<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18876">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV>
<P><FONT size=4>Those of us who’ve grown up in Nazareth know that it has its
challenges. We’ve seen some of the violence that simmers beneath the surface of
civility, the willingness the draw hard lines between insider and outsider, the
family identities that can crush true expression of self, the thinly veiled
prejudice propped up with a Proverb. Jesus has had to rescue some of us from
that. And it’s not the last time a congregation in a rural community would try
to run a preacher out of town who dared to preach the truth of God’s
word.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>Apparently scholarship suggests that Nazareth was a small
community of anywhere between 500 and 2000 people...</FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://faithandleadership.com/sermons/nazareth?page=0,1"><FONT
size=4>http://faithandleadership.com/sermons/nazareth?page=0,1</FONT></A></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jeremy Troxler</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>And I didn’t have much religious authority that day [preaching
in my home church] with Mrs. Hague.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Mrs. Hague was there at that worship service.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She was still elderly, still wearing her
black horned rimmed glasses, still wearing the black lace ribbon that attached
to the glasses so she could hang them around her neck.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She didn’t hear my sermon at all that
day on the occasion of my parents’ fiftieth.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She just sat there in the pew, itching
to tell me something.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I knew
it.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Right after the service, she
found me and said:<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Do you remember
what you said at your ordination sermon a few years back?”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>No, I had no idea.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“What did I say?”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>She said:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“You said you were kind of wild as a kid
and that everyone was kind of surprised you were going to become a
minister.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You said the only
difference between you and the other kids in town was that you never got
caught.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That is all she remembered
from my ordination ten years earlier.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>She never heard the sermon; she only remembered that I was like all the
other kids but just didn’t get caught.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>All she could think of was a silly remark that I made so many years
ago.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>I didn’t have much religious
authority Mrs. Hague’s life; that’s for sure.<?XML:NAMESPACE PREFIX = O /><O:P>
</O:P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4><O:P><></O:P></FONT></P><O:P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>The people there that day were offended by the
Incarnation, that God actually became a human being.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>That was the scandal, the stumbling
block.<O:P> </O:P></FONT></P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4><O:P><></O:P></FONT></P><O:P>
<P class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4>And the only thing worse than having God speak
to you through your spouse is to have God speak to you through your teenage
daughter.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Yes, I said teenage
daughter.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>In years past, my
daughter Anne would say to me after I lost my temper:<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>“Dad, you are getting just like Grandpa
Markquart.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Now, that was not a
compliment.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>And I wish that God
would find some other way to talk with me about my temper.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Give me a sermon, God.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>You don’t have to talk to me through my
teenage daughter.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN><O:P>
</O:P></FONT></P></O:P></O:P>
<P class=MsoNormal><O:P><A
href="http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_kidfromnazareth.htm"><FONT
size=4>http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_kidfromnazareth.htm</FONT></A></O:P></P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>Edward F. Markquart</FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4></FONT></O:P> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>God’s love is a gift. God’s love gives us
life and the sun and the earth and our home. God gives us our arms and our
minds. To stand before God and say, “Look at what I can do! You must love me for
what I can do!” is an insult. It is an insult because it says to God that we do
not trust God to love us. Instead, we tell God that we have to earn God’s love.
How presumptuous! When someone offers us a gift, it is an insult to ask if we
can pay for it. It is to reject their kindness. It is to say, “I can do it
myself. I don’t need your help.” </FONT>
<P><FONT size=4>How can we say to God, “I don’t need your help?” It is a lack of
love for God. It is to say that we don’t want God to love us.
</FONT></P></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-9/070128-6-e.html">http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-9/070128-6-e.html</A></FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><FONT size=4><O:P></O:P></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>Timothy J. Hoyer, 2007<BR>- - - -
-</FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4></FONT></O:P> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>Ever hear of a "Ruby Begonia"? I am
sure that some of you know what I am talking about. Can you imagine that a
Ruby Begonia is what a city is proud of and for which it is noted? Well,
there is one here in Texas. The city is Cuero. The Ruby Begonia is,
catch this, a turkey! Yes, a bird, a variety of turkey! Every year
Cuero proudly has Ruby Begonia races with some neighboring town to see which
"turkey" is the fastest! Every town, village, hamlet, burg wants
something, somebody, anything to make it stand out.</DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal>
<P><></P>
<P>There were two responses to Jesus. One was "Wow! Isn't he the best, the
wisest you have ever heard?" and the other: "Who's fulfilling what around here?
Isn't this the carpenter's son? He's Joseph's son." They didn't want
action they wanted Jesus to do something for them, not for them to change and
get moving.</P></FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-6/040201-3-e.html">http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/archiv-6/040201-3-e.html</A></FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4></FONT></O:P> </DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>Walter W. Harms</FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></O:P></DIV>
<DIV class=MsoNormal><O:P><FONT size=4></FONT></O:P> </DIV></BODY></HTML>