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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>Dear Friends,</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>A
few weeks ago I asked for help. I asked for this community, which I
have served for 14 years, to give. It's the first time I have done so in
all this time. The response was abysmal. My wife's parents suffered the
loss of their home in the Colorado fires. They lost everything in their
home. I would like to be direct this time. The campaign will end in a
week. We are far from our goal. I know that everyone in this community
can give at least $10 each.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>Please
go the links below to help. They have no idea this is being done for
them and I would like them to see that the Christian community can give
profoundly in a time of need. Help us give them a wonderful surprise. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>I have set up a website to make contributions. Please go to:</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span><a shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001_hWONQ4NNgT7Jfe8lwlfpu2FowwngNxH5J9BXGA3JvlFgD6UenSyFg5J5sUAS44phvNeT2M0iJlFIyRQMsOoyb1pH4KLl2fq_Wfbnavp9i_H_oyQwHJJYRnhOzBxBIB0">www.indiegogo.com/thayerfund</a> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>In addition to your financial support please share on twitter and Facebook this link: <a shape="rect" target="_blank" href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001_hWONQ4NNgRoAs6Mqr821oP3R_JthkuKHwe5FKKSRPofOxObLQFu86jHwMgd_4xi6c7zvVgnabq7_No8tJh_E_CjN-agzLycFXaENelA05s1L_kVlg_dgw==">http://igg.me/p/149866</a> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>Many Thanks,</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>Brett Blair</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><span>If you wish to send a word of encouragement to my wife: <a shape="rect" href="mailto:cyndi@clergy.net">cyndi@clergy.net</a></span></div>
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<font color="black" face="Times New Roman, Times, serif" size="4"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="600" border="0"><tbody><tr><td rowspan="1" colspan="1" width="100%"><table style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: #ffffff; MARGIN: 5.5px 0px" id="content_LETTER.BLOCK3" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%" bgcolor="#ffffff" border="0"><tbody><tr><td style="TEXT-ALIGN: left; PADDING-LEFT: 5px; FONT-FAMILY: Times New Roman, Times, serif; COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 12pt; TEXT-DECORATION: none" rowspan="1" colspan="1" width="380" align="left">Aug 12, 2012</td><td style="color:#FFFFFF;font-family:Times New Roman,Times,serif;text-decoration:none;font-size:12pt;TEXT-ALIGN: right; PADDING-RIGHT: 5px" rowspan="1" colspan="1" width="180" align="right"><br>
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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">Sermons for Proper 14 </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">John 6:35, 41-51 <span>- <strong>"Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord?"</strong></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">Ephesians 4:25-5:2 <span>- <strong>"</strong></span><strong>Tinctures of Truth in the Tincture of Time"</strong><span> by Leonard Sweet</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>John 6<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title "Jesus: Liar, Lunatic, Legend, or Lord?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Before we read the
text for this morning I am going to ask you to do something a little
different. I want you to listen to the reading not with a heart of faith
but with a skeptical mind. If it helps, imagine that you do not know
that Jesus is anything else but a teacher. You are a first century
person who has just been introduced to him. [Read John 6:35, 41-51]</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Pretty incredible
isn't it? For someone to make such claims. What if, later today, you
were introduced to someone and that someone said, "Hi, I am the bread
that has came down from heaven." You would look at your friend who just
introduced you to this person and you would say, "I'm sorry, what did he
just say?" Anyone who seriously made such claims would easily be
labeled a kook, a nut, certifiable...<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<span><span>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1518458065__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>_______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Our lectionary
reading from Ephesians this morning offers a healing ointment to a
church that is sick and in need of salve, a word from which we drive our
word "salvation." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>This morning I have
before me some salves I grew up with: a bottle of iodine, a bottle of
merthiolate, a bottle of mercurochrome. [It will not be easy to find
these except by asking some of your older members if they still have any
samples in their medicine chests.]</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Here are their replacements today: bacitracin, neosporin. [These will be easy to find.] </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We don't have
either mercurochrome or merthiolate because both these compounds
contained mercury, one mercury and bromine (Mercurochrome) and the other
mercury and sodium (merthiolate). The FDA has decided that things with
mercury in them were not good for you, which sounds about right to me.
But why you can have mercury in your mouth through tooth fillings, or
mercury in your home through fluorescent bulbs, and not in
anti-bacterial medicines and antiseptics is a mystery to me. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>But let's see this
morning how many of you remember being tortured by your parents with the
germ-killing sting of a tincture of iodine or a tincture of
merthiolate. Raise your hand. . . . My parents never used mercurochrome
because it didn't sting, and thus it couldn't possibly be working to
wipe out bacteria. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Those of you who
put your hands up know that these killer fluids came in tiny brown
bottles with a long glass dropper inside. [If you don't have the real
thing, you will need to make sure they can picture it.] The glass
dropper would hover over whatever wound was being treated, a scraped
knee, a sliced toe, a de-slivered finger-tip, while the howling child
(that's you) waited for that first bright red drop of medicine to hit
home...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Outside of the
chemistry lab, though, a "tincture" has come to be recognized as a
generic term for a kind of healing, restorative tonic...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Click here: <a __removedlink__1518458065__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a> or call 1-800-777-7731 to join.</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>Clothed in Human Flesh</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Next to the Bible,
my favorite book is Harper Lee's award-winning novel, "To Kill a
Mockingbird." I love both the book and the movie. The main character,
the one who tells the story, is a little girl named Jean Louise Finch,
who goes by the name of Scout. Her father, Atticus Finch, is the town's
lawyer and a man of deep principles and integrity. I always wanted to
grow up and be like Atticus Finch. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>One day, Scout came
home from school and told her father about some problems she was having
with the teacher and several other students. In an effort to help her
get along better with others, Atticus gave her this advice: </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"First of all, if
you can learn a simple trick, Scout, you'll get along a lot better with
all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you
consider things from his point of view... until you climb into his skin
and walk around in it." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>That's exactly what
Jesus did. Clothed in human flesh, Jesus felt pain as we feel pain. He
suffered as we suffer. He even experienced death. Jesus climbed into our
skin and walked around in it. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Billy D. Strayhorn, Beyond Skin Deep</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>Our Christian Landmarks</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>During World War II
allied armies marched into Germany on their way to Berlin. Retreating
German soldiers switched road signs and destroyed landmarks in an effort
to confuse their enemy. And, to an extent, it worked, for many a G.I.
followed a false marker only to end up in the wrong place. That just
goes to show the need for landmarks, the importance of reliable
signposts by which to steer. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Here locally,
landmarks like the courthouse, the river, the college, or the bridge are
important in helping us find our bearings. Why, if some villain came in
one night and removed our signposts, the next day would become a
bewildering jumble of uncertainties, and we'd all be lost. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The text is about
landmarks. It refers to the Jewish custom of setting boundary stones to
mark out property. Just as we do today, so our Hebrew forefathers did
then. Wells, fords, buildings, and stone sentinels were their guides.
Hence the strict law: "Remove not the ancient landmark which your
fathers have set." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>We live in a day of
rapid change, and this law is being grossly ignored. Our history is
being bulldozed to clear the way for development. Some professors are
twisting the guideposts in the minds and hearts of our students.
Traditions are forgotten, manners ignored. The result is a kind of chaos
-- social confusion and rootless individualism. We live in a society
that's lost its bearings and is adrift on a sea of change. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The Lord's Table is
a landmark. For nearly 2,000 years Christians have been gathering to
eat this meal. And, for all, it can be the means of getting one's
bearings.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Stephen M. Crotts, Sermons for Sundays after Pentecost, CSS Publishing </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>____________________________<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif"><br>
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