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Sermons by The Rev Ken Wratten

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Pentecost 23B: 10/28/2018

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10/28/2018
Pentecost 23B

When I was in my late twenties I was on a Cursillo weekend team, and I gave one of the talks on Christian living. After my talk, an older man (70?) came up to me and started to cry. It took him a while to settle himself enough to tell me that he didn’t know how to thank me for what I had said. He had always attended church, but never understood what it meant to KNOW that Jesus is in his life.  It was not just my talk, but it is the focus of those weekends to help people have new Spiritual Sight.

Pentecost 22B: 10/21/2018

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10/21/2018
Pentecost 22B

There are images of God that intimidate me. Forty days of rain, wiping out all but the animals and people on Noah’s arc. The burning bush and the divine voice coming from the cloud that told Moses; “Go to pharaoh and tell him to set my people free!” The sky filled with angels, singing praises and announcing the birth of Jesus.

Jesus taught about another personality of God.

Pentecost 20B: 10/7/2018 – 8:00 am

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10/7/2018
Pentecost 20B

The Pharisees kept trying to trap Jesus. They were the experts in Jewish law, and they kept trying to either show that Jesus didn’t know the law (which they were never able to do), or to get him to take a side in some controversial issue that would polarize his followers, making them fall away from him. In this hot topic of divorce, they failed again to recognize who they were dealing with.

The Pharisees brought up the legal controversy over divorce. But Jesus changed the conversation to something even more important. For him, the issue was not human law, but rather God’s intention.

Pentecost 19B: 9/30/2018

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9/30/2018
Pentecost 19B

From the Book of Numbers, Joshua wanted Moses to stop Eldad and Medad from prophesying, because they missed the prayer meeting. How dare they speak the Word of God!! But somehow God overlooked their absence, and shared His Spirit with them anyways.

In the Gospel lesson last week, Jesus’ disciples were arguing over who would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus expected their time with him to change them from the inside out; to transform them. But their sights were on being the exclusive club who would sit with Jesus in the heavenly realm.

Pentecost 18B: 9/23/2018

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9/23/2018
Pentecost 18B

Saint Catherine of Siena wrote this message for implanting wisdom in the young: “Make two homes for thyself, my daughter. One actual home… and the other a spiritual home, which thou are to carry with thee always.” How much attention do you and I give to our spiritual home; and is that home a place where we nurture the growth of spiritual wisdom?

Pentecost 17B: 9/16/2018

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9/16/2018
Pentecost 17B

(NIV) “Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire.” Right now we know a lot about the uncontrolled nature of fires, don’t we? From the CAL FIRE website last night: 20 active fires right now.

We adults are really lucky that when we grew older, we outgrew this problem of starting forest fires with our tongues. It is only an issue with children, right? Of course we actually learn over time to do it even better

Pentecost 15B: 9/2/2018

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9/2/2018
Pentecost 15B

My wife Ruth and I are rules people. We laugh about it, but it’s true. The rules say to use turn signals, and so I remain to this day a member of the small minority in California who still signal when I make a turn or change lanes. It’s a rule. But the meaning of a “Rule” is something that provides a means of measure. Rule of the Order of St Benedict, or of the Franciscans, or the Rule of Life of Brother Lawrence; these were about measuring their journey to the heart of God; taking account of their openness to God.

Pentecost 14B: 8/26/2018

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8/26/2018
Pentecost 14B

Jesus is the bread of heaven, the cup of salvation. When we choose to take him in; he is in us, and we are in him. We receive him / his Spirit / spiritual blessing / spiritual strength. We become who we really are – spiritual beings in a physical body; in the world but not of the world.
Do you believe that there is spiritual warfare going on?