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<div><span style="font-size: small">Sermons for Proper 21</span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Mark 9:38-50<span style="color: black"> - <strong>"</strong><b>Be at Peace with One Another<strong>"</strong></b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Mark 9:38-50: <span style="color: black">- <strong>"All Is Different Now"</strong> by Leonard Sweet</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">Mark 9<font size="4">,</font> the sermon title “Be at Peace with One Another" </span></span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">One
person armed with the Gospel of peace can change the world. Telemachus
did. He was a monk who lived in the 5th century. He felt God saying to
him, "Go to Rome." He was in a cloistered monastery but he put his
possessions in a sack and set out for Rome. When he arrived in the city,
people were thronging in the streets. He asked why all the excitement
and was told that this was the day that the gladiators would be fighting
in the coliseum, the day of the games, the circus. He thought to
himself, "Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each
other, for enjoyment?" He ran to the coliseum and heard the gladiators
saying, "Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar" and he thought, "this isn't
right." He jumped over the railing and went out into the middle of the
field, got between two gladiators, and tried to stop them. The crowd
became enraged and
stoned
the peacemaker to death.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">When
the Emperor of Rome, Honorius, heard about the monk he declared him a
Christian martyr and put an end to the games. Legend has it that the
very last Gladiatorial game was the one in which Telemachus died.</span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">Jesus
said, "Have salt in yourselves - be at peace with each other."
Sometimes it seems we have gladiatorial games going on inside the
church, inside our homes, at work…</span></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1845469286__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">_______________________</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black"> Mark 9<font size="4">,</font> the sermon titled “</span>All Is Different Now<span style="color: black">” by Leonard Sweet </span></span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Each
of us has moments, choices, circumstances in our lives that act as a
watershed — experiences dividing our life into everything “before” and
everything “after.” The event doesn’t have to be devastating or
dramatic. Sometimes it is joyful and exhilarating. Sometimes it is a
quiet realization. Sometimes it takes decades for us to even determine
just when that moment occurred. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You have a parent or a sibling die. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You are the first in your family to go away to college. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You enlist in the military. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You get married. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You become a parent. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You win the lottery. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You declare bankruptcy. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">You have a heart attack . . . but you wake up.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Whatever
it may be, the event changes your perspective, changes your life’s
trajectory, changes your dreams, and changes your goals. All is
different now. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">“Before” you lived in one world. </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">“After” you live in a different world.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">A
different world is what Jesus kept trying to describe to his disciples.
A world so completely topsy-turvy to their experience they found it
incomprehensible…</span></div>
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<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a __removedlink__1845469286__href="http://www.sermons.com/signup" target="_blank">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Changing the Signs</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">William
Barclay, a British theologian, tells the following story in his
commentary on this Biblical text. He told a story about someone changing
signs. That is, at an intersection of the road, one sign would point to
the city of Seattle and another sign would point to the city of Tacoma.
And the boy wondered to himself: How many people could I send down the
wrong road if I changed the signs? Your very life is a sign post with a
sign on it. Are you sending people down the wrong road or the right
road?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Edward F. Markquart, Millstones</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">I Love You More than Salt</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">An
ancient king once asked his three daughters how much they loved him.
One daughter said she loved him more than all the gold in the world. One
said she loved him more than all the silver in the world. The youngest
daughter said she loved him more than salt. The king was not pleased
with this answer. But the cook overheard the conversation, so the next
day he prepared a good meal for the king, but left out the salt. The
food was so insipid that the king couldn't eat it. Then he understood
what his daughter meant. He understood the value of salt. <br>
<br>
In the ancient world salt was a valuable and scarce commodity. It was
used as currency in some countries even into modern times. During an
invasion of Ethiopia, in the late 19th century, Italian soldiers found
blocks of salt stored in bank vaults along with other familiar forms of
currency. Jesus was paying his disciples a compliment when he called
them salt.</span></div>
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