<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Know Your Weeds</span>
</font>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I
learned more about weeds than I ever wanted to know as a boy in Iowa.
Walking through the soybean feels to cut out the weeds was my summer job
from age 13. A wise farmer once taught me that all weeds were not the
same and could not be destroyed in the same way. A cockle burr had
shallow but widespread roots and had to be pulled out to get all the
roots. If you hacked it off at the ground level with a hoe it would be
back in a week. A milkweed had a very long tap root that could not be
pulled out. If you did try to pull it up, three separate sprouts would
be back in a week. Milkweeds had to be hacked off with a hoe and would
"bleed" and die as the sap ran out. If you didn't handle the weeds
right, hours of backbreaking work in the sun would be completely wasted.
</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Jesus
knew his weeds as well. The meaning of Jesus' parable about the wheat
and the weeds becomes clearer when we look at the specific kind of weed
he talks about. Tares are "bearded darnel, mentioned only in Matt.
13:25-30. It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds
of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest
resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference
is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine." The problem
with taking our hoe to the evil weeds of the world is that good and
evil sometimes look so much alike. It only becomes clear later. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Todd Weir, Wheat and Tares<br>
_________________________ </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Better to Have Weeds than Nothing at All</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">I
asked the people at my last church to imagine what would happen if we
adopted a policy of weed-pulling, if we drew a circle around the little
town of Wingate, North Carolina, and made a vow that no evil would cross
that line, that no weeds would grow within that border. I said, "You
know, you and I could spend the rest of our lives protecting that
boundary, standing shoulder to shoulder with pitchforks and clubs,
making sure that we kept drugs and alcohol and pornography and gambling
safely on the other side. I think it would take all of our energy and
most of our time. But what if we did it? What if we succeeded? What
would we have? We would have a town characterized by the absence of
evil, which is not the same as a town characterized by the presence of
good. And maybe this is what Jesus was talking about all along, that
it's better to have a wheat field with weeds in it than a field with
nothing in it at all.<br>
<br>
When a church in Wingate, North Carolina,
began a ministry to the children of a nearby trailer park, they had to
decide what kind of ministry it would be. They could have chosen to root
out all the sources of evil in that place-to chase down the drug
dealers and the deadbeat dads, to confiscate handguns and arrest child
abusers. Instead, they chose to put up a basketball goal, to tell
stories from the Bible, to put their arms around little children, and
sing songs about Jesus. And two years after they started that ministry,
two years of going out there Saturday after Saturday to do those things,
the pastor got a note in his box at church with five words on it:
"Adrian wants to be baptized." Adrian. The terror of the trailer park.
That little girl who had made their work most difficult during the
previous two years. Who would have guessed? Instead of pulling weeds in
the field where she lived, they just tried hard to be wheat, and somehow
Adrian saw that and fell in love with it and wanted it for herself.
After she was baptized, there was a little more wheat in the field. And
because she was there, soon, there was even more.<br>
<br>
<span> </span>James Somerville, A World Full of Weeds<br>
_______________________________________</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">If You Are a Preacher of Grace </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">How
can you and I live our everyday lives with an awareness of the
hiddenness of the good among the weeds, without getting unhealthy in our
cynicism, without going crazy? Martin Luther offers a profound insight.
He put it this way once in a letter to his friend, Philip Melanchthon:<br>
<br>
"If
you are a preacher of grace, then preach a true and not a pretended
grace; if grace is true, you must bear a true and not a pretended sin.
God does not save people who are pretended sinners. Be a sinner and sin
bravely, but believe and rejoice in Christ even more bravely...."<br>
<br>
Mark Ellingsen, Jesus' Vision of a Fun, Free Life, Not Driven by Purpose, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.<br>
_________________________________<br>
<br>
A Line Through Every Heart<br>
<br>
I
have colleagues who continually want to cull the field, making
decisions on the basis of belief ... behavior ... even baptism. As many
of you know, my wife is into genealogy. She's traced portions of her
family back over 500 years. Just a few months ago, we learned that she
had a relative who was burned at the stake in Switzerland. Why? Because
he had the wrong<br>
understanding of baptism, that's why. They weeded him out. Then they burned him up.<br>
<br>
As
for me, I don't always know whether I am weed or wheat. Wasn't it
Alexander Solzhenitsyn who said: "If only there were evil people
somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only
to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line
dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being."
Which, I suppose, includes my heart. For all I know, I may even be the
weed in somebody else's garden. Perhaps in your garden.<br>
<br>
Collected Sermons, William A. Ritter, ChristianGlobe Networks, Inc.<br>
_____________________________<br>
<br>
I Wrote My Books on Tuesdays</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">There
was once a great Quaker leader by the name of Rufus Jones. Jones wrote
and published one book a year for over fifty years. He did this while
attending countless meetings, making frequent speeches, editing a
magazine and taking care of countless other chores that his position
required. Someone once asked him how under these circumstances he found
the time to write so many books he answered, "I wrote my books on
Tuesdays." Throughout his career he set aside Tuesdays as his one "free"
day accepting no appointments that could be avoided. He began after
breakfast and wrote until dark. He might be thinking about his next
project all week long, but he did not put it on paper until Tuesday. By
following that simple plan he left behind a great body of work.<br>
<br>
You
have heard it before because it is true: Those who fail to plan, plan
to fail. Jesus talked about the foolishness of those who build towers
without first sitting down and figuring the cost. Successful living
requires that we give some thought to the future. We have a vision of
the beautiful garden we hope to be. Now we sit down and make a plan.
What would I have to do to make my dream a reality?<br>
<br>
<span>King Duncan, Getting Rid of the Weeds, Collected Sermons, </span><a target="_blank" href="http://www.sermons.com/">www.Sermons.com</a></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_________________________ <br>
<br>
You Need 100 Points</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">There
is a story about a minister who had a strange dream. He dreamt that he
had died and was trying to get into heaven. When he approached the
pearly gates, St. Peter told him he needed 100 points to get in. Proudly
the minister said, "Well, I was a pastor for 43 years." "Fine," said
St. Peter, "That's worth one point." "One point? Is that all?" cried the
minister. "Yes, that's it," said St. Peter.<br>
<br>
"Well," said the
pastor, "I visited lots of shut-ins." St. Peter responded, "That's worth
one point." "I worked with young people," said the pastor. "That's
worth one point," said St. Peter. "I developed a number of excellent
Scout programs," said the minister. "That's worth one point," said St.
Peter. "You have four points now. You need 96 more." "Oh no," said the
minister in a panic. "I feel so helpless, so inadequate. Except for the
grace of God, I don't have a chance." St. Peter smiled and said, "Grace
of God--that counts for 96 points. Come on in!"<br>
<br>
There will be a
final judgment. God's justice and our freedom of choice demand it. Every
person will spend eternity in heaven or hell. Our passport to heaven is
simple. It's just a matter of saying to God sincerely, "I am a sinner
for whom Jesus died. I claim him by faith as Savior and Lord." If you
haven't taken that step in faith, do it today! Do it now! <br>
<br>
Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sermons.com/">www.Sermons.com</a> <br>
<br>
_________________________<br>
<br>
Clean the Glass Shade Daily</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Pastor
Cecil Williams tells of growing up in Texas. They didn't have electric
lights in their house. They had two oil lamps with wicks that had to be
lit daily. Once they were lit, a glass shade fit over the flame and they
glowed.<br>
<br>
Cecil's mother kept telling her children, "Ya'll clean
the shade before you put it over the lamp. If you don't, you won't get
as much light." Young Cecil didn't like cleaning the lampshades. It took
a long time and lots of elbow grease to scour off the sticky, gray
soot. But when the shade was clean, one lamp would be bright enough to
light up the whole living room...</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The conclusion to this list and for many additional illustrations and sermons for Proper 11 can be accessed at <a target="_blank" href="http://www.sermons.com/">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
<font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">
<div> </div>
</font><font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4">
<div> <br>
</div>
<div style="clear:both"></div>
</font></font>