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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, Jul 18, 2015 2:56 pm<br>
Subject: [propertalk.topic] Sermon for Proper 11B<br>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Dear Friends,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">This Sunday’s sermon is entitled “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” or “A Polluted Temple!” and deals with all the lessons.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Here it is:</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman"><font size="3">This morning in the Old Testament lesson (2</font><sup><font size="2">nd</font></sup><font size="3"> Samuel 7: 1-14a), we heard God tell King David that he didn’t need a fancy temple.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He wanted to live among his people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Later in the New Testament, Paul reminded the Corinthians (1</font><sup><font size="2">st</font></sup><font size="3"> Corinthians 6:19a): “You surely know that your body is a temple where the Holy Spirit lives.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We know this is a true statement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>God is inside us, as near to us as the air we breathe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, after we receive Holy Communion this morning, holy God will literally be in every cell of our bodies.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Does anyone remember the old song- “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think we sang it once in our St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church (Detroit) choir.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Have you ever felt like this?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alone?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Empty?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Frightened? Facing an evil world and wondering if you will make it to the next day?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How is this possible, after all of God’s promises to us?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Today’s Psalm (23</font><sup><font size="2">rd</font></sup><font size="3">) reminds us that the Lord is our shepherd, and the God will provide peace and satisfy all our needs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Why are we so often nervous wrecks, frustrated, and stressed out, yelling at those we love the most, tossing and turning at night, using pills or alcohol to calm our nerves and put us to sleep and then more pills, caffeine, or whatever to wake us up?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Been there?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think the Bible truth that our bodies are God’s temple holds the key to letting us be enveloped in God’s peace.</font></font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000"><font size="3"><font face="Times New Roman">You know what one of our problems might be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The temple of our body is so polluted that God is waiting for us to clean it out a bit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did you hear the story of the bachelor who was always complaining about restaurant food?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His friend finally asked why he didn’t cook some of his meals at home. “Surely you can cook simple things;” his friend commented, “and if you can’t- just get an easy recipe book.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“It won’t work,” replied the bachelor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Every single recipe starts with, ‘Take out a clean pot.......’”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe that’s how the temple of our lives is to God- POLLUTED!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He can’t find a clean or uncluttered place to start.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What’s crowding God out?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font></font></font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">The Psalm points out one possible source of temple pollution: “The LORD is my shepherd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe Jesus isn’t number one in your life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe he’s just the last-minute resource your run to when you’re desperate.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe most of the focus in your life is your money or your bills or your love life or your children or your house or job or your addiction.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re not starting and ending each day with prayer, if you’re not reading some devotional material each day, if you’re not thanking God for every bite of food you put in your mouth, in other words- if you’re not putting God first- you’re your own worst enemy.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You’re truly like a “sheep without a shepherd” (Mark 6:34a) because you’ve squeezed the Lord right out of his temple, so don’t be surprised when you find yourself running around like a chicken with it’s head cut off.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Step one: make the Lord your shepherd.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Try Jesus.</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">The epistle points out another possible source of temple pollution: our attitudes- specifically our feelings of inferiority. (In the old days, we’d be talking about an “inferiority complex.”)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do I get this from the Ephesians (2: 11-22) lesson?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re getting to be a bit of a Bible scholar, you know that Jews hated Gentiles- considered them inferior to Jews.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As you know, every Jewish baby boy was circumcised when he was about eight days old; Gentiles were not.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Jews thought uncircumcised people were filthy- they scrubbed down if even the shadow of a Gentile fell on them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Should it surprise us that many Gentiles felt inferior to Jews?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They weren’t, obviously, but they felt inferior and the way Jews treated them surely didn’t help!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Now we’ll add the last significant fact- Paul’s church at Ephesus was a mostly Gentile church.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In today’s lesson, we hear Paul teaching that we are all one and unified in Christ.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No one is inferior or superior to anyone.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ground is level at the foot of the cross.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What about you?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Is there something about yourself that makes you feel not as acceptable as you might be?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’re a man- maybe you are short; if you’re a woman- perhaps you’re tall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be your color- you’ve been told you’re too dark or too light.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It might be some physical feature- for years I was ashamed of my high forehead- how silly, but how true!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps you consider yourself too fat or too thin.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe you have a handicapping condition or trouble learning a specific subject in school.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If so, stop thumbing your nose at your Creator.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Give your concerns to God, love and accept yourself, and make room for Jesus in the temple of your body. </font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Maybe the pollution in your temple, your heart, is your attitude toward other people.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the Gospel, we heard how the disciples had just come back from a missionary trip.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They were excited, but exhausted.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Jesus tried to take them to a private place to get some rest, people found them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Their lives were one interruption after another, yet- instead of sending the crowds away, time after time Jesus ministered to them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How do you treat people when they interrupt you with their needs?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I don’t mean just the first interruption- what about the fourth or fifth or tenth interruption?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet Jesus reminds us in Matthew 25 that “Whatever you’ve done for the least of these my brothers or sisters, you’ve done for me?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>If you’ve turned needy people away, you’ve sent Jesus away from his very own temple in your heart.</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">My brothers and sisters- we can wish for peace; we can desperately pray for calmness and security, but until we clean out the pollution of false gods, inferiority, and self-centeredness from our hearts- there’s no room for Jesus, and therefore there’s no room for God’s peace.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Let me finish by retelling a story I told in February, 2014, about wishes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Do you remember the story of the Oscar Meyer wiener?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It reminds us that wishing isn’t the answer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before we start, does anyone know that old-time commercial “I Wish I Was an Oscar Mayer Weiner?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>How does it go?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Get responses.)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Well, here’s the story.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A man was walking along the beach when he came across this very old oil lamp. The man started to rub it to remove all the ocean crud when "poof" a genie appeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This genie, like all genies, was so happy to be freed of the lamp that he granted the man three wishes...<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"I wish to be the richest man in the world,” the man said.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Man," the genie replied, "It has already happened.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man’s wallet would hardly fit in his pocket because of all the hundred dollar bills.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“Wait until you get your bank statement!” said the genie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You won’t know what to do with all that money!”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What's your second wish?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"Genie”, said the man, “I want a CAR!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, I want the most expensive Porsche convertible made: Fire engine red, on board GPS and the finest audio system ever installed in an automobile."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"That’ll work," said the genie.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He waved his hand and the finest car anybody had ever seen popped out of the lamp. The genie then asked the man for his third wish.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He thought and thought, since he really wanted to choose wisely.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>After all, this was his last wish, so it had to be a good one.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Finally he said, “Genie, I can't think of anything now.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>May I save the third wish for later?"<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>"My, that’s unusual,” responded the genie, “but of course you may wait.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Just call me when you're ready.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With that, whoosh, the genie disappeared.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The man leapt into his fire engine red Porsche convertible, turned on the radio with the great audio system and pulled onto the highway.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He had the top down, so the wind was whistling through his hair, the sun was shining, not another car was on the road, and he was HAPPY- in fact so happy that he began to sing along with the great music on his great radio.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Up came a commercial, and he continued to sing the old familiar tune: “Oh, I wish I was an Oscar-Mayer Wiener...."<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Whoosh- what a wish!</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Stop wishing and get rid of the heart-Temple pollution.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When you come to the altar today, come with a plan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It’s late for spring-cleaning, but it’s never too late for life-cleaning; where there’s life, there’s time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What pollution are you cleaning from your heart-Temple today by God’s grace? </font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes; tab-stops: .25in;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">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" size="3"></font></u></a><u><font color="#0000ff" face="Times New Roman" size="3"><a href="http://www.stpaulsepisag.org" target="_blank">http://www.stpaulsepisag.org</a></font></u><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3"> .</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Blessed preaching,</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Judy Boli</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">St. Paul's Episcopal Church</font></div>
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<div style="margin: 1em 0px; line-height: normal; mso-mirror-indents: yes;"><font color="#000000" face="Times New Roman" size="3">Saginaw, Michigan</font></div>
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