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<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">A Shrewd Example</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">First-century culture was organized and orchestrated by
strict social rules. The rules of reciprocal hospitality were in no way
optional. Rather they were the supporting ligaments that bound together status
and honor, safeguarding roles and responsibilities through right relationships.
The dishonest manager has no doubts that he will be able to collect on the
favors owed him when the time comes. He will get by, despite his looming
unemployment, because he knows how to work the system, or in the more
contemporary terms of network, because he knows how to make the net
work.<BR><BR>Jesus doesn't admire the thorns that bar the manager's dubious
situation. Neither does Jesus concern himself with the man's self-serving
character. What Jesus focuses on is the fruit that results from the manager's
shrewdness (machinations?). Jesus sees a man unafraid to push the accepted
limits in order to bring about a needed change. And he sees in this shrewdness
something that his disciples might well learn from.<BR><BR>Leonard Sweet,
Collected Sermons, <A href="http://www.sermons.com/"><FONT
color=#ff6600>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>___________________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Play It Safe or Take a Risk</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">Rev. Mark Trotter tells of a mission in Mexico,
sponsored by Mercy Hospital, in San Diego, and by Rotary International. Thirteen
doctors from San Diego, and twice that number of nurses and other support staff,
total of about fifty-five persons, paid their own way to go down as a surgical
team to minister to poor children in Tehuacan, in the southern part of
Mexico. He says, </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 call went out through the Rotary Club in that city
for all those who do not have the means for medical attention to bring children
with birth defects and crippling diseases to the clinic.</SPAN> <SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It was amazing. They came by the hundreds, mostly the
very, very poor, carrying their children. Some teenagers, as well, some of whom
have spent their life with their hand held over their face because they were
ashamed of the way they looked. Some had been hidden by their parents because
they did not want their neighbors to see what they believed was a curse upon
their family. After an hour, or less, in surgery their appearance was changed,
and they received new hope and a new 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">If you are hard-headed, you might conclude that the
thousands of dollars that were spent last week in Tehuacan was just a drop in
the bucket. It's not going to make any difference. I mean, the enormous
suffering in this world, just wave after wave. It's not going to make any
difference. </SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I talked to one of those Rotarians in Tehuacan who spent
two years setting up this project. It's a complex business establishing this
kind of a clinic in Mexico. I said, "Why did you do it?" He said, "We believe
that we can change the world, and we are going to start right here."
</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">It sounds naive. It is naive, when you compare it with
the problems that exist, even the problems in his own state. But you are
confronted with a choice in this life. That's the point of these parables. You
are confronted with a choice. You can do nothing, and play it safe. Or, you can
take a risk.” </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">Adapted from Mark Trotter, The Model of
Success</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">____________________</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">Humor: You Took Me In </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">Henry Ford was known for both his frugality and his
philanthropy. He was visiting his family's ancestral village in Ireland when two
trustees of the local hospital found out he was there, and they managed to get
in to see him.<BR><BR>They talked him into giving the hospital $5,000 dollars
(this was the 1930's, so $5,000 dollars was a great deal of money). The next
morning, at breakfast, he opened his newspaper to read the banner headline:
"American Millionaire Gives Fifty Thousand to Local Hospital."<BR><BR>Ford
wasted no time in summoning the two hospital trustees. He waved the newspaper in
their faces. "What does this mean?" he demanded. The trustees apologized
profusely. "Dreadful error," they said. They promised to get the editor to print
a retraction the very next day, stating that the great Henry Ford hadn't given
$50,000, but only $5,000. Well, hearing that, Ford offered them the other
$45,000, under one condition: that the trustees erect a marble arch at the
entrance of the new hospital, with a plaque that read, "I walked among you and
you took me in."<BR><BR>Billy D. Strayhorn, Let's Make a
Deal<BR>___________________________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Looking Past Oneself</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">An enormously rich man complained to a psychiatrist that
despite his great wealth which enabled him to have whatever he wanted, he still
felt miserable. The psychiatrist took the man to the window overlooking the
street and asked, "What do you see?" The man replied, "I see men, women, and
children."<BR><BR>The psychiatrist then took the man to stand in front of mirror
and asked, "Now what do you see?"<BR><BR>The man said, "I see only
myself."<BR><BR>The psychiatrist then said, "In the window there is a glass and
in the mirror there is glass, and when you look through the glass of the window,
you see others, but when you look into the glass of the mirror you see only
yourself. The reason for this, "said the psychiatrist, "is that behind the glass
in the mirror is a layer of silver. When silver is added, you cease to see
others. You only see yourself."<BR><BR>Whenever your devotion to money and
material things causes you to be self centered, you in essence deny God's
intention for your life. It is also a denial of the Christ, for Jesus came into
the world so that we might be in union with God.<BR><BR>Maxie Dunnam, Turn in an
Account of Your Stewardship</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">________________________________</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">Living As If There is No Future</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">A man bought a parrot. He taught that bird to say one
word. That word was, "Today." When he got up in the morning and when he came
home at night it was beaten into his eardrums: "Today." There was no
procrastination around that bird. "Today, today, today," he screamed.
</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">About six months later the man bought another parrot. He
taught that bird to say one word. That word was "Tomorrow." He said, "I have
been living as if there were no future. Today is all there is, and I’ve found it
isn’t so." The two birds together helped him keep his mind on the realities of
life: today and tomorrow. Would that the steward could have heard both voices.
Tomorrow is God’s judgment on today. </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">Carveth Mitchell, The Sign in the Subway, CSS Publishing
Company, Inc.</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">_______________________<BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Shrewdness in Business</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">There was once a young businessman in Germany named
Neckerman who had a burning ambition to build his small retail store into a
large chain of department stores. His problem was that no one knew his name. He
couldn't attract customers. He had only limited capital.<BR><BR>This was shortly
after World War II. As you might imagine there were shortages in Germany of
almost everything. Thus, the existing big department stores saw no reason to cut
prices. They sold whatever they could get at healthy margins. Neckerman saw this
as an opportunity. If only he could position his store as the low-cost,
high-value leader, he could build the enterprise of his dreams.<BR><BR>As it
happened, Neckerman managed to acquire a large shipment of spools of thread.
Thread was in great demand in those days. Clothes also were in short supply.
Women were constantly repairing their families' old garments. The obvious step
for Neckerman would have been to sell these spools of thread in his own store.
It would undoubtedly attract more business.<BR><BR>Instead he offered the whole
shipment of thread to the buyer for the largest department store chain in
Germany at only a slight profit. The buyer for this chain jumped at the
opportunity and in only a few weeks had sold all the thread at a much more
substantial profit.<BR><BR>It usually takes several months to use up a whole
spool of thread. Thus, the whole transaction was forgotten by the time the
executives of this large chain started to notice crowds of people shopping at
Neckerman's. Soon the reason became apparent. It was the spools of thread the
large chain had purchased so eagerly from this young upstart. As German
housewives finished their spools of thread, a piece of paper that had been
wrapped about the spool under the thread fluttered out. It read like this: IF
YOU HAD BOUGHT THIS THREAD AT NECKERMAN'S, IT WOULD HAVE LASTED TWICE AS LONG.
Overnight, everyone knew the name Neckerman. From then on, the firm had no
trouble attracting customers. <BR><BR>Shrewd. Even a little sneaky.
Sometimes in business the line between ethical and unethical, shrewd and
outright dishonest, is a little blurred. And nice guys, or gals, don't always
finish first.<BR><BR><BR></SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Peter Engel, The Exceptional Individual (New York: St.
Martin's Press, 1998), pp. 63-64, adapted by King Duncan </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">___________________________</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN
style="FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><BR>When the Tigers Circle</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">A Zen story characterizes life as a Buddhist monk
fleeing from a hungry tiger. The monk comes to the edge of a cliff cutting off
any hope of escape from the pursuing tiger. Fortunately for the monk, a vine
happens to be growing over the edge. He grabs hold of it and begins to climb
down the cliff, out of the tiger's reach, who is by now glaring at him from
above. But alas, as the monk is climbing down, he spies another tiger waiting
for him below; circling impatiently at the bottom of the cliff. To make matters
worse, out of the corner of his eye he notices a mouse on a ledge above him
already beginning to gnaw through the vine…</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 conclusion to this illustration and for many
additional illustrations and sermons for the Proper 20 can be accessed at <A
href="http://www.sermons.com/"><FONT color=#ff6600>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A>.
</SPAN></DIV>
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