UTSKRIFT 🔗
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The Holy Gospel according to Matthew.
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Beware of practicing your righteousness before others in order to be seen by
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them, for then you have no reward from your Father in heaven.
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So whenever you give alms, do not sound a trumpet before you,
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as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, so they may be praised
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by others. Truly, I tell you, they have received their reward.
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But when you give alms, do not let your left hand know what your right hand
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is doing, so that your alms may be done in secret, and your Father who sees
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in secret will reward you.
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Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume
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and where thieves break in and steal.
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But store up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust
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consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
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For where your treasure is there, your heart will be also. This is the gospel of the Lord.
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Praise to you, O Christ.
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Not this past week, but the week before, I wrote an article in the Weekly Word
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about finding feathers everywhere that I was walking and experiencing this as
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a sign of the Holy Spirit.
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And I put a picture of all the feathers lined up that I had been finding lately,
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and I've been keeping them in this little cup in my office.
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And yesterday, I went on a long walk in the morning and was praying,
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and I found this feather just before I got home.
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And this is the most Holy Spirit-like feather I have found yet.
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I have blue jay feathers and other feathers. And I thought, boy,
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isn't that a dove-like looking feather for a baptism the day before a baptism?
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So I just thought I'd let you know that the Holy Spirit is alive and active
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at St. Luke's and having me trip over it before I write a sermon and get to
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church to baptize our dear Carol Sue.
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So that was not planned as a part of the sermon, but there you go. That's the Holy Spirit.
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For those who are our newer friends among us today, my husband Dan is the pastor
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of First Presbyterian Church of Garland, and about 20% of his congregation is from Pakistan.
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They have their own worship service in Urdu and have their own Pakistani pastor.
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And through these relationships, I have traveled with Dan to Pakistan two different
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times to build connections with pastors and with a seminary in a city called
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Gudrunvala, which is north of Lahore,
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in the eastern part of Pakistan.
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Christians are only 2% of the
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population and an often very vulnerable and sometimes persecuted minority.
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80% of Christians live in rural villages. Many live in poverty,
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working as laborers, brickmakers, or sanitation workers for only a few dollars a day.
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Yet the gospel speaks very powerfully into their lives.
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Imagine living in a society still shaped by class and caste divisions,
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being treated as though you are worth very little to nothing,
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and then hearing these words from 1 Peter.
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You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people.
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Once you were told that you were nobody, but now you are somebody, chosen by God.
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Once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
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Once you were denied dignity, but now you have received dignity.
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You have received forgiveness and unmerited grace in Jesus Christ.
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What an incredible treasure to
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hear that you are seen and known and chosen and loved by an amazing God.
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On Friday, just two days ago, Dan received a message from our friend Shafiq,
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a Presbyterian pastor and board member of the seminary in Gudrunvala.
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Shafiq's wife had recently been in a car accident, and while examining her injuries,
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they discovered that she had cancer.
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It was 3.30 in the morning in Pakistan, and Shafiq was awake to lead an early
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morning prayer service, we assumed before the earliest laborers got to work at 5 a.m.
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But first, he messaged Dan, asking him, would he please call and pray for his wife?
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So Dan got on Facebook Messenger and called him up.
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And Shafiq and his newly ordained son, Dawood, which means David and is a popular,
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name for Christian men in Pakistan, placed the
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phone beside her bed.
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And Dan on speaker prayed with the family.
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So across thousands of miles and several time zones, Christians in Pakistan
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and Texas were joined in prayer.
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And after the prayers, Dan congratulated Dawood on completing seminary and becoming
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an ordained Presbyterian pastor.
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And you could almost hear the smiles of his parents, who were so thrilled and
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so proud of their son becoming a pastor.
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So Dan asked about Daoud's ministry, and Daoud explained that he is helping
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to provide Bibles for poor Christian families.
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In Gudrunvala, a city of over three million, there is only one Christian bookstore,
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and a Bible can cost the equivalent of two days wages.
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And so for a family barely able to afford food and shelter, purchasing one Bible may be impossible.
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So Daoud works to place Bibles into Christian homes where there may be only
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one person with the ability to read who can then share the scriptures aloud
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to the rest of the family.
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And as often happens with stories of faith from Pakistan, this story gripped my soul.
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We have Bibles everywhere. I have several translations in my office.
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We have Bibles in every pew.
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I can pull out my phone and read almost any translation I want within seconds.
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We can order one online in a moment.
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If you need or want a Bible, I encourage you to take one. I have more in my
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office if you would like a different one.
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If you have a friend that needs a Bible, please talk to me. I would be happy to provide one.
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The Bible is always available to us.
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But sometimes when something is so easily available, we forget what a treasure it is.
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Though the Word of God, through the Word of God, We hear that we are created
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and loved by such a loving, benevolent parent.
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We learn that Jesus walks beside us in our struggles, that he weeps with us
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in our grief, that he rejoices at our celebrations,
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that he forgives us when we fail, and most of all,
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that Jesus gave his life and defeated death to show us that absolutely nothing
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in the universe, seen or unseen, can separate us from the love of God.
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And today, we saw this promise made visible at the baptismal font.
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At 91 years old, Carol Sue heard God's promise spoken personally to her,
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You are my beloved daughter.
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God never stops calling us, claiming us, and finding ways to draw us closer.
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This is the treasure at the center of our lives and our life together as a church.
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Jesus tells us where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
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Sometimes we hear these words as just a warning about where we put our money.
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Well, yeah, spending can reveal our values.
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But these words, more importantly, are an invitation about where to put our life energy.
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Jesus invites us to first recognize the treasure that has already been given to us.
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God is crazy about you. This is what I love about Carol Sue's story.
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God is crazy about her, has been her whole life.
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God is crazy about you. Christ died and rose from the dead for you.
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And you did not earn it.
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And guess what? You can't do anything about it.
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That's the best part about grace. God's love is a fact of life. It's like gravity.
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You can't stop it.
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You belong. You have hope. And God's love is with you, no matter how hard you
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try to get rid of it or rub it off or sin a little bit more.
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And maybe then I'll be outside of the kingdom. No, no.
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There's no sin too great. You can't rub it off. You can't get rid of it. It's a fact.
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God wins. What's the point of the whole Bible? God wins.
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That's the whole point. God loves.
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God wins. And this community is here to help carry you through life.
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God's love story with us is the treasure of life.
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And it is all right here in this Bible.
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This is my study Bible. So Deuteronomy invites us to treasure God back as much as God treasures us.
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Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all of your might.
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When the love of God rests at the center of our lives, our hearts begin to follow.
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Our time follows. Our choices follow. Our generosity follows.
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Our lives follow.
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We love because God first loved us. We serve because Christ first served us.
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We give because God first gives to us.
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And so as we recommit ourselves to mission for 2027 and beyond,
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we focus on the deeper questions of the heart.
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What do we treasure?
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And how does this treasure order our lives?
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Not as a have-to, but as an overflowing of what God has done for us,
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to God who is crazy about us and loves us so much.
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Today, beside Christians in Pakistan who treasure the gift of a single Bible,
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beside believers praying together across the globe, and beside a new sister
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in Christ who has shown us that God's love never has an age limit,
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we claim our greatest treasure.
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We are God's own people.
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We have received mercy.
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We are claimed as God's beloved children.
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We belong to Christ today and forever.
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And where our treasure is, there our hearts, our lives, and our mission are
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also with overflowing joy and gratitude.
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Let the church say amen. Your life matters. Your gifts matter. Your love matters.
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So live on purpose, give generously, love with your whole heart, and go in peace.
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And as you love, serve, and welcome all. Thanks be to God, and we will.
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If you were inspired by this week.