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<DIV><SPAN style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Sermons for Proper 13:</SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Luke 12:13-21 –
<STRONG>“Building Barns, Postponing Life”</STRONG> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> Luke 12:13-21 – <STRONG>“The
Real Real Estate” </STRONG>by Leonard Sweet</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Luke 12 - the sermon titled "Building Barns, Postponing
Life" </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Comedian Jack Benny, from TV’s Golden age, had a skit
which illustrated how we place money ahead of everything. He is walking down the
street when suddenly he is approached by an armed robber, "Your money or your
life!" There is a long pause. Jack does nothing. The robber impatiently queried,
"Well?" Jack replied, "Don't rush me, I'm thinking it over."<BR><BR>This morning
I would like us to think a few moments about our money and our life. Let’s see
what Jesus has to say about these two subjects.<BR><BR>The background for our
story is an incident that occurred in Galilee as Jesus was teaching to a large
crowd. A young man called out from the crowd and said: Rabbi, tell my brother to
divide the inheritance of our father.” Now, Jewish law clearly prescribed that
at the death of a father, the elder son received 2/3 of the inheritance, and the
young son received 1/3. This is obviously a younger son who is complaining about
the inherent unfairness of it all. Nothing will divide brothers and sisters more
than dividing up an estate. So it was then, and so it is now. Jesus refused to
get involved in a petty family squabble.<BR><BR>Jesus was concerned, however,
with the larger implications of preoccupation with the things of this world. He
said: Beware of greed, for life does not consist of things possessed. The sum
total of a person’s life is more than their financial portfolio.<BR><BR>He then
illustrated this point by telling a story. There was once a man who had an
unbroken run of prosperity. In today’s language, he had successfully played the
commodities market. So prosperous did he become that his barns could not hold
all of his crops. His solution was to tear down these barns and build bigger and
better barns. Then, with his financial security in hand, he could sit back and
truly enjoy life. His philosophy was: eat, drink, and be merry.<BR><BR>Truth be
told, when we hear this story we find ourselves rather envious of this man. A
financially successful man—we see him as savvy and wise. Yet, Jesus concluded
the story by saying that this man was a fool.<BR><BR>The issue before us this
morning is then: what did this man do wrong? To answer that question we must
understand that this is not a parable about money. It is a parable about values
and what is important in life. With that in mind, let me suggest four things
that this man did that made him a fool.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">1. He Had Full Barns, but an Empty
Heart.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">2. He Overestimated Himself.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">3. He Forgot about the Real Business of
Life.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">4. He Forgot about Time. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of this sermon following the outline above can
be obtained by joining <A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com
href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/dialog/www.eSermons.com">www.eSermons.com</A>.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_______________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Luke 12 - the sermon titled “The Real Real Estate” by
Leonard Sweet </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I officiated at a funeral recently of a man who died of
a heart attack two weeks after he declared bankruptcy. With his beautiful wife,
five kids, and many grandchildren circling the grave, this is how I began the
eulogy:</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">One of the wealthiest men in the
world died on His name was . . . . He made his wealth in real estate. The real
real estate of life.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">You say: how cruel can you be? In
front of his grieving family you are calling a man “wealthy” who died right
after declaring bankruptcy. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I say: how crude can you be? You are
calling a “wealthy” person someone who made their fortune from the real estate
of land and property and not the real real estate of life. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">In our Scripture lesson this morning,
Jesus gives us a different understanding of wealth than the one we’re used to.
In fact, according to Jesus, the wealthiest person in the world is someone
you’ve never heard of — someone who made their wealth in something other than
land. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Not that there isn’t wealth to be
made from real estate. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Forget that one word “Plastics.”
Here’s the word that created some of the biggest fortunes of the past 50 years:
“Autopia.” </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> “Autopia” is a word invented by
Rayner Banham to describe the car culture that started in California in the wake
of the Interstate Highway System and spread to the rest of the US, and from the
US to the world. “Autopia” is what gave us suburbia, malls and the whole
panorama of cartocracy, or even better, autocracy. In an auto-cracy or
autocratic culture, Car Is King and Real Estate is King Maker.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Thanks to autopia and autocracy, the
need for inexpensive family housing after the Second World War pushed new
developments beyond the boundaries of existing cities and towns. Cornfields and
pasture lands were bulldozed into pre-planned, pre-fabricated suburbs. And what
was good for the growing “baby boom” families was good for small farmers as
well. Hardscrabble farmlands were suddenly gold mines, as developers greedily
subdivided grassy meadows into grids of cheap houses. Old family farms became
one-time windfalls, the land itself being the final cash crop for a generation
of farmers who could make more money off the interest from the sale of their
farms to suburban developers than from selling the products of their labor.
</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Owning real estate has always seemed
like the “golden ticket” — whether it was “forty acres and a mule” or forty
acres and a bulldozer. Stock values can evaporate overnight. Paper money is only
worth what the government backing decides is its value. But real estate is,
well, REAL. You can see it. You can hold it in your hand. You can walk on it.
You can build on it. Real estate is never worth nothing. Even with “underwater”
mortgages – that’s when the house isn’t worth as much as the money owed on
it--the property still has value. That’s why the bank will eagerly take it
back.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 10pt"><SPAN
style="LINE-HEIGHT: 115%; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">But for the people whose names are on
the bottom line of an “underwater” mortgage, what seemed like their best, most
reliable investment, is suddenly worth nothing to them. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Nevertheless the message of today’s gospel lesson is
clear. Real estate is the BEST investment you can make. But the “real estate”
Jesus is talking about isn’t measured by the acre. The real estate of Jesus’
parable isn’t buildable with water rights. The real estate Jesus implores
us to invest in is the real estate of life -- real relationships that bind us
together and help work together to usher us into the presence of
God…</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by
joining <A title=http://www.sermons.com/ href="http://www.sermons.com/"><FONT
color=#800080>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A> </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 6pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">________________________</SPAN></DIV>
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