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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Torn Apart Forever<br>
<br>
When
I was a little girl on the farm, I used to ride my bike as fast as I
could down the lane that led out past the barn toward the pasture with
grasshoppers whizzing around my ankles. At the end of the lane, I jumped
off the bike and flung myself down on the pasture grass. I looked up at
the wide sky. The flat lands of Iowa seemed to have far more sky than
New York City. I lay very still, listening to my own breathing. The
sunbeams broke through the blue and white sky reaching down to the
pasture enfolding me with warmth and wonder. Those beams seemed to me
the fingers of God. Later on, when I didn't think of God as a man in the
sky, I probably said that it was the light of God or the presence of
God. Whatever language I could find, I knew the deep certainty that God
was with me. But that day is impossible to recapture. Our barn is now
gone. The chicken house and the cattle shed, too. Soon perhaps the house
will be gone, torn down and plowed under to make way for more farmland.
Only the driveway will remain to remind those passing by that anyone
ever lived there. If I could ride my bike down that lane, the sky would
not look quite the same -- even on a sunny day. It isn't only nostalgia
for a certain place and time, but a realization that the faith of my
childhood has been torn in many places. It's impossible to put the
pieces back together again as they were.<br>
<br>
But the torn place is
where God comes through, the place that never again closes as neatly as
before. From the day he saw the heavens torn apart, Jesus began tearing
apart the pictures of whom Messiah was supposed to be--<br>
<br>
Tearing apart the social fabric that separated rich from poor.<br>
Breaking through hardness of heart to bring forth compassion.<br>
Breaking through rituals that had grown rigid or routine.<br>
Tearing apart the chains that bound some in the demon's power.<br>
Tearing apart the notions of what it means to be God's Beloved Son.<br>
<br>
Nothing would ever be the same, for the heavens would never again close so tightly.<br>
<br>
Barbara K. Lundblad, Torn Apart Forever<br>
___________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A Relationship Changed by Baptism</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Let us pretend that
you are a young lieutenant, part of the military, part of a
presidential honor guard. Every day the President walks into his office,
and you snap to attention, click your heals and salute the President.
The President nods. Every day, this same procedure occurs. The President
walks in; you snap to attention, click your heals and salute. The
relationship is stiff, formal, technical, with eyes never looking the
President in the eye but eyes always straight ahead, frozen like a stiff
wooden soldier. But...in this story...one day, the President stops in
front of you, the young lieutenant, and says to you. "Please follow me
into my office." You do so and the door is closed. The President orders
you to be seated and then looks you in the eye and says, "I want you to
become one of my children. I want you to become part of our family. I
want you to come to our family outings, our family picnics, the family
birthday parties, the family Christmases. I want you to become part of
our family." What a moment. What a miracle. And in that moment, the
relationship between the President and the young lieutenant is totally
transformed. The relationship is no longer formal, stiff, distant and
legal but is now close and loving. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That is precisely
what happens to us in our baptism. It is God who takes the initiative.
The relationship is totally transformed. Baptism is the fantastic
invitation from God to know us intimately and closely, so closely that
we are called son or daughter, that we become family.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Edward F. Markquart, Baptism? What Do We Teach?</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Promise of Baptism</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>When I baptized my
three children I did a new generation kind of thing. We made a DVD for
each of our kids so they can celebrate their baptism birthdays. They can
see it, they can own it. We blow out the Baptism candle, we open a
Baptism gift, and we celebrate the new life Jesus brings to them. They
can trust in God's work. There's a lot we can do to make a child's
baptism just as personal and memorable as an adult's. The one thing we
shouldn't do is take this promise from our children. They need it and we
need it.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>James Mueller </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_____________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Two Forces at Work</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"What's frightening
about listening to John preach is that he puts you in the presence of
God. And that's what everybody wants, and that's what everybody doesn't
want. Because the light at the altar is different from every other light
in the world. In the dim lamps of this world, we can compare ourselves
with each other, and all of us come off looking good. We convince
ourselves that God grades on the curve, and what's the difference? We're
all okay. And then you come in the presence of God, and you're at the
altar, and it's all different. For if our hearts condemn us, think of
this - - God is greater than our hearts and knows everything. There's no
way to modulate the human voice to make a whine acceptable. The whining
is over. The excusing is over. It's the school, it's the church, it's
the board, it's the government. It isn't! All that's over. It just
stops. Like waking from a dream of palaces and patios to find the roof
leaks and the rent's due. Like shutting off the stereo, and you hear the
rat gnawing in the wall. That's just the fact of it. In my mind, I
serve God. But there's another force in my life, and I say, `I'm going
to do that.' I don't do it. I say, `I'll never do that.' I do it.
Crucified between the sky of what I intend and the earth of what I
perform. That's the truth." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Fred B. Craddock,
"Have You Ever Heard John Preach?", A Chorus of Witnesses: Model Sermons
for Today's Preacher, ed. Thomas G. Long & Cornelius Plantinga, Jr.
(Grand Rapids, Michigan: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company, 1994),
pp. 34-43.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> Humor: God Help the Fish</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Sam Houston was the
first president of the Republic of Texas. It's said he was a rather
nasty fellow with a checkered past. Later in life Houston made a
commitment to Christ and was baptized in a river. The preacher said to
him, "Sam, your sins are washed away." Houston replied, "God help the
fish." Although most of us were not baptized as adults in a river, we
can probably relate to this reply. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>King Duncan, Collected Sermons, </span><a shape="rect">www.Sermons.com</a></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A New Way of Living</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Sarah Jo Sarchet is
a Presbyterian pastor in Chicago. A 10 year-old boy in her congregation
named Cameron, walked into her office and said he needed to talk to
her. Fresh from soccer practice, and wearing his Cincinnati Reds
baseball cap, he had a request for her. "I'd like to be baptized," he
said. "We were learning about Jesus' baptism in Sunday School. The
teacher asked the class who was baptized, and all the other kids raised
their hands. I want to be baptized too."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Using her best
pastoral care tone of voice, she said, "Cameron, do you really want to
be baptized because everyone else is?" His freckles winked up at her and
he replied, "No. I want to be baptized because it means I belong to
God."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>She was touched by
his understanding. "Well, then," she said, "How about this Sunday?" His
smile turned to concern and he asked, "Do I have to be baptized in front
of all those people in the church? Can't I just have a friend baptize
me in the river?" She asked where he came up with that idea. "Well,
Jesus was baptized by his cousin John in a river, wasn't he?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Caught off guard,
she conceded, "You have a point. But, if a friend baptized you in the
river, how would the church recognize it?" Realizing this was a
teachable moment, she climbed up on her foot stool to reach for her
Presbyterian Book of Order that was located on the highest shelf. But
before she placed her hand on the book, he responded.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"I guess by my new way of living" he said.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>She nearly fell off
the foot stool and left the Book of Order on the shelf. Cameron's
understanding was neither childish nor simple. It was profound. Baptism
calls us to a new way of living.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>From a sermon by Sarah Jo Sarchet preached at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Chicago</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Knowing the Secret Right from the Start</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In Princeton, New
Jersey, there is a legendary tale about the eminent scientist Albert
Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being mistaken for a bell
boy by a dowager who had just arrived in a luxury sedan. She orders him
to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the story,
Einstein does so, receives a small tip, and then continues on to his
office to ponder the mysteries of the universe. True or not, the story
is delightful, precisely because we savor from the beginning a secret
the dowager does not know: the strange-looking, ruffled little man is
the most celebrated intellect of our time. Some stories gain their power
from our knowing the story's secret from the start.<br>
<br>
The Gospel
of Mark is just such a story. The secret of Mark's Gospel is the
identity of Jesus Christ. In the very first sentence of the Gospel
story, Mark lifts the veil and lets us know the secret when he says that
this is "... the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God." Jesus is the
Son of God, that's the secret, and lest we miss it, this hidden truth is
confirmed in the story's opening episode, when Jesus, coming up out of
the waters of baptism, sees the Holy Spirit descending upon him like a
dove from the heavens, which have been torn open like a piece of cloth,
and hears the very voice of God telling the secret: "Thou art my beloved
Son; with thee I am well pleased" (Mark 1:11). Only Jesus sees the
Spirit; only Jesus hears the voice. This is, in the words of one
commentator, "a secret epiphany."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Thomas G. Long, Shepherds and Bathrobes, CSS Publishing Company</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Pain Is Part of Baptism </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Saint Patrick, the
patron saint of Ireland, was a very devout Roman Catholic evangelist.
One of the stories that grew out of his ministry concerns a time when he
was baptizing new converts in a river. He would wade out waist-deep
into the water and call out for new Christians to come to him, one by
one, to receive the sacrament. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Once he baptized a
mountain chieftain. Saint Patrick was holding a staff in his hands as
the new converts made their way into the water. Unfortunately, as he was
lowering the chief down under the water three times, he also pressed
his staff down into the river bottom. </span><span>Afterwards the
people on the riverbank noticed their chief limp back to shore. Someone
explained to Patrick that, as he pressed the wooden staff into the
riverbed, he must have also bruised the foot of the chief. Patrick went
to the chief at once and asked, "Why did you not cry out when I stuck
you in the foot?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Surprised the chief
answered, "I remembered you telling us about the nails in the cross,
and I thought my pain was part of my baptism."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>When I read that I could not but think how many of us would have been baptized if we knew pain was a part of the process.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Traditional</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>__________________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There Are Many Paths to God and Sainthood<br>
<br>
Once
upon a time long ago a young man decided to become a saint. He left his
home, family, and possessions and journeyed into the hot sands of the
desert where he eventually found a dark cave. He thought, "I can find
God here. I will be alone and nothing will disturb me." He prayed day
and night in the cave, but God sent him many temptations. He imagined
all the<br>
good things in life and wanted them desperately, but he was
determined to give up everything and be with God alone. After many
months, the temptations stopped and the young man was alone with God.<br>
<br>
Then
one day God called to him, "Leave your cave and go to a distant town.
Look for the local shoemaker. Knock on his door and stay with his family
for a few days." The holy hermit was puzzled by God's request, but
nonetheless left the next morning. He walked across the desert sands and
by nightfall had reached the village. He found a small house, knocked
on the door and was greeted with a smile and a welcome. The hermit
inquired if the man was the local shoemaker. Hearing that he was, the
hermit was pleased, but the shoemaker, seeing that the hermit was tired
and hungry invited him in to stay. The hermit was given a hearty meal
and a clean place to sleep. The hermit stayed with the shoemaker and his
family for three days. The two men talked quite a bit and the hermit
learned much about the shoemaker, but he revealed little about himself,
even though the family was quite curious about him.<br>
<br>
Then after
three days the hermit said good-bye to the shoemaker and his family and
walked back across the desert to his cave, wondering all the while why
God had sent him on this mission...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>For many additional illustrations and sermons for the whole year can be accessed at <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__522011442__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?llr=aelnpceab&et=1109034043448&s=45429&e=001f-uJqDo8BOlOK6_dxbwYRQg1iw6VaKybtfSPrDdih9lby55JHrN7ApZv9nwSu1fiU3t1uzxduLmEEtdxKo5xprLHAwN3-IYC0E8iMY4An2c=">www.Sermons.com</a>. </span></div>
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