is not in some magic words prayed over bread and wine, the magic, the transformative powers of the Holy Spirit is the miracle when it changes us.

So I have placed the titles of “Do This…” on this sermon today, the World Communion Sunday, so we can focus on what it was that Jesus was asking us to do.  Sure, I believe he was asking us to repeat what he was doing in that upper room on his last night with his Apostles, but I also think he was asking us to “Do” more.

This passage we heard this morning is the first time these words were written.  Paul’s letters are some of the earliest written of the Christian Scriptures; they predate the Gospels by many years. The other interesting part of this is that Paul was not there and it is the first time the words of Jesus were written.

In these words, Jesus speaks about a covenant, a new covenant, a covenant in his blood.

Jesus is saying something like: “This cup is the new covenant, and it cost my blood.”

A covenant relationship is one entered into by two people, perhaps more, but at least two. The old relationship between God and the people was based on the law; there was a condition that the law had to be kept. With Jesus, the new covenant is based on love and not dependent on keeping the law; it is based on the free grace of God’s love offered to all.

But this new covenant goes much deeper than that because there is the “Do This…” associated with it.  So what then is this “Do this?”

As followers of Jesus we believe that we are to imitate his life as best we can in our daily lives. We believe that the bible has been given to us not as a science or history book, but as a guide if you will for how we should live. My personal belief is that this is not to be taken literally but left to us as an example of what we should be able to do.

Jesus comes as the fulfillment of the law, no longer are we bound to obey to the letter of the law now we have the Spirit of the Law that guides us. We are to do what Jesus did, and that is our imitation.

Jesus cared for the least of these and spoke about it often. He does not seek out power, in fact, the only time he is “hangs out” with the powerful is when he is standing before Pilate just before his crucifixion.  He was born humbly in a backwater town in the Roman Empire and had to flee to another country, without a visa by the way, for his life to be saved. It was to the marginalized that he ministered and to the powerful.

Jesus was found with the less desirable of the population, prostitutes, tax collectors, beggars, lepers, women, Samaritans and all the rest. He was reaching out to and ministering to the people that had no place in the temple, they had no seat at the table, and no one was listening to them. He healed the sick, pardoned those that humanity had cast out and in the end, it cost him his life. Make no mistake about it, Jesus was killed by the powerful because he threatened their way of life. Sure, he went willingly to the Cross, but it was those in power that pulled the trigger so to speak.

The Letter of St. James is one of my favorite books of the bible. It is called a Pastoral Epistle or Universal Epistle because it is written not to a particular church, as Paul has written, but to the entire church. James has a lot to say about “Doing This…”

“What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit? Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have worked.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.” (James 2:14-26)

He ends this section with these words:

“For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.”

But the words of Jesus sum it up best in the Gospel of Matthew:

“Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.'” (Matthew 25:37-40)

Who are we to minister too?  The least of these. Who are we care for? The least of these. Who are we to consider our neighbors? The least of these.

Francis of Assisi is often quoted as saying, “Preach the gospel every day, sometimes use words.” A person’s faith is not contained in a book, a person’s faith is held in dogma, a person’s faith is not even contained in bread and wine. A person’s faith is contained in how they treat the least of these.

Do have concern for the least of these. Do have concern for the poor and needy. Do have concern for the stranger among us. Do have concern for those who look different than us. Do have concern for the widows and orphans. Do have concern for those affected by storms, physical, mental, and natural. Do have concern for those affected by war. Do have concern for those yearning to have the same rights that you and I have. Do be concerned that we are not holding people to the letter of the law when we should be showing the spirit of the law. Do be concerned with and love your neighbor;

Your homeless neighbor
Your Muslim neighbor
Your black neighbor
Your gay neighbor
Your white neighbor
Your Jewish neighbor
Your Christian neighbor
Your Atheist neighbor
Your racist neighbor
Your addicted neighbor

Why?  Because Jesus said, “Do This” in remembrance of me!

This past week there was a lot of talk about the end of the world that was supposed to happen on the 23rd of September.  Well, according to my calendar, today is September 24th, and we are all still here, so I guess they were wrong. The problem with that is since I thought the world was coming to an end on Saturday, I did not prepare a sermon for today and had to throw something together at the last minute, well that is not exactly correct.  Why do we seem to be so hung up on the end of the world?  For generations, people have been trying to “read the signs” to determine when the world is going to end.  But we read in Matthew 24:36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father.” “Only the Father!”  Jesus is telling us that he does not even know when the end will come, only the Father knows, and he’s not telling.

So here is what I do not get. Nowhere in Scripture can I find a passage that says I need to worry about tomorrow or what will happen in the end. I do find lots of scripture about loving our neighbor and trying to make the place we live a better place and to bring a little bit of heaven right here. But some folks are so willing to follow anyone that they fall for this every single time. Jesus tells us, also in Matthew 24:5 “For many will come in my name, claiming, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and will deceive many.” We are so desperate that we even look to world leaders as the savior and the fixer of all our problems when scripture tells us in Psalm 146:3 “Do not put your trust in princes, in human beings, who cannot save.”

But it is not just us that do not trust in God look at the people of Israel that we heard about in today’s Scripture lesson.  Moses has led them out of bondage. They had been enslaved by the Egyptians for generations, and finally one has come to lead them out.  Great signs were performed in the name of God to convince Pharaoh to let them leave, and he finally does, the people finally have their freedom and what do we find, they are whinny, ungrateful, little children.

Scripture tells us that “whole company of Israel complained against Moses and Aaron.” This is not just a few folk this is everyone, there was a rebellion brewing here. There were complaining that they did not have enough to eat. They mention the pots of meat they used to have when they were slaves, but now that they have been set free they have no food, they have their freedom but no food, so they complain.  Here is your freedom, but we have no food!

So Moses spoke to God, and God provided. He told them exactly what to do, take just what you need, no more, no less.  Some did, and they had all that they wanted, some took more, and it spoiled.  The problem was, they had no faith.

I think I have shared this story with you before. There was a storm coming, and a man was sitting in his house watching the weather, and the weather people were telling him to evacuate, the man says, God will save me. The government folks say to leave, the man says, God will save me. The rainwater comes, and the water rises so high he is on the second floor of his house, and a man comes by in a boat and says, come on, get in, and I will bring you to dry land, and the man says, God will save me.  The water continues to rise, and the man has to cut a hole in his roof, and he is now on his roof, and the water is still rising. A helicopter comes and drops a rope, and a man yells down, take the rope and tie it around you, and I will lift you up to safety, and dry land and the man says, God will save me. Well, the man dies and is standing at the pearly gates, and God is there, and the man says to God, I trusted that you would save me and here I am. And God looks at him and says, I sent a weatherman, a government guy, a man with a boat, and a helicopter what more do you need?  Apparently, he needed more faith.

We are like the people of Israel at this present time. They were going through a transition, and we are going through a transition. The future is bright but also a little scary we do not know what it will hold. We are standing at the opening of the door but we cannot see past the threshold, and that makes us nervous.  We are people who like to be in control and looking into the future, with no end in sight, makes us nervous and we are not sure how to act. God is saying, it will be okay, I will send you what you need, and we need to have faith that he will do just that very thing. But we have to trust that all will be well.  Will it be easy, nope, it sure was not easy for the people of Israel out there in the wilderness, but they survived.  They got angry and lost faith, but in the end, their faith was restored, once they discovered who their faith needed to be in, not Moses or Aaron, but God.

You all know that one of my favorite passages of Scripture is the story of Peter stepping out of the boat. When I am looking for guidance for one thing or another, I come back to that Scripture, and I think about it and meditate on it. The boat, the water, the storm, they are all metaphors for life, and Jesus is calling us to make bold moves and take steps in faith, and as long as we keep our eyes on Him, all will be well. Peter stepped out and was able to do something that he was not able to do before, walk on water, but the second he took his eyes off of Jesus, the second he started to doubt God’s word, he began to sink. But the story did not end there, even though he doubted, even though he lost faith, Jesus was still there and gave him his hand and raised him up.

Jesus is calling each of us to step out of the boat, get away from what we think is comfortable, throw our foot over the side and do something we have never done before. He is calling us in faith, not by anything that we can do, but to have faith in God, and even if we stumble, and I am sure we will, Jesus will be there to lift us back up. But we need faith and the willingness to throw ourselves over the side of the boat, and take that first step.

Last week I stood here, and I asked you to pray for those affected by Hurricane Harvey.  This week I stand here, and I will ask you to keep all of those affected by Hurricane Irma in your prayers. At this very moment, in Florida, people are hunkering down as Category 4 Irma, the most powerful storm in recorded history slams into their neighborhoods. I ask you to keep the people of the tiny Island nation of Barbuda in your prayers. I had never heard of Barbuda before the news reported that 95% of the structures on the island have been destroyed and that as of yesterday, the entire Island has been evacuated. Just for some perspective, the population of Barbuda is 1,638 people who are now homeless. This is a dangerous storm that is not over yet.

I have been encouraged by the outpouring of offers to help from the people right here at Bethany. Last week I sent a letter to all of you asking for donations and we will take a special offering today for Disaster Relief, and all week, people have been sending in checks to the office for us to add to what will be collected and blessed this very day.  While storms are still raging, we are doing what we can. We have a plan in the works to assemble kits that will be sent by our partner Church World Service to devastated areas to assist people in cleaning up. The need will be great, and this will not end anytime soon.

But I have also been rather dismayed by the chorus of Christians blaming this on God’s divine retribution and twisting they’re theological understand for some fundraising or political means.  Keep this in mind, people are literally, as we speak, fleeing for their very lives and fine Christian theologians and preachers are telling people this is God’s anger unleashed on them.  Well let me make this clear, that is a load of you know what!

Here are just a couple of examples; One “Pastor” has said that God is systematically destroying America over the homosexual agenda. An on air personality, and devout Christian, when asked about climate change in relation to Harvey said that Houston’s election of a lesbian mayor was a more credible explanation of Harvey than climate change. And just so you don’t think these people are only on the right of the theological spectrum, a Tampa University professor tweeted, during Harvey by the way, that Harvey was God’s punishment on Texas for voting for President Trump. He was fired. By the way, the other two examples I used, they are both still employed.

Now I am not sure where these folks received their theological training, but I was taught that God is love. The pages of the New Testament are filled with stories of love, not destruction. Now I know what you’re thinking, what about the Old Testament there are lots of stories of smiting and what not, sure let’s look at one, the bog one if you will, the story of Noah found in the 9th chapter of the Book of Genesis.  We all know the story, God finds the righteous man Noah, he builds the ark. All the animals come in. The rains come. The earth is flooded. Only Noah’s family and the animals survive.  Now I have some issues with this story but putting that aside for a moment we tend to skip over that last part of that story;

“I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: I have set my bow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth, and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” Genesis 9:11-16

“Never again will I destroy the earth.”  NEVER AGAIN!

That is the 9th chapter of the 1st book of the Bible.  We don’t have to wait long before we hear God say. NEVER AGAIN WILL I DESTROY THEY EARTH! 9th Chapter!

Not enough evidence? Let’s look at a few more.

“For this is like the days of Noah to Me, When I swore that the waters of Noah Would not flood the earth again; So I have sworn that I will not be angry with you Nor will I rebuke you. Isaiah 54:9

But He, being compassionate, forgave their iniquity and did not destroy them; And often He restrained His anger And did not arouse all His wrath. Psalm 78:38

I will not execute My fierce anger; I will not destroy Ephraim again For I am God and not man, the Holy One in your midst, And I will not come in wrath. Hosea 11:9

Then I saw another sign in heaven, great and marvelous, seven angels who had seven plagues, which are the last because in them the wrath of God is finished. Revelation 15:1

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life. John 3:16

God sent His Son Jesus Christ into the world, and he watched him die.  He could have smited the lot of us, but he did not, he sent his own Son to show us the way and even after we killed him he continues to show us, love.

Our human minds want to find answers to questions about why things happen, and sometimes there is no explanation, and sometimes things happen because of the choices that we or others make. If we put this all on God reduces God to the human condition, and when we do that, God stops being God!

If we think that God punishes us then logically, we have to believe that God is the source of that punishment which is evil and therefore God is the source of evil. But if we read the Bible we see that God is love. If God wanted us to suffer if God inflicted suffering on us, why would he have sent us his son?

Suffering is part of the human condition but it is not God’s divine retribution and to say that is it is to deny that God is love and to say that God participates in evil.

So where is God in all of this? God is right in the midst of it. God is the one in the boat that comes and rescues people. God is in the science that can predict these things to give people warnings to get out. God is with you when you place your hard earned money into the offering plate to assist others. God is in the midst of the suffering bringing us peace and bringing us strength. I have no idea who the God of Pat Robertson is or the God of Jim Baker, but my God sent his Son not to destroy but to love, and that is the example he has left for us.