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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 27</span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Matthew 25:1-13 – <strong>“</strong><b>The Tragedy of the Unprepared Life<strong>”</strong></b></span></div>
<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 – <strong>“</strong><b>Odd Ducks in a Rubber-Ducky World<strong>”</strong></b></span></div>
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<div style="font-family: Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">Matthew 25, the sermon title “The Tragedy of the Unprepared Life” </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;">There's a true story that comes from the sinking of the Titanic. A frightened woman found her place in a lifeboat that was about to be lowered into the raging North Atlantic. She suddenly thought of something she needed, so she asked permission to return to her stateroom before they cast off. She was granted three minutes or they would leave without her.<br>
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She ran across the deck that was already slanted at a dangerous angle. She raced through the gambling room with all the money that had rolled to one side, ankle deep. She came to her stateroom and quickly pushed a side her diamond rings and expensive bracelets and necklaces as she reached to the shelf above her bed and grabbed three small oranges. She quickly found her way back to the lifeboat and got in.<br>
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Now that seems incredible because thirty minutes earlier she would not have chosen a crate of oranges over the smallest diamond. But death had boarded the Titanic. One blast of its awful breath had transformed all values. Instantaneously, priceless things had become worthless. Worthless things had become priceless. And in that moment she preferred three small oranges to a crate of diamonds.<br>
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There are events in life, which have the power to transform the way we look at the world. Jesus' parable about the ten virgins offers one of these types of events, for the parable is about the Second Coming of Christ. But Jesus doesn't come right out and say this. Rather, he lets the story describe it for him. The woman on the sinking Titanic understood, in the light of her current circumstances, that she must make preparations for living on a lifeboat. Diamonds would not suffice, only the precious resources of an orange were good enough. Likewise, in this world where Christ may return at any moment, the parable warns, we must be ready…</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 </span><a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GBwELDw5SDwVJAQcDC05QW1YECA%3D%3D" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14pt;">http://www.sermons.com/signup</span></a> </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;">1 Thessalonians 4, for the sermon titled “Odd Ducks in a Rubber-Ducky World” </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;">Every year the National Audubon Society sponsors several regional and national “bird count” days. The next big event is scheduled for December 14. It’s the famous “Christmas Bird Count.” On these “bird count” days both professional ornithologists and back yard bird watchers intentionally observe, count, and identify the birds they see in their locale. Though not strictly a “scientific” survey, these “what’s-in-my-back-yard” observations help scientists to get a general idea of what is happening with various bird populations. The shifts in population numbers, and the sightings of, or absence of, various species gives researchers an early “heads up” about the dynamics in bird populations and the possible environmental issues that might be affecting their success or stressing their survival. </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;">Bird-watchers, like “computer nerds,” used to be among the most maligned, the most targeted and teased, in the world of scientific research. Stereotyped as gawky social clods wearing ugly shorts, pith helmets, and peering through giant binoculars, serious bird watchers were the ultimate odd ones out. Until.</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;">Until a bird watcher named Rachael Carson wrote an expose of an environmental disaster that was threatening our entire ecosystem. “Silent Spring,” published in 1962, revealed the extent to which the unregulated use of chemical pesticides was toxic to the ecosystem, decimating whole populations of wildlife, impacting air and water quality, and directly related to the rise in illnesses linked to chemical exposures in human populations. Since birds variously live in the air, water, and land, and their diets vary from eating insects, fruits, seeds, berries, worms and grubs, they were the perfect target populations to keep an eye on in order to keep track of these environmental threats…</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;">Faithful in Service</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 year was 1780. In New England there was an eerie dark day that frightened many people. At noon it was as dark as early night. The birds, as confused as the people, sang a final twilight song and fluttered off into the evening dusk. The cows came meandering home from the pasture and chickens came home to roost. Religious men fell on their knees and begged a final blessing before the end came.</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;">In Hartford, Connecticut the State Legislature was in session and someone moved adjournment thinking that the Day of Judgment had come. But then a legislator stood up and said, "I am against adjournment. The Day of Judgment either is approaching or it is not. If it is not, there is no cause for adjournment. If it is, I choose to be found doing my duty. I wish therefore candles to be brought." The legislature approved his request. Have you been faithful in your service to God and your fellow man.? If the bridegroom were to come would he find you at your post?</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;">Staff, <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GBwELDw5SDwRJAQcDC05QW1YECA%3D%3D" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 11px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;">www.Sermons.com</span></a></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;">Unfinished Business</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;">A mother wrote to Catholic Digest saying that one day when she was heading up the stairs with a basket containing the last load of folded clothes, herding her three little ones in front of her for bedtime, her eldest child, Peggy, who was then in kindergarten, picked that moment to begin one of those questions that seem to intrigue all children at some time. "Mommy," she asked, "If it were the end of the world, and everyone was getting ready to die..." The mother stopped, shifted the basket on her hip, and said an ultra-quick prayer for wisdom to answer this question. "Yes?" The mother prodded her daughter. The little girl finished her theological inquiry: "If the end of the world came, would you have to take your library books back?" That young lady did not want any unfinished business in her life.<br>
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How about you? Is there some unfinished business in your life that needs to be taken care of? Is there anything about which you would be embarrassed or ashamed if the bridegroom were to come today?</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;">King Duncan, Collected Sermons, <a target="_blank" href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GBwELDw5SDwRJAQcDC05QW1YECA%3D%3D" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); text-decoration: none; cursor: pointer; font-size: 11px; font-family: verdana, sans-serif;"><span style="color: purple;">www.Sermons.com</span></a></span></div>
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