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<div><span style="font-size: small">Sermons for Proper 22</span><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Mark 10:2-16<span style="color: black"> - <strong>"</strong><b>Divorce and Children<strong>"</strong></b></span></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Genesis 2:18-24: <span style="color: black">- <strong>"</strong></span><b>Bystanders or Standbys<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 10<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon title <b>“Divorce and Children"</b> </span></span>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">The
U.S. Census Bureau report for the decade of the 90's was released in
2001. Here are its disturbing findings concerning the family. Households
headed by unmarried partners grew by almost 72 percent from 1990 to
2000. Most of these arrangements were men and women living together out
of wedlock. Other studies have shown that cohabitation increased by
close to 1,000 percent from 1960 to 1998. Households headed by single
mothers increased by more than 25 percent, and those led by single
fathers grew, get this, by almost 62 percent. And this next finding is
astounding: For the first time ever, nuclear families dropped below 25
percent of households. That’s a mom and a dad and children, the nuclear
family, represents less than a quarter of all homes. </span></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Another
finding partially explains why this is happening: A third of all babies
are born to unmarried women (33 percent) compared to only 4 percent in
1940. There are a growing number of women in their late 20’s and 30’s
who are deciding to bear and raise children on their own. Our culture is
teaching that this is normal…</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small"><span style="color: black">Genesis 2<font size="4"><font face="Times New Roman, Times, serif">,</font></font> the sermon titled <b>“</b></span><b>Bystanders or Standbys</b><b><span style="color: black">”</span></b><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">Crime
scene investigators (which we now know as “CSI”) acknowledge that if
all the witnesses to an event report exactly the same information there
is only one conclusion to draw: They are lying. Human individuality, the
uniqueness of individual perceptions and eye-witness, the
unrepeatability of each person’s own experience, makes it impossible for
any group of individuals to see and report an event with the exact same
language and coherence. If each rendition becomes a simply repetition —
something is amiss.</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
creation narratives found in Genesis 1 and Genesis 2 should never be
thought of as a scenario of “Genesis 1 vs. Genesis 2.” Genesis 1 and
Genesis 2 do not offer some kind of contest to see whose world view
wins. Instead, the biblical text is concerned to convey as much truth,
to throw as much light as possible, into the relationship between God’s
creativity and our creaturely experience of creation. To discern the
divine in our midst takes more than one voice. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">What
makes Scripture such a vital, life-giving force in our lives is that it
is not a “mantra” of repetitious, unchanging, unvarying
same-old-same-old series of words. Scripture lives because it tells a
story, the greatest story ever told…</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__588935432__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">A Modern Perspective on Jesus and the Children</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">If
it seems strange to you that people might usher the children away from
Jesus, think about the last time you flew on an airplane. When the
family with four small children came walking up the aisle, did you
think, maybe not so secretly, “Please don’t sit next to me, please don’t
sit next to me?” </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Now
imagine Jesus sitting a few rows up, waving down the flight attendant
and volunteering to have all the children present sit around him for the
duration of the flight…"Let the little children come to me, and do not
hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__588935432__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CBAELDwBUDUkNAARKDAtXUVw%3D"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></a></span><span style="font-size: small"> </span></div>
<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">_____________________________</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Where Is the Hope?</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">I
recently saw a newspaper cartoon of a mother reading a bedtime story to
her little, curly-haired daughter. The book was called Grim Reality
Fairy Tales, and the text read, "and the prince kissed her and they fell
in love, dated a while and moved in together, broke up, got back
together, got married, got a baby, got separated, got back together
again, broke up, got divorced, spent time alone rediscovering
themselves, met someone new, fell in love and repeated the pattern
habitually ever after."<br>
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This worldview is sad, hopeless, and far from what God intended. More
than ever, our children wonder what marriage is and what they might hope
for in a relationship.<br>
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Steve Zeisler, What Did Moses Command?<br>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Don’t Hope…Decide</span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Michael
Hargrove tells about a scene at an airport that literally changed his
life. He was picking up a friend. He noticed a man coming toward him
carrying two light bags. The man stopped right next to Hargrove to greet
his family. The man motioned to his youngest son (maybe six years old)
as he laid down his bags. They hugged and Hargrove heard the father say,
“It’s so good to see you, son. I missed you so much!” “Me, too, Dad!”
said the son. The oldest son (maybe nine or ten) was next. “You’re
already quite the young man. I love you very much, Zach!” Then he turned
to their little girl (perhaps one or one-and-a-half). He kissed her and
held her close. He handed his daughter to his oldest son and declared,
“I’ve saved the best for last!” and preceded to give his wife a long,
passionate kiss. “I love you so much!” H
e said
to his wife softly. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Hargrove interrupted this idyllic scene to ask, “Wow! How long have you two been married?” </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">“Been together fourteen years total, married twelve of those,” the man replied, as he gazed into his wife’s face. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">“Well then, how long have you been away?” </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">The
man turned around and said, “Two whole days!” Hargrove was stunned. “I
hope my marriage is still that passionate after twelve years!” </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">The man stopped smiling and said, “Don’t hope, friend . . . decide!” </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">And
that’s it, isn’t it? For most of us it comes down to a decision. “Till
death us do part.” It doesn’t happen in every relationship, but that is
still the ideal that Jesus gives us. </span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Michael Hargrove, quoted by King Duncan, Collected Sermons, </span><span style="font-size: 12pt"><a target="_blank" __removedlink__588935432__href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8CBAELDwBUDUkNAARKDAtXUVw%3D"><span style="font-size: small"><font color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</font></span></a></span></div>
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<div style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="font-size: small">Teaching Takes Time </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small">One
of the biggest problems in a culture like ours is proper time
management. This is not because we have any less time than others; it's
because the alternatives are so many. Because we have money; because we
have ease of transportation; because the urban centers we live in have
much to offer us in ways to make use of our time - any of us can find
ourselves in a situation where we can't possibly do everything that
might be done. The opportunities become a blur; we find ourselves in a
maze. Sorting out the minutes and hours becomes an awesome task. And in
the process, people - those people around us who are dearest - escape
our notice. Their needs go unmet, unserved. Many times those people are
the little people - our children.<br>
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Some argue that our children do not need the quantity of our time if the
time we give them is filled with quality. It's true. There's no need to
give our children even fifteen minutes of our time, if all they
experience through us is negativism or unrest or a spirit of impatience.
But most good teaching takes sheer time. Our loving and caring spirit,
our understanding and calmness, and our devotion to Jesus Christ in word
and action, need to seep in to a child's mind and soul. Such sharing
rarely comes through a quick torrent of kisses or a fleeting, kindly
word. It takes time and patience. Indeed the very spending of time with
our children is part of our communicating to them that they are valued
and loved.<br>
<br>
Richard W. Patt, Partners in the Impossible, CSS Publishing Co., Inc. <br>
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