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<div style="font-family:arial,helvetica;font-size:10pt;color:black">-----Original Message-----<br>
From: Judy <judy_boli@ecunet.org><br>
To: propertalk.topic <propertalk.topic@ecunet.org><br>
Sent: Sat, Mar 21, 2015 6:46 pm<br>
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Lent 5B<br>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Dear Friends,</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Sin Hurts the Innocent as well as the Guilty” or “The Wages of Sin: Death” and deals with Psalm 51.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Here it is: </font></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">So far this Lent, we’ve looked at what the Bible says to us about temptation- how vulnerable we are to wanting anything we’re not supposed to have or to doing anything we’re not supposed to do.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">In fact one of our Communion hymns for this Lent is “Yield Not to Temptation for Yielding is Sin.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">We’ve considered one of our chief temptations- to avoid the cross that Jesus expects us to carry.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Remember, he said, “Take up your cross and follow me”- and he wasn’t talking about jewelry on a gold chain; he was talking about a chosen sacrifice for him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Next we examined where yielding to temptation leads us- SIN, and we saw that the middle letter of sin is “I”!</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Last week we thought through one of the dangerous symptoms of sin- a poisoned spirit.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Today, I’d like us to consider the results of sin and how the pain spreads like an ever-widening series of circles in a pond after the peace of the water is disturbed by a rock.</font></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">The Psalm appointed for today (Psalm 51) has traditionally been ascribed to David- written and prayed by him after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba and then been confronted by God’s courageous prophet, Nathan. As you recall, Bathsheba was married to Uriah the Hittite.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">King David was walking around on the flat roof of his palace when he looked below and saw Bathsheba taking a bath in her courtyard.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He sent for her and had sex with her.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Some time later, Bathsheba discovered to her dismay that she was pregnant, so she sent King David a note informing him of the news.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">They were caught in adultery, and there was no way anyone would think that Bathsheba’s husband was the father of this child.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He was away in the military.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">David cooked up a scheme to pass this baby off as Uriah’s child.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He sent for Uriah, inquired about the war, and then sent him home- assuming that he would make love to his wife.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">After all, he’d been gone a long time at war.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Uriah didn’t, because he didn’t want to diffuse his energy- wanted to stay loyal to King David and his fellow soldiers.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">David tried again.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">This time, he invited Uriah to the palace for a meal, and served lots of alcohol so he would get drunk.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">When King David observed that Uriah was sufficiently intoxicated, he sent him home again.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Uriah did the same thing- slept outside away from Bathsheba, his wife.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">King David’s scheme of passing off this child as Uriah’s baby was not going to work.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Monica Lewinsky is in the news again. Do you remember who she is?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Remember how President Clinton lied and did everything he could to avoid being caught in his sexual sin with her?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">That’s how King David felt.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He decided he would do whatever it took to avoid being caught as having committed adultery with Bathsheba.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He wrote a note to Joab, his general at the war front, ordering him to place Uriah in a dangerous spot in a battle, then withdraw support so he would be killed.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Joab did exactly as King David had ordered.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Bathsheba mourned for her husband an appropriate length of time and then moved in with King David at his palace as one of his wives.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">It looked like all was well and no one would find out what had happened; like they had gotten away with adultery and King David had gotten away with murder.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">You know how scripture says, “Be sure your sin will find you out!” (Numbers 32: 23).</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Well, the next thing David knew, he had a visitor- the prophet Nathan.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Nathan told David about a poor man and his family who had a pet lamb.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The lamb ate at his table and was the pet of his wife and children.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">One day the rich man down the road had a guest.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">He was too stingy to butcher one of his own lambs to feed his visitor, so he took the beloved lamb belonging to the poor family and butchered it to serve his company.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">King David was outraged, started listing all the terrible punishments that should happen to the rich man, and then asked his identity.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The prophet Nathan simply said, “David, you are the man.”</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Nathan reminded the king of all the wives and riches he had, yet he took the one wife of Uriah, his faithful soldier, and then had him killed as a cover-up.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Nathan told David that his punishment was that the child in Bathsheba’s womb would die.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">David wept and prayed, perhaps using the words of Psalm 51.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">There- that’s what happened.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">I’d like us to notice two things.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">First- mighty King David was not immune to sin.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Believe me, if that godly man could fall to the sinful depths that he did, we can sin terribly also.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Brothers and sisters, spend time in your Bible, on your knees, at church listening to the Word and receiving Holy Communion for power.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Be careful!</font></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font color="#000000">The second insight I’d like us to notice is how the pain of David’s sin was not simply confined to him.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">His pain spread to many around him, almost like (as we mentioned earlier) an ever-widening set of circles.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">You can decide if you’re going to throw the stone into the pond, but once it’s hit the water- you have no control over the ripples and circles and disturbances that emanate from that stone.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Bathsheba, who perhaps was a victim of rape (remember the immense power of those ancient kings), lost her husband and infant son.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Uriah- one of David’s most loyal soldiers, was murdered by the king he so faithfully served.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Joab, the general, engineered the death of Uriah.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The baby suffered and died.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">The prophet Nathan had to confront King David, which could have cost him his life- and he knew it.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Not only did David himself suffer, but he probably was never quite the same person after this incident.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Sin causes pain, not just for the guilty- but for the innocent.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Check it out.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Let’s look at the Ten Commandments.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">(Read them from the prayer book.)</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Which of these can you break without hurting someone?</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">Remember, you can’t pray yourself out of consequences you behaved yourself into, and many times those consequences hurt a whole lot of people.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span><font color="#000000">May God bless us all as we examine our choices and our lives.</font><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><font color="#000000"> </font></span></font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; 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 web site under “Sermons & Stuff”. The address is: </font><a target="_blank" href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org/"><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman"></font></u></a><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman"><a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org" target="_blank">http://www.stpaulsepisag.org</a></font></u><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> .</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman"> </font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Blessed preaching,</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Judy Boli</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">St. Paul's Episcopal Church</font></span></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><span style="font-size: 11pt;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman">Saginaw, Michigan</font></span></div>
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