<font color='black' size='4' face='Times New Roman, Times, serif'><table width="600" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" height="848"><tbody><tr><td class="proclaimsermon_1 bottompad3" valign="bottom" width="320" height="33" align="right"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">PROCLAIM - </font></font>2/22/2012<br>
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<td colspan="2" class="proclaimsermon_2" valign="middle" width="600" height="26" align="right">A resource to help you in your preaching ministry.</td>
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2/22/2012<br>
Reading: Matthew 6:
1 - 21
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<b>RCL: </b><i>Ash Wednesday</i> <b>BCP: </b><i>Ash Wednesday</i> <b>LL: </b><i>Ash Wednesday</i>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:3px" class="proclaimsermon_1"><i>Summary</i></div>
<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_body"><i>Our attitudes and intentions determine whether our actions are sins or not.</i></div>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_title" align="center">How a “Thing” becomes a “Sin”</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>A Sunday school teacher taught her
class a lesson about “repentance.” Wanting to make sure the class understood, she
asked, “Can anyone tell me what you must do before you receive forgiveness for
your sins?” There was some silence, but it was finally broken by a small voice
piping up from the back of the room, “First, you gotta sin!”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Ah yes, and what opportunities we
have to do that. A TV evangelist once announced on his program that there are
577 different sins that people can commit. He received thousands of letters
asking for the list. Possibly the letter writers were afraid they’d missed some
of them. </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>There’s also a tale about a big
church with a lighted board out front, on which the pastor put slogans for the
edification of passersby. One week the saying was, “If you’re done with sin,
come on in.” But someone had written an addendum on the sign in lipstick, “But
if you’re not quite done, call 555-0200.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Well, there are sins aplenty just
waiting to be committed. St. Anthony, a Franciscan monk from the 13<sup>th</sup>
century, counseled, “Expect temptation with your last breath.”</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Here’s a little survey for you. I’m
going to list a few human behaviors, and I’d like you to rate them on a scale
of 1-5, according to how sinful you think they are. A 5 would be very sinful
and a 1 would be not sinful at all. (Use your bulletin as a scorecard.)</span></div>
<ul style="margin-top: 0in;" type="disc"><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:">Buying a lottery ticket</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:">Dancing</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:">Listening to hard-rock music</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:">Shopping on Sunday</span></li><li style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:">Playing cards</span></li></ul>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Now take the survey again, but this
time, rate the sins according to how they would have been scored back when you
were a teenager.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>At one time, all of these things
were considered sins by some church groups. Today, most of them are no longer
thought of that way. It seems that some things that have been clearly
identified as sins in one age become acceptable with changing time. </span></div>
<div style="" class="sidemenutextred"> ...approximately 1,664 words remaining.<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"> [available by joining]<br>
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</span><table width="600" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0"><tbody><tr><td class="proclaimsermon_1 bottompad3" valign="bottom" width="320" height="33" align="right"><font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">PROCLAIM - </font></font>2/26/2012<br>
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<td colspan="2" class="proclaimsermon_2" valign="middle" width="600" height="26" align="right">A resource to help you in your preaching ministry.</td>
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2/26/2012<br>
Reading: Mark 1:
9 - 15
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<b>RCL: </b><i>Lent 1</i> <b>BCP: </b><i>Lent 1</i> <b>LL: </b><i>Lent 1</i>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:3px" class="proclaimsermon_1"><i>Summary</i></div>
<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_body"><i>When we are on the wrong path, we need someone to tell us so — maybe even Jesus!</i></div>
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<div style="margin-top:0; margin-bottom:6px" class="proclaimsermon_title" align="center">Recalculating, Recalculating, Recalculating ...</div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Sooner or later, almost everyone
experiences that uncomfortable feeling that, no matter how confident we were at
the start of a journey, we are now lost.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The feeling may come on gradually.
Something doesn’t seem quite right. There’s this odd feeling we’re traveling
the wrong way. The landmarks don’t look right. The signs are all wrong.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or it may come as a jarring shock:
We are way out of our reckoning. Translation? We are good, old-fashioned lost,
lost, lost! </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>When that happens, we have to get
back on the right track. And that may be easy, as easy as making a couple of
quick turns, or it may mean having to backtrack for however long we have been
going the wrong direction. Either way, there’s no use waiting. We’ve got to
start getting “unlost.” </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Or, as those little GPS units are
fond of saying, “Recalculating, recalculating, recalculating ….” </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>Don’t we all, at some point, need a
loved one, a friend or even an annoying acquaintance, who will tell us what we
don’t want to hear? Something like, “What were you thinking?” People who tell
us we need a course correction may be individuals we love and admire. Or they
may be persons we consider adversaries, rivals or even enemies. But if they set
us on the right track, we owe them hearty thanks — no matter how much we resent
hearing the truth.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="'font-family:">>From spiritual high to spiritual low</span></b></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>In this short passage from Mark,
there are not one, but two spiritual forces that set Jesus on a major course
correction. At least that’s one way of looking at this passage.</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>The four gospels all agree that for Jesus,
his baptism was a major turning point. The Father says to him, “You are my Son,
the Beloved; with you I am well pleased.”<sup>1</sup> Imagine hearing that from
a voice from heaven! How would you feel?</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal;" class="MsoNormal"><span style="'font-family:"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"> </span>This is a high point! It is so
wonderful it makes me wonder: What if Jesus had chosen that moment to enter
Jerusalem, to the adulation of the crowds. What if he jumped ahead to the
Triumphant Entry into the Holy City? We are to</span></div>
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