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<div style="font-size: 11px; color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-family: verdana, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Sermons for Proper 11</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43 – <strong>“Pulling Weeds”</strong></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Romans 8:12-25– </span><strong><span style="font-size: 14pt;">“</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Why Are You Acting Like Orphans?</span><span style="font-size: 14pt;">”</span></strong></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Matthew 13, the sermon title “Pulling Weeds” </span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Last week we talked about planting seeds. This week we’re talking about pulling weeds. The two go together. Every gardener knows that planting seeds is the easy part of having a successful garden. It is much more time consuming to weed that same garden. And it’s hard work. As someone has said: “When weeding, the best way to make sure you are removing a weed and not a valuable plant is to pull on it. If it comes out of the ground easily, it is a valuable plant.”</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There is a corollary to that truth: “To distinguish flowers from weeds, simply pull up everything. What grows back is weeds.”</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Some of you can relate to one unknown homemaker who wrote: I don’t do windows because . . . I love birds and don’t want one to run into a clean window and get hurt. I don’t wax floors because . . . I am terrified a guest will slip and get hurt then I’ll feel terrible (plus they may sue me.)I don’t disturb cobwebs because . . . I want every creature to have a home of their own. I don’t Spring Clean because . . . I love all the seasons and don’t want the others to get jealous. I don’t put things away because . . . my husband will never be able to find them again. I don’t do gourmet meals when I entertain because . . . I don’t want my guests to stress out over what to make when they invite me over for dinner. I don’t iron because . . . I choose to believe them when they say “Permanent Press.” And finally: I don’t pull weeds in the garden because . . . I don&rsq uo;t want to get in God’s way, He is an excellent designer!</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I doubt than anyone likes pulling weeds, including God. In today’s lesson Jesus tells a parable. “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared…</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining Sermons.com at <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GBgEKCgZbDAdJAQcEDU5QW1YECA%3D%3D" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 11px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">http://www.sermons.com/signup</span></a> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">___________________________</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Romans 8, the sermon titled “Why Are You Acting Like Orphans?” </span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">There comes a time in every child’s life when he or she entertains two possibilities. One: your parents are from Mars. Two, you must have been adopted. Usually these revelations occur in tandem . . . after a huge fight with Mom and/or Dad; or after a sibling beats us up or puts us down. It dawns on us that no way could we really be related to such mean, bossy, completely opposite people.</span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">We must be adopted.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Remember when adoption was a highly confidential, even secretive, process? That made it a great source for childhood fantasies. “Closed adoptions” were the norm from the 1920s through the 1960s. The birth mother didn’t know and couldn’t know who the adoptive parents were. The adoptive parents didn’t know who the birth mother was. The adopted child didn’t know anything — especially if their adoptive parents chose not to tell them. Even if they were adopted.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In the 1970s, the legalities behind adoptions began to change. A massive shift toward what are now called “open adoptions” took place. In open adoptions all the parties know who they are dealing with. And at least hypothetically, there is the possibility for communication and connection at some later time.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">As with every other social scenario in the last ten years, science and technology have changed everything. Nobody respects a “legal screen.” Nobody has to live with no information about their past. The advent of Facebook has allowed thousands of birth parents and adopted children of all ages to search for and connect with their families of origin. The birth of DNA testing enables uncertainty to be eliminated.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">In fact, almost all officials in the hierarchies of state and federal adoption laws admit the same thing: “the jig is up.” Adoption information and biological identities are no longer capable of being protected in any way, shape or form. For some adopted children and for some biological parents this is a great advance. For others, it is hard knocks and heartbreak.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Almost all ancient religions and cultures had legal means whereby orphaned or abandoned children could be legally incorporated into a new family. Both the law-loving environments of first century Judaism and the Roman empire had a laundry list of adoption laws, policies, rights, and regulations. Whether it was done for economic, political, or emotional reasons, in the world Paul inhabited, “adoption” was a well legislated procedure.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">So when Paul used the language of “adoption” to describe the startling, new relationship enjoyed by followers of Jesus, he was speaking to an educated audience…</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining Sermons.com at <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GBgEKCgZbDAdJAQcEDU5QW1YECA%3D%3D" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 11px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: black;">http://www.sermons.com/signup</span></a> </span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin-bottom: 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">___________________________ </span></div>
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One of my favorite theologians, Mr. Rogers, used to say: “Have you ever noticed that the very same people who are bad sometimes are the very same people who are good sometimes?” It reminds me of a story called, “Two Wolves.” It goes like this:<br>
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“An old Cherokee once told his grandson about a fight that was going on inside of him. He said it was between two wolves. One was evil: Anger, envy, greed, arrogance, self-pity, gossip, resentment, and false pride. The other was good: Joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, generosity, truth, compassion and faith. The grandson thought about it for a moment and then asked his grandfather, ‘Which wolf do you think will win?’ The old Cherokee replied, ‘The one I feed.’” (Anonymous)<br>
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Philip W. McLarty, The Parable of the Wheat and the Tares <br>
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Know Your Weeds</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">I learned more about weeds than I ever wanted to know as a boy in Iowa. Walking through the soybean feels to cut out the weeds was my summer job from age 13. A wise farmer once taught me that all weeds were not the same and could not be destroyed in the same way. A cockle burr had shallow but widespread roots and had to be pulled out to get all the roots. If you hacked it off at the ground level with a hoe it would be back in a week. A milkweed had a very long tap root that could not be pulled out. If you did try to pull it up, three separate sprouts would be back in a week. Milkweeds had to be hacked off with a hoe and would “bleed” and die as the sap ran out. If you didn’t handle the weeds right, hours of backbreaking work in the sun would be completely wasted.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Jesus knew his weeds as well. The meaning of Jesus’ parable about the wheat and the weeds becomes clearer when we look at the specific kind of weed he talks about. Tares are “bearded darnel, mentioned only in Matt. 13:25-30. It is the Lolium temulentum, a species of rye-grass, the seeds of which are a strong soporific poison. It bears the closest resemblance to wheat till the ear appears, and only then the difference is discovered. It grows plentifully in Syria and Palestine.” The problem with taking our hoe to the evil weeds of the world is that good and evil sometimes look so much alike. It only becomes clear later.</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Todd Weir, Wheat and Tares<br>
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