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<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">Sermons for Advent 4</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">Luke 1:39-56 - <strong>"Blessed Among Women"</strong></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">Luke 1:39-56 -<strong> "</strong></span><b><span>Live the Lullaby</span><span style="COLOR: black"><strong>"</strong></span></b><span style="COLOR: black"> by Leonard Sweet</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">Luke 1<font size="4">,</font> the sermon title "Blessed Among Women" </span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">The
Gospel of Luke, above all books of the New Testament, is about women.
It reads as if a woman might have written it. It contains intimate
details which hardly would have occurred to a man. It begins with the
birth of John the Baptist, focusing on Elizabeth, his mother. The next
major section is Mary's story. To her we will shortly return. There
follows the prophecy of an old woman named Anna. When the boy Jesus went
to the temple to debate the learned doctors, the only person Luke
quotes is his mother.<br>
<br>
Many of Luke's stories from Jesus' ministry
are about women: the woman who was a sinner, the woman who wouldn't
give up, the widow of Nain, the bent over woman, the widow who gave her
mighty mites. At the resurrection it was only women who had the faith to
go to the garden of graves. The text lists Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary
the mother of Jesus, and other women. Luke reports that when they told
the disciples about the empty tomb these men assumed it was an idle tale
and did not believe them. And mind you, all of this from a culture in
which women didn't count.<br>
<br>
The central character in the birth
narrative, a story only told by Luke, is the person closest to the
event, Mary. There are two ways over the years I have imagined this
virgin queen. I have seen her as a frightened little girl, overwhelmed
by events far beyond her control -- just a simple, rural, unlettered
child God had chosen to be the vessel of grace. One year, I referred to
her as a teenager from Amazonia -- a town much like Nazareth in terms of
its place in the world of the powerful.<br>
<br>
But there is another way
to view Mary, a way more faithful to Luke's text. Here we find a
determined, strong, assertive woman; a model for all women -- a woman of
power and influence: educated, sharp, committed. It is the resourceful,
competent, clear woman from whom Jesus learned much of what he knew
about God's will for him and for his world. It is a woman blessed.</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1821656026__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0012tVoYdwfdlO1pRYvQJV5ZQUZOP5tdbk4cLourmjsevJmPnJGXJCzUmXPDcaWFw3G6FGUKJ5cshxxCh7Q_He6NqDe-wvo0tIpy_hGZZoXpWuxiczQtvUEAgFJTBW2E8i1">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">_______________________</span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">Luke 1<font size="4">,</font> the sermon titled "Live the Lullaby" by Leonard Sweet </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"><b> </b></span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Every
baby will keep every parent up all night, at least once. It's a rule.
Whether because they are teething or colicky, anxious or tummy-troubled,
or just plain fussy, it's part of a baby's mission in life to keep its
parents awake weeping and wailing. </span></div>
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<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">We
parents are "hard-wired" to respond to an infant's cries. What has kept
us grieving all week, a grief that can't be spoken? What has kept our
hearts hurting all week, a pain that won't go away? When an infant or
child is in trouble, or hurt, or killed, both our right and left brains
insist we must do something to "fix" the situation. If our hearts melt
at the mere sound of a distressed infant, how much more do our hearts
overflow in anguish at the sight of children being harmed or in harm's
way - even if our own nerve endings are jangling and cross-firing. </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Before
there were "white noise" recordings, washing machines, or long car
rides to soothe the plaintive cries of a child, parents in every culture
on the planet came up with the same plan to quiet a crying child -
lullabies. Sweet melodies, slowly cadenced, softly sung, lullabies
"lull" little ones into a dreamy place. They also have almost lulled me
to my doom. One of my favorite CDs is Tom Wasinger's "The World Sings
Goodnight," which I have downloaded into the playlist of my truck. These
33 lullabies are from all over the world - Bolivia, Indonesia, Poland,
Russia, Ethiopia, Japan, Egypt, India, Algeria, Iran, to name a few
other than the more obvious ones from the US and Canada. My problem is
that as I'm barreling down the highway listening to these lullabies, I'm
also being lulled to sleep...</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1821656026__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0012tVoYdwfdlO1pRYvQJV5ZQUZOP5tdbk4cLourmjsevJmPnJGXJCzUmXPDcaWFw3G6FGUKJ5cshxxCh7Q_He6NqDe-wvo0tIpy_hGZZoXpWuxiczQtvUEAgFJTBW2E8i1">http://www.sermons.com/signup</a></span><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"> </span></div>
<div style="MARGIN-TOP: 0px; MARGIN-BOTTOM: 0px"><span style="COLOR: black"><br>
</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">__________________________ </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">Divinity Clothed with Dust</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">It
is said that Henry David Thoreau once spent a whole day in Walden Pond
up to his neck in the water. His idea was to see and experience the
world as a frog sees it. But Thoreau did not become a frog! <br>
<br>
"Sesame
Street" is closer to the Christmas story. They had a skit one time of
the old fairy tale where the beautiful princess kisses an ugly frog and
the frog becomes a handsome prince. In the Sesame Street telling,
however, the princess kissed the frog, whereupon she turned into a frog
herself. That is closer to what we celebrate at Christmas. God did not
swoop down and survey the human situation from a safe distance. God
emptied himself. He lay aside his celestial robes to don the simple
raiment of a man. Divinity clothed itself with dust. <br>
<br>
King Duncan, <a shape="rect" target="_blank" __removedlink__1821656026__href="http://r20.rs6.net/tn.jsp?e=0012tVoYdwfdlP2mfheOII-arhme2uZkx4FJuQImndTB14-fYFVB7IKFVo-1dMJecGcUV4wUKMrhZMk6EtscOVHb3-qTpjUIenwOKSD2Aiemms8htKZpTeWPA=="><span style="COLOR: #0000ff" color="#0000ff">www.Sermons.com</span></a>, Collected Sermons</span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt"> </span></div>
<div style="LINE-HEIGHT: normal; MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><span style="FONT-FAMILY: 'Times New Roman', 'serif'; FONT-SIZE: 12pt">_________________________</span></div>
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