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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">Sermons for Proper 15 </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"> </div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">John 6:51-58 <span>- <strong>"Holy Living"</strong></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px">Ephesians 4:25-5:2 <span>- <strong>"</strong></span><strong>Aroma of Christ Church"</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>John 6<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title "Holy Living" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Years ago, Harry
Emerson Fosdick, then at the height of his influence as minister of the
Riverside Church, New York City, was making a tour of Palestine and
other countries of the Near and Middle East. He was invited to give an
address at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon, where the student
body comprised citizens of many countries and representatives from
sixteen different religions. What could one say that would be relevant
or of interest to so mixed and varied a group? This is how Fosdick
began: "I do not ask anyone here to change his religion; but I do ask
all of you to face up to this question: What is your religion doing to
your character?" </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>This was a call to
consider one of the great issues of human belief: religion and life,
Christianity and character, word and spirit. Emerson once said, "What
you are speaks so loudly I cannot hear a word you say." Jesus' discourse
in this whole sixth chapter of the Gospel of John had two foci - spirit
and life. "The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life." By
this he meant that those who appropriated his spirit, i.e., fed upon
him as the bread of life, would find, thereby, a fulfillment and
satisfaction no other means could give. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The traditions of the world of his time, of course, had a different emphasis...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1450654041__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"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Ephesians 4<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon titled "Aroma of Christ Church" 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>Have you ever been assaulted by a smell? </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Walking down the
street, creeping out of a vent in the sidewalk; strolling along the
mid-way of a carnival or fair, wafting its way from a kiosk</span><span> - </span><span>sometimes
an odor will "hit you" and almost send you reeling. Sometimes that odor
will even thrust your psyche back into another time and place. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Maybe it's the sweet smell of caramel apples. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Maybe it's the pungent punch of garlic and onion. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Maybe it's moldy and murky smell of a basement. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Maybe it's the seaweedy smell of the beach. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Whatever the odor, it is officious</span><span> - </span><span>meaning,
it is "large and in charge." It teleports you back to a particular
place and a particular time. Each of us has memory smells. Our sense of
smell is the physical sense most associated with memory. Smells, more
than sounds, more than sights, more than touches, transport our minds
and bodies back in time to an imprinted memory. Garlic brings you back
to your grandmother's kitchen. A wet woolen smell brings you back to the
locker room</span><span>-</span><span>or to the terror of the day you
fell in a frozen pond and almost drowned. Rising yeast smells like every
Sunday dinner. Gasoline chokes you with memories of a car crash.
Nothing evokes strong emotions, strong memories, strong longings, like
the sense of smell. It is a powerful communicator to our inner being. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In the days of the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, burnt offerings were the norm</span><span> - </span><span>small birds, little lambs, calves, great grains</span><span> - </span><span>all
were sacrificed and burned. Burnt sacrifice was offered to appease
God's righteous anger over the sins and transgressions the people of
Israel had committed...</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1450654041__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=001c8TGK9lTua_eRQyKN-aaLcnMrfJWOzR1G4gMAo1xPLp37iD4ptAKqmgaU4Z2Zhy2S9egHKjnfR5z11vR4RTeDRkeiatG57FBTtVHgFtrqndMADV1A1bGgelsIl_yTIGk">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"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Abiding with Christ</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Eat this Bread and
you will live, he promises. But even more than that, eat this Bread and I
will abide with you, and you will abide with me. I like that word
abide. I have pictures again: look, can you see them? They are images of
home, of dwelling, of staying with, of living in and with, of trusting
and being there. To abide is to know that no matter what comes our way,
we will not be deserted nor left to face whatever the matter is on our
own. Christ comes to live within us, to take up residence in our
spirits, and promises not to leave. </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Over the years I
have witnessed many scenes of this abiding presence played out in the
lives of persons I have known. None are more powerful, more moving, more
meaningful than the images which walk across my mind of faithful
spouses who care for each other to the very end. Let me draw them for
you. There is one now, walking his wife, a victim of Alzheimer's
disease, down the streets in front of the nursing home. She in a
wheelchair, not knowing a thing. He pushing her faithfully day after
day. Their love of more than 60 years abides in his heart. Here is
another: the picture of a woman standing beside the bed of her husband,
holding a hand, offering a calm, reassuring voice to this one who has
only moments before been thrown into convulsions. "I will not leave
you." Finally, here is the unspoken presence of a Loving Friend who
calms my own grieving spirit in the dark hospital room where my father
lays dying. "Those who eat my flesh? abide in me, and I in them (John
6:56, NRSV)." </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>In a world of fast
food chains in every village, of drive-through windows, of buffet lines
and all-you-can-eat salad bars, we are today offered a different food,
the Bread of Life. It is food for a hungry soul. It is eternal food
which, when you eat it, satisfies the craving of your heart and opens
your eyes to see that all else is imitation and second rate.<br>
<br>
Larry M. Goodpaster, Like a Breath of Fresh Air, CSS Publishing Company <br>
___________________________________<br>
<br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>O, Lord Give Me a Penny</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>A man asked God, "What does a billion dollars mean to you who are all powerful?"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"Hardly a penny." God said.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Then the man asked God , "And what are a thousand centuries to you?" God answered "Hardly a second!!"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Thinking he had God backed into a corner, the man then said, "Then if that's the case, O, Lord give me a penny !!"</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>"Sure," God replied. "In just a minute."</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>Wisdom isn't
outsmarting God, wisdom is living in and with God. Wisdom is being in
Christ and surrounded by Christ. Wisdom is eating and drinking from the
feast which God has prepared for us.</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>Bread Is Not a Mere Commodity</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>The theologian John
Macquarrie relates that the Scottish churchman, George Macleod, used to
watch grain ships from Canada and the United States bringing their
cargoes of wheat into Liverpool harbor, and he reflected that the wheat
has the potentiality of becoming the body of Christ. This is the point
at which sacramental theology spills over into the market place. Bread
is not a mere commodity; things are not mere bits of matter. We can
learn something of this from natural theology, but we learn it above all
from Jesus Christ, the bread of God which comes down from heaven and
gives life to the world.</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>John Macquarrie, A Guide to the Sacraments, p,156 </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 Truth</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span>There is an Irish
saying, "the person who speaks the truth should have one foot in the
stirrup." He should be ready to ride off at once. People do not like the
truth, especially when it challenges their attitudes; and the reaction
is often to try to destroy the evidence of the truth or the one who
witnesses to it. <br>
<br>
Father Gerry Pierse, The Dangerous Memory of Jesus</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>
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