<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8"></head><body ><div>Forwarded:</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: 08/23/2014 4:59 PM (GMT-05:00) <br>To: propertalk.topic@ecunet.org <br>Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 16A <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 Birth of Moses” or “It’s Not
About You!” and deals with the Old Testament lesson (Exodus 1:8 - 2:10).</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; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="mso-tab-count: 1;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Do
you remember how President John F. Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can
do for you.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Ask what you can do for your
country.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">In other words, instead of
looking at this great nation like children, full of “gimme’s,” look at our
country and say, “What can I do to make it better?”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">That was a wonderful idea for us in terms of
our country, but it’s an even better idea in terms of God.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">“Ask not what God can do for you.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Instead, ask what you can do for God.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">In other words, don’t keep begging God as if
God were Santa Claus.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Instead, you do
something (or many things for God).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">St.
Paul’s, Corunna, has a mission statement that states this idea simply: “Live
the life!”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">That’s what I’d like us to
think through this morning.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">St. Paul
says all of this in still another way (Romans 12:1):“Dear friends, I beg you to
offer your bodies to God as a living sacrifice.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">So when you do things for God, be sure some
of them are sacrificial.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Don’t just do
the easy things that you find enjoyable.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Instead, sacrifice for God.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Do
the hard things.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Take risks.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Do what you really don’t feel like doing, but
what you know is loving, helpful, kind.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Go the extra mile for others.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">When we refuse to help others, we are refusing Jesus himself.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Today’s Old Testament lesson about the
birth of Moses offers four examples of faithful people who didn’t take the easy
way, they took the loving, hard, risky way in following God; and their
sacrifices allowed the great prophet Moses to live and thrive.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">As you recall, the Israelites were in slavery
in Egypt because the Egyptian pharaoh was afraid they would multiply so fast
that they would support Egypt’s enemies and take over his kingdom.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He decided to reduce the Jewish population by
ordering the Jewish midwives to kill all the Jewish baby boys at birth.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">They could simply tell the babies’ mothers
that their infants were stillborn.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The
brave midwives (Shiphrah and Puah) outsmarted him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">They outsmarted the pharaoh by saying that Jewish
mothers delivered their babies so fast- his order was impossible to carry
out.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">They sacrificed for God by doing
the loving thing, no matter how great the risk.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">How are you doing on that one?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Like the midwives, do you love God enough to sacrifice and do the loving
thing, no matter what the cost?</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Then there was Jochebed (Moses’
mother).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">When Pharaoh found that his
evil scheme had failed (having the midwives kill all the Jewish baby boys at
birth), he knew he needed a new strategy.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">He ordered all Jewish parents to throw their baby boys into the Nile
River.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I’m sure Egyptian soldiers roamed
the streets listening for the sound of a baby crying.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">As a baby got older, it would become
increasingly difficult hiding him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I
remember years ago when I felt sorry for a poor little abandoned, flea-bitten
kitten.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">(This was when I lived in
Detroit, before I was married.)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">You know
what I did- took that kitten into my “no-pets-allowed” apartment.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I thought I could hide him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Do you know how loud a kitten can be and how
a kitten can climb up on window ledges to see outside?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I ended up moving to another apartment that
allowed kittens.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">When Jochebed knew she
was putting the entire family at risk by keeping her baby, she did throw him
into the river- officially obeying the pharaoh’s order.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">She made two slight additions to the order,
however.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">She floated him in the river in
a little boat and sent Moses’ big sister Miriam to watch him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">When she couldn’t totally solve her problem,
she didn’t let herself fall into depression and despair.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">She did what she could and then gave it to
God.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">How do you handle such
situations?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">If you can’t have your way,
do you just have an attitude and give up?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Are you a “my way or the highway” person?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Jochebed, do you trust God enough to
sacrifice and do what you can and then leave the rest to God?</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Next was Moses’ sister, Miriam.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">What a boring job- day after day sitting by
the river watching her baby brother floating in his own little boat!</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Then, can you imagine how frightened she must
have been when Pharaoh’s own daughter found her little brother?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Can you imagine how much she wanted to run
away and hide?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Instead, she stood her
ground, kept calm enough to think, and listened to God’s still small voice with
a plan to save the day.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The result was
that the baby’s very own mother got paid to nurse and raise him until he was
old enough to move to the palace and grow up as an Egyptian prince.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Miriam, do you love God enough to
sacrifice by standing your ground and using your God-given talents to make a
bad situation better?</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">Finally there was the princess- Pharaoh’s
daughter.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Remember back to the
kitten.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">When I called my mother to tell
her that I had rescued that pitiful little kitten, you know what she said.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">“Judy- put that kitten right back where you
found him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">You can’t hide a cat.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">You’ll end up having to move!”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">She surely was right- I did have to
move.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Can you imagine what the Pharaoh
said when he saw the enemy baby his daughter brought home?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">She must have out-thought and out-argued her
dad though, because Moses was raised in the palace as a prince.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Pharaoh’s daughter, do you love God
enough to accept others, even when society says they aren’t “your kind of
person”?</font></font></span></p><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">
</font><p style="margin: 0in 0in 0pt; line-height: normal; text-indent: 0.5in;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">My friends, you’ve heard the old saying:
“Only one life, ‘twill soon be passed.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Only what’s done for God will last.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000">
</font></span><font color="#000000">Stop begging God and start asking God what you can do for him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like the midwives, love God enough to
sacrifice and do the loving thing, no matter what the cost?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Jochebed, trust God enough to sacrifice
and do what you can and then leave the rest to God?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Miriam, love God enough to sacrifice by
standing your ground and using your God-given talents to make a bad situation
better?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Like Pharaoh’s daughter, love
God enough to sacrifice by accepting others, even when society says they aren’t
“your kind of person?”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Live the life! </font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Sacrifice for God.</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: 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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