<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><div style="font-size:75%;color:#575757">From my Android phone on T-Mobile. The first nationwide 4G network.</div></div> <br><br><br>-------- Original message --------<br>From: Judy <judy_boli@ecunet.org> <br>Date: 07/19/2014 4:10 PM (GMT-05:00) <br>To: propertalk.topic@ecunet.org <br>Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 11A <br> <br><br><div dir="ltr"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Dear Friends,</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “The Wheat and the Weeds” or “Sorry, I
Didn’t Recognize You!” and deals with the gospel (Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Here it is:</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Today we have one of the
most valuable of Jesus’ parables, “The Weeds and the Wheat”- so very usable for
sorting out our lives, our relatives, our friends, even our enemies and making
decisions about what to do about them.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">In
fact, it’s one of the two parables of Jesus that has given the most guidance
for us in our feeding ministries through the years.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The parable of Jesus separating the sheep and
the goats in Matthew 25 (“Whatever you do for the least of these my sisters or
brothers, you do for me.”) informs us WHY we bother to help those experiencing
hard times in their lives.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">This one
answers the question that so very often surfaces: what should we do about
people when we think they are just trying to rip us off?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I’m talking about the kind of situation in
which we’re not sure- there’s no clear-cut case.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Sometimes it’s like we’re between a rock and
a hard place.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Christian people have
entrusted us with their money to use for feeding the needy.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">This means we are managing God’s money, so we
really want to take care of it for him and use it as he would want us to use
it.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Then here comes someone asking for
food.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Maybe we’re running low.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Whatever- if we give it to this person,
perhaps a more needy family will come along, and then we won’t have anything for
them.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Do you see the problem?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">This is when we remember this Jesus parable
and follow the rule: “If in doubt- feed.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">This parable offers three levels of insight- not only for
decision-making for our feeding ministry; it also offers insight for decision-making
for our lives. Let’s look at it.</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">The first level of insight
involves how we relate to other people.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Most
of the people listening to Jesus tell his story were farmers or at least
gardeners, so they were extremely familiar with plant care.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">As you recall, often Jesus would make up a
story that was very similar to something that had really happened in the lives
of his listeners, so perhaps they knew someone with a wheat field who had an
enemy vandalize his farm by reseeding his wheat field with poisonous darnell
seeds.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Did you notice how the farmer
told his farmhands not to pull up the weed seeds because they would uproot too
many young wheat plants in the process?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">He said this for two reasons.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">First, it’s next to impossible to tell the difference between wheat and
darnell when the plants are young.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Second, the roots are so intertwined; damage would be done to the whole
root structure of both plants.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Good
advice, not only if you have a garden with wheat and darnell growing
together.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Good advice also if you are
trying to decide if you should tell someone off and kick them out of our
feeding ministry, our church, your family, or your life.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I’ve got a story for you.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">There is a story about a guy who falls in
love with a beautiful woman and begs her to go out with him. “Be serious,” the
woman says. “You’re fat, bald, ugly and your wardrobe is atrocious!” </font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">So the guy goes on a diet and loses 80 pounds
and starts working out at a gym. He gets a hair transplant and plastic surgery.
He even buys himself a new wardrobe. Finally, he goes back to the woman and
asks her what she thinks. “What a hunk!" she says, and she agrees to a
date.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">So he arrives at her door with a
limo and driver. She emerges from her house radiant, promising him a
never–to–be–forgotten evening. As they walk together toward the limo, lightning
strikes the man. So now he’s lying on the street dying, and he cries out, “Why
now, God? Why now, on the happiest day of my life?” </font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">God answers. “Sorry, Sam. I didn’t recognize
you.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Now friends, if God Almighty didn’t
recognize him, what makes us think we can know enough about a person to judge
them!</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Did you notice the Psalm, how God
reminds us that he knows everything about us, he knows our hearts, and there is
nowhere we can hide from him?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">God knows
the hearts of every single person, but the problem (or blessing) is- we
don’t.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">We don’t know what is in
someone’s heart.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">We don’t know why they
choose to do what they do.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">That’s why
Jesus says to wait and leave the judging to God.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Not only don’t we know all the facts,
something else is involved.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Plants don’t
change from poisonous weeds to useful wheat, but people do.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">We are a jubilee church, a second chance
church.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">God gives each of us many
chances, and so must we.</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Let’s look at the second
level of insight- how we relate to ourselves.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">An anonymous author said, “There is so much good in the worst of us; and
so much bad in the best of us that it ill behooves any of us to find fault with
the rest of us.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Remember last Sunday how
we heard St. Paul lament about how hard it was to live for Christ.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">How he kept doing the things he didn’t want
to do and not doing the things he wanted to do?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">(Romans 7: 18-19)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Our job is to
love other people and stop worrying about their sins.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Jesus himself reminded us to stop worrying
about the tiny splinter that is in our neighbor’s eye when we have a huge log
in our own eye!</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">It’s the weeds in our
own lives we’re supposed to worry about.</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">This brings us to the third
level of insight we can derive from this parable- the weeds.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Did you notice that God could use even the
weeds?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Fuel was scarce in Jesus’ time.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Darnell plants made great fuel for cooking
and warming cold hands and feet in miserable weather.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Who made weeds anyway?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">(God.)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">What is a weed?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">(A plant made by
God growing where we don’t want it.)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Has
anyone noticed the cement area that used to be part of a deserted parking lot?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">It doesn’t take long before the weeds have
almost broken up the cement.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Give them
and the earthworms a little more time and that hard cement will be returned to
soft, fertile soil.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">There’s nothing like
a mess of weeds, mistakes, regrets in our lives to soften our hearts and help
us understand other people and their difficulties better.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">It’s the weeds, the mistakes, the “OOPS” that
force us to replan our lives and lean on God and our Christian friends for
power, support, and regrowth.</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; tab-stops: center 3.0in right 6.0in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">So weeds and wheat- be
patient with them, don’t be too quick with judgments, check your own life, and
watch for how amazingly God turns weeds given over to him into wonderfully
beautiful flowers.</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; tab-stops: .25in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">For anyone who is interested, this sermon and updated
African-American wisdom statements are posted on our parish’s NEW WEB SITE
under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: </font><a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org/"><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman">http://www.stpaulsepisag.org</font></u></a><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> .</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Blessed preaching,</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Judy Boli</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">St. Paul's Episcopal Church</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Saginaw, Michigan</font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font></div>
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