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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Taking Care of the Crowd</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Too
often, we think that giving our lives to God is like taking a $1,000
bill and laying it on the altar, saying, "Here’s my life, Lord. I’m
giving it all to you." But the truth of the matter is that God sends us
to the bank and tells us to cash that $1,000 bill in for quarters. And
then we go through life giving away twenty-five cents here, fifty cents
there, and so on. Instead of watching a ball game, we spend some time
visiting a lonely person in a nursing home who has no family. Instead of
sipping coffee and reading the newspaper, we get dressed and go to
teach Sunday school. Instead of playing games on the computer, we listen
to a friend tell us about her problems, even though we’re tired and
have problems of our own to deal with.<br>
<br>
These are the moments in which the grace of God can work through us to
help another human being, to feed the hunger of the heart and spirit.
They may not be spectacular miracles, but these are the things we can do
to bring meaning and significance to our lives.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Johnny Dean, How Much Is Enough?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Use What You Have…</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">In
1872, at the age of 16, Booker T. Washington decided he wanted to go to
school. He walked 500 miles to Hampton Institute in Virginia, and
presented himself to the head teacher. Washington later recalled,
"Having been so long without proper food, a bath, and change of
clothing, I did not make a very favorable impression upon her, and I
could see at once that there were doubts in her mind about me."<br>
<br>
Finally she said to him, "The adjoining recitation room needs cleaning.
Take the broom and do it." A lesser person might have been insulted by
being assigned menial work. But Washington recognized immediately that
this was his big chance. He swept that room three times and dusted it
four times. He even cleaned the walls and the closets. Then he reported
to the head teacher that the job was finished. She examined that room
like a drill sergeant. She even took a handkerchief and rubbed it across
the top of a door. When she could not find a particle of dirt, she
said, "I guess you will do to enter this institution."<br>
<br>
As a 16 year old, Washington could not do many things. But he could
clean a room. And he did it gloriously. Extraordinary living begins with
ordinary gifts. What gifts and graces do you have that you have not
fully activated? What table is the Lord calling you to serve? Amen.</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">_____________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Miracle Everyone Was Waiting On</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Only
one miracle made it into all four gospels. It transpired on the grassy
hills by the shores of the Sea of Galilee at a time when Jesus'
popularity--and also his vulnerability--was cresting. Wherever he went, a
throng that included many deranged and afflicted trailed behind.</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
day before the big miracle, Jesus crossed the lake to elude the masses.
Herod had just executed John the Baptist, Jesus' relative, his
forerunner and friend, and Jesus needed time alone to grieve. Doubtless,
John's death provoked somber thoughts of the fate awaiting him.</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;">Alas,
there would be no secluded retreat. A huge swarm of yesterday's
multitude made the ten-mile journey around the lake and soon hundreds,
even thousands of people clamored around Jesus. "He had compassion on
them," says Mark, "because they were like sheep without a shepherd."
Instead of spending the day renewing his spirit, Jesus spent it healing
the sick, always an energy drain, and speaking to a crowd large enough
to fill a modern basketball arena.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The
issue of food came up. What to do? There are at least five thousand
men, not to mention the women and children! Send them away, suggested
one disciple. Buy them dinner, said Jesus. What? Is he kidding? We're
talking eight months' wages!</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;">Then
Jesus took command in a way none of them had seen before. Have the
people sit down in groups of fifty, he said. It was like a political
rally--festive, orderly, hierarchical -- exactly what one might expect
from a Messiah figure.</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;">Unavoidably,
we moderns read Jesus' life backwards, knowing how it turns out. That
day, no one but Jesus had a clue. Murmurs rustled through the group on
the packed hillside. Is he the one? Could it be? In the wilderness,
Satan had dangled before Jesus the prospects of a crowd-pleasing
miracle. Now, not to please a crowd but merely to settle their stomachs,
Jesus took two salted fish and five small loaves of bread and performed
the miracle everyone was waiting for.</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;">Three
of the Gospels leave it at that. "They all ate and were satisfied, and
the disciples picked up twelve basketfuls of broken pieces of bread and
fish," reports Mark with masterful understatement. Only John tells what
happened next. Jesus got his time alone, at last. As the disciples rowed
back across the lake, fighting a storm all the way, Jesus spent the
night on a mount, alone in prayer. Later that night he rejoined them by
walking across the water.</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;">Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, Zondervan, 1995, 175-176.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The Negative Verses the Positive</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">Outside
a small town in New Mexico is a sign that reads as follows: "Welcome to
Portales, New Mexico, home of 12,493 friendly folks and 8 or 10
grouches." </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;">Isn't
that the way it is everywhere? There are always a few negative folks
around to tell you that Murphy's laws will ruin everything. I like the
story about the little boy who was trying to raise some money by
collecting old bottles, going door-to-door in his neighborhood. When he
came to the home of a woman who was the "town grouch," the little boy
asked, "Do you have any coke bottles?" "No," she replied with a scowl.
Then he said, "Do you have any old whiskey bottles?" "Young man," the
woman replied, "Do I look like the type of person who would have old
whiskey bottles?" </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The little boy studied her for a moment and then asked, "Well…</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;">The conclusion to this list and for many additional illustrations and sermons for Proper 13 can be accessed at <a target="_blank" __removedlink__91004704__href="http://www.sermons.com/">www.Sermons.com</a>.</span></div>
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