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<div><span style="font-size: small">Sermons for Proper 9</span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: small">Mark 6:1-13<span style="color: black"> - <strong>"Mission Ready!"</strong></span></span></div>
<div><span style="font-size: small">Mark 6:1-13 <span style="color: black">- <strong>"</strong></span><b>Watch Your Step<strong><span style="color: black">"</span></strong></b><span style="color: black"> by Leonard Sweet</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">Mark 6<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title "Mission Ready!" </span></span>
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<div><span style="font-size: small">Picture yourself starting a brand
new project. You might want to call it mission. In a parish where most
of the communicants were government workers, civilian and military, I
was always hearing the word, mission. I had understood mission in a
religious context. I learned that mission could have a broader meaning.
Life is mission. Business is mission. Career is mission. Mission is a
good word. It suggests vision that is supported by good planning. Define
your mission clearly. State its purpose briefly. Write the rules for
implementing it. That will be your business plan. That makes you mission
ready.<br>
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The Gospel is about mission. St. Mark has a way of zeroing in on the
basics. He's very brief and to the point. Let's get the picture. Jesus
sets up a "pilot test" project. He wants to test how well his brand new
on-the-job trainees can take instructions and make them work. In this
Gospel we see him giving them a lesson on some very basic matters. I
will use three key words to highlight his work plan: Excess, Time and
Respond. In the simplest terms, the basics are: avoid Excesses, use Time
wisely, and Respond, don't react, to each new challenge.<br>
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I suggest that these basics will work for you too, any time and any place… <br>
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<span style="color: black">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a target="_blank" __removedlink__1879525184__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8DBwcADARWDkkCCAdKDAtXUVw%3D">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: black">Mark 6<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon titled “Watch Your Step" by Leonard Sweet </span><br>
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There are two types of travelers. There are those that travel light; and, there are those who pack for self-preservation. <br>
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Do you take a small bag with the basic essentials and figure you’ll pick stuff up as you go? <br>
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Or do you cram everything you can into every corner of an extra-large
expandable bag, making sure that whatever comes your way on your trip,
you are prepared? <br>
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Parents traveling with small children embody both extremes. They bring
enough “kid gear,” emergency medicines, food and drink boxes, stuffed
animals, and beloved story-books to keep the children satisfied for
weeks. But they’re lucky if they get a toothbrush and a change of socks
for themselves. <br>
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It is the Boy Scouts’ motto of “Be Prepared” vs. the new airline mantra
of “you pay for every pound.” Once you are beyond the “traveling with
small children” phase of your life, it is tempting to look at all the
“stuff” parents bring along as just so much junk. But, ironically, it is
those protective parents who might best embody the supplications of
Jesus and the spartan traveling supplies of Jesus’ disciples. No, the
twelve apostles did not bring “Dora, the Explorer” downloads. No, there
were no fruit snacks and water bottles. But . . . Yes, like parents,
they did set out to travel without focusing on their own needs and
provisions. <br>
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In today’s text we learn how the disciples, in accordance with Jesus’
own directives, took basically nothing as a “back-up” for themselves… <br>
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Pridefulness - Not Needing God <br>
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Atlas was condemned to carry the weight of the entire world on his
shoulders. That was as harsh a punishment as the ancient Greek mind
could conjure up. Today, it seems, we have volunteered to play the role
of Atlas. We have not offended God, we have dismissed him, told him we
were grown up enough not to need his help any more, and offered to carry
the weight of the entire world on our shoulders. The question is, when
it gets too heavy for us, when there are questions too hard for human
knowledge to answer and problems that take more time to solve than any
of us have, will we be too proud to admit that we have made a mistake in
wanting to carry this world alone? <br>
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Rabbi Harold Kushner <font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
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