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We like to be the...

Illustration
Proper 6 | Ordinary Time 11 - B
2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13) 14-17
We like to be the home team. The home team knows the field. The home team fans usually get better bleachers. The home team can expect the roar of their crowd no matter what the weather; the band will play the fight song and put on a show. The home team knows how the sound echoes off nearby buildings and where the field dips just a little. Home field advantage couldn’t be better. But then there is the other half of the season: away games. The cheering fans decrease in proportion to how far the game is from home. No one knows where the bathrooms are. The field is foreign.
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In 1637, Eilenburg, Saxony, was surrounded by the dark night of the soul. Europe was at war. Eilenburg was tossed back and forth by the armies. Three times during that year it was attacked and severely damaged. When the armies left, refugees poured in by the thousands. Diseases ran rampant. Food was scarce.

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“Band of Brothers” by Frank Ramirez
“Yet, Some Are Healed” by John Sumwalt


Band of Brothers
by Frank Ramirez
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Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today. Are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

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Praxis the pixie was in trouble again. In fact, Praxis was rarely out of trouble. It had all started when he'd begun to be himself. You see, Praxis changed colour when he felt strongly about anything, and so for quite a while he'd tried very hard to be good. But it hadn't worked, for instead of being just one colour, blue or yellow or green or pink or purple or red, he'd become a rainbow of blotches and spots, stripes and circles, all different colours. It had been very embarrassing. So now Praxis was just himself, and that meant he wasn't always good.

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Come and see what God has done: he is awesome in his deeds among mortals.
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1. Text
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I went to the store to buy a new pair of blue jeans. The clerk asked if I wanted slim fit, easy fit, or relaxed fit, regular or faded, stone washed or acid washed, button fly or regular fly ... and that's when I started to sputter. Can't I just have a pair of blue jeans, size fourteen? Then I went to the grocery store and found 85 varieties of crackers, 285 kinds of cookies, and thirteen different kinds of raspberry jelly. Can't I just get a cookie and a cracker and a bottle of jelly any more?

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