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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">All Night Long . . .</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">Some
years ago, a friend of mine from church pulled me out into the parking
lot to listen to a tape in her car. Darlene Malmo wanted me to hear her
favorite Lionel Ritchie song. There was this song about life being like a
party, “all night long.” She said, “I am going to party all night long
with God.” That is what being a Christian is.</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">Some
Christian say that it is not right to have such a mood of happiness and
joy. Especially when there is so much starvation. When there is so much
hunger. When there is so much suffering in the world, it is not right
to be happy. </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">But
that is not true. I think of the hymn, “This Is My Father’s World” and
the great words to that hymn. “This is my father’s world, o let me
ne’ver forget. That though the wrong be oft so strong, God is the ruler
yet. This is my father’s world, o let my heart by glad, for the Lord is
king, let the heavens ring. God reigns, let the earth be glad.”</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">Yes,
in this world there is so much suffering and so much starvation, but it
is also a banquet. Joy, in the middle of suffering, is at the core of
being a Christian.</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">Edward F. Markquart, Excuses to Avoid a Wedding<br>
<br>
________________________________</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"> </div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Clothing and Spiritual Change</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Clothing
is a common New Testament metaphor for spiritual change. Paul wrote in
Romans, "Clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think
about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature" (Rom 13:14).<br>
<br>
And in First Corinthians, "The perishable must clothe itself with the
imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. (1 Corinthians 15:53).<br>
<br>
In Colossians, we read, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and
dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility,
gentleness and patience. (Colossians 3:12).<br>
<br>
Finally, in First Peter we are admonished, "All of you, clothe
yourselves with humility toward one another, because, 'God opposes the
proud but gives grace to the humble'" (1 Peter 5:5).<br>
<br>
Being clothed anew is a consistent New Testament expression for holiness
and righteousness. The old clothes have to come off and new ones put
on.<br>
<br>
This text confronts us with the paradox of God's free invitation to the
banquet with no strings attached and God's requirement of "putting on"
something appropriate to that calling. The theological point is that we
are warned of the dire consequences of accepting the invitation and
doing nothing except showing up.<br>
<br>
Mickey Anders, When Showing Up Isn't Enough<br>
___________________________<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Prayers Should Prepare Us</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">Reinhold
Niebuhr often quoted a remark made to him by an agnostic friend who
objected to the church, "not because of its dogmas but because of its
trivialities," by which he meant "preoccupation with trivial concerns
with the world hanging on the rim of disaster." Fred Craddock was
invited to attend a prayer meeting at a home in a wealthy suburb of
Atlanta. He said the group shared "weighty" prayer concerns like a date
coming up on Friday night and the purchase of a new car, and one man
announced they had had 75 answered prayers since the group started
meeting. Then one of them turned to him and asked, "What do you think,
Dr. Craddock?" Craddock, usually more reticent to criticize anybody's
praying, was offended by the superficial and mechanistic reduction of
Israel's God to what Paul Tillich called, "the Cosmic Bellhop." He
couldn't help himse
lf. He
said, "Do you mean to tell me when people are starving in Africa and the
poor are suffering in India and parents in Latin America can't sleep
through the night wondering if the death squads will visit them, you
folks are praying about dates and new cars?"</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">Larry Bethune, Friends in High Places</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 10pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Humor: No, I’m Just Seasick</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">The
writer Bill Henderson recalls meeting a man aboard a cruise ship who
claimed to be an expert in guessing professions. "See that man over
there," he said. "He is a physician." Bill checked and sure enough that
was right. "How could you tell?" he asked the man. "Well," he said, "I
saw the caring lines on his forehead and could tell he was a person of
great compassion." Bill Henderson pointed to someone else and said,
"What about him? What does he do?" "That's a lawyer," the expert said.
Bill checked and sure enough, he was. The expert explained that the man
had a scholarly look and was somewhat formal, indicating an attorney.
Then Bill pointed to another man. The expert studied him and said,
"That's a preacher." Bill<br>
approached the man and asked, "Are you a preacher?" "No," said the man. "I'm just seasick; that's the reason I look so sad." </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">How
strange that many Christians have a long-faced reputation. Jesus could
not have been that way; if he had been, children would not have clung to
him so readily.<br>
<br>
Bill Bouknight, Collected Sermons, Sermons.com <br>
_______________________________<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">Our Hope, Our Terror</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">Several
summers ago I spent three days on a barrier island where loggerhead
turtles were laying their eggs. One night while the tide was out, I
watched a huge female heave herself up on the beach to dig her nest and
empty her eggs into it. Afraid of disturbing her, I left before she had
finished. The next morning I returned to see if I could find the spot
where her eggs lay hidden in the sand. What I found were her tracks
leading in the wrong direction. Instead of heading back out to sea, she
had wandered into the dunes, which were already as hot as asphalt in the
morning sun. </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
little ways inland I found her: Exhausted, all but baked, her head and
flippers caked with dried sand. After pouring water on her and covering
her with sea oats, I fetched a park ranger who returned with a jeep to
rescue her. He flipped her on her back, wrapped tire chains around her
front legs, and hooked the chains to a trailer hitch on his jeep. Then I
watched horrified as he took off, yanking her body forward so that her
mouth filled with sand and her neck bent so far back I thought it would
break. </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
ranger hauled her over the dunes and down onto the beach. At the
ocean's edge, he unhooked her and turned her right side up. She lay
motionless in the surf as the water lapped at her body, washing the sand
from her eyes and making her skin shine again. A wave broke over her;
she lifted her head slightly, moving her back legs. Other waves brought
her further back to life until one of them made her light enough to find
a foothold and push off, back into the ocean. Watching her swim slowly
away and remembering her nightmare ride through the dunes, I reflected
that it is sometimes hard to tell whether you are being killed or saved
by the hands that turn your life upside down. </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">Our
hope, through all our own terrors, is that we are being saved. But this
does not mean we lie down before the terrors. For as long as we have
strength to fight, it is both our nature and our privilege to do so.
Sometimes God's blessing does not come until daybreak, after a full
night of emptying ourselves and wandering in the wrong direction. Our
job is to struggle with the terrors, neither surrendering nor stealing
away until they have yielded their blessings. </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">Barbara Brown Taylor, The Other Side – Tales of Terror, Times of Wonder</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">Living in God</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">In
A Journey with the Saints, Thomas S. Kepler has written: "The secret of
the revolution in the lives of the saints lies in the fact that their
lives are centered in God. They never seem hurried, they have a large
leisure, they trouble little about their influence; they refer the
smallest things to God. They live in God." That is the great secret to
successful living: the realization that when one reserves time to come
to God's banquet, all of the rest of life will fall in place.</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 Thomas S. Kepler</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 10pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">If We Miss a Deadline</span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 10pt"><span style="font-size: 12pt">A
tough, old cowhand sauntered into a saloon and began drinking whiskey
by the bottle. The more he drank, the more unruly he became, shooting
holes in the ceiling and floor. Everybody was afraid to take on the old
cowhand. Finally, a short, mild-mannered storekeeper walked up to the
unruly cowhand and said, "I'll give you five minutes to get out of
town." The old cowhand holstered his gun, pushed the whiskey bottle
away, briskly walked out, got on his horse, and rode out of town. When
he left, someone asked the storekeeper what he would have done if the
unruly cowhand had refused to go. "I'd have extended the deadline," he
said.<br>
<br>
Many Christians have that concept of God: if we miss a deadline, God will simply extend it…</span></div>
<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 23 can be accessed at <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8OCgQCAABXRAMNBEsDAABWWg%3D%3D">www.Sermons.com</a>.<br>
<br>
</span></div>
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