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<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>I had
this thought to expand on what Brian says about blue elephants. This is how I
worked it into my sermon:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span style='font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
color:#1F497D'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=Sermon16><span lang=EN-US>Pr. Brian Stoffregen suggests telling people
to not worry about something is like saying “don’t think about blue
elephants.” Or their scarcity and impending extinction. But what are you
thinking about right now. Of course it now has something to do with blue
elephants, even though they do not exist. The solution is to never mention blue
elephants in the first place or at least to be sure we know they never have
existed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=Sermon16><span lang=EN-US>But the reasons to be fearful of the future
do exist. Denying the truth of our situation as a human species is a large part
of what gets us, continually, into such terrible trouble.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=Sermon16><span lang=EN-US>The Gospel for today calls us, not to deny
that the end of the world is impending. NO. In fact it calls attention to the
signs that are all around us. But then it directs us not to panic. Not to
follow false leaders who think they can name the date and time, or for that
matter any leader who leads us away from following Jesus the Christ, whom we
know from our forbearers of faith from their record of Christ handed on to us
in Scriptures.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=Sermon16><span lang=EN-US>In the Gospel for today, and in many places
throughout each of the Gospels, the Word of God calls us to keep our wits about
us, to trust most firmly in the Word of God, and to face the future with
assurance of God’s redemption of us. This Redemption is both freedom from
bondage to sin now until forever and it is freedom from the destruction of the
coming end of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>The idea
is not about blue elephants, but that not speaking about them or about real
reasons to fear the future is not what the Gospel leads us to.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>Rather
we discern which threats are real, speak clearly about them AND speak clearly
about God’s promise for us in the midst of such threats.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>To
throw it back into old language with a wide berth, true faith is not to be an
opiate of the people. That would be losing ourselves to dissipation. True faith
is simply the clearest perspective on reality, God’s reality. Threats will
still lead to the end of time, but we know this is our redemption. For this we
have waited since our baptisms!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>So
there you have my thought(s). If they help someone, good. If they hurt … Vezeihung
im voraus.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class=MsoNormal><span lang=EN-US style='font-size:16.0pt;color:black'>Rev. Tim
Lofstrom<o:p></o:p></span></p>
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