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Showing posts from July, 2011

Sermon for 6th Sunday after Pentecost

Sermon 7/24/11 Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52                            This month, we’ve been looking at some of Jesus’ parables and today, as we wrap up our focus on these parables, we’re hit with a string of mini-parables, a set of four that are just a couple of verses each. Again, we start out with seeds – this time mustard seeds – and then move on to yeast, treasure in a field, fine pearls, a net catching fish. In all of these parables, Jesus begins in the same way: “The kingdom of heaven is like:” Jesus wants us to get a clear message about God’s kingdom – it is so important that we understand about the kingdom of God that Jesus will tell literally story after story after story, same structure, different examples. The kingdom of heaven is like this. The kingdom of heaven is like this. The kingdom of heaven is like this.             So what is the kingdom of God? What  is  it like? Why is Jesus so concerned that we get this? After reading all these parables, do we know? Indeed

Sermon for Fourth Sunday after Pentecost, Year A

Sermon 7/10/11 Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23             This year, finally, after saying I was going to for the last many years, I finally actually planted a vegetable garden. I have been meaning to pretty much every year that I have been in my own home, and one thing or other always comes up. One year I actually made it as far as planting marigolds in the front yard, only to have the lawn crew mow over them just before they started to bloom.             When I was growing up, my grandfather had a sizable garden, and he always let me have part of it to try growing things on my own – well, under his supervision. But I chose what to plant, a mix of flowers and vegetables. I was the kid whose bean in a Dixie cup in school never grew – the one kid with the dud seed that left the teacher trying to come up with something nice to say about how I could share in caring for someone else's plant or something. But somehow, under my grandfather's care, my garden always bloomed. He taug