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You are the Man

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Stories
John was angry. He sliced open the box with the cans in it and threw the box cutter onto the floor. He grabbed the cans and forced them into place in the shelf. How dare she? How dare she call him a bad manager, a terrible boss, and a toxic employer? He had built this business up from nothing. He was the reason people like her had work. When everyone told him there was no chance of anything succeeding in this neighborhood he had taken the chance, he had put in the long hours and the lean years to make this work. He was successful.

He finished the row of cans and pulled another box to him. He reached for the box cutter in his pocket and couldn’t find it. He had just had it. Where could it be? He patted all his pockets and looked around the cans he had just shelved. Great, just great. How was supposed to do this without the box cutter? Frustrated, he grabbed the box and ripped it open. He slammed the cans onto the shelf. When the box was empty he tore it apart and threw it in the corner. Looking down he saw his box cutter lying to one side where he had discarded it earlier. He snatched it up from the floor and shoved it back into his pocket. He grabbed the pieces of boxes and stuffed them into the recycling bin before flopping onto a chair.

How was he supposed to run a business if all his employees kept quitting? What was the matter with people these days that they couldn’t do an honest day’s work? He paid decent wages, not like the other stores. He didn’t care about the color of someone’s skin or their politics as long as they showed up on time, did their work, and helped keep the business going. He had even given a job to Diana when she was in recovery. He knew her history but gave her a chance. Everyone had said she wasn’t worth taking a risk on but he had. Then just like the others, she let him down by quitting part way through a shift. Just like Bobby, Carol, Henry, and that fellow whose name he always forgot. Why did he even bother?

“Hey, boss. Are you okay? ” Paul asked.

John looked up at the employee who had been with him the longest. “Whitney quit this morning.”

“Oh,” Paul shook his head. “I just came back here to see why she wasn’t out front.”

“She said she couldn’t take it anymore and quit without giving me any notice. I mean she’s a single mother, what is she going to do? I gave her a chance when no one else would and I was considerate when she needed her schedule modified because of the kids, wasn’t I?” John glared at Paul. “I even put that mirror up over there because she wanted somewhere to put in her contact lenses when the bathroom was occupied.”

“You did that for her. No question about that.”

“And what do I get? Grief. She says I’m hard to work with and angry all the time and a control freak.”

“You do like to have things done a certain way.”

“Of course, the right way.” John snorted. “If I let employees do whatever they thought was best, then things would fall apart around her pretty quickly.”

Paul shrugged.

“She had the audacity to say I was a monster when I called her ungrateful? Can you imagine that? Me?” John paused and glared at Paul. “Aren’t you supposed to be out front?”

Paul sighed. “I was just hoping that we wouldn’t be short staffed again today.”

“You can blame Whitney for that,” John said. “Get back out front. I don’t pay you to stand around yapping. I’ll help out again today until we find someone new. I mean what else can I do?”

“You could look in the mirror.” Paul muttered as he went out the door.

John glared at him and was about to tell Paul that he was fired when he caught sight himself in the mirror. A red-faced man with wild eyes looked back at him. The vein on his forehead was pulsing and the expression on the face was terrifying. John stared for the longest time. Where was the smile that he saw in his picture when he started this business? Where was the kind eyes which his mother always said he had? Where was the man who loved getting up each day to go to work? What had he become?

John felt his cheeks become wet. All the words his employees said to him as they quit came crashing down on him and he felt the sting of each truth that he had denied. He was harsh and cruel and unforgiving. He sat on the chair for a long time just letting the tears flow. Then he bowed his head and began to pray. He prayed for forgiveness and he asked for the wisdom to change. For John didn’t like the person he saw in the mirror.
UPCOMING WEEKS
In addition to the lectionary resources there are thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...
Proper 23 | OT 28 | Pentecost 18
30 – Sermons
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27 – Children's Sermons / Resources
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Proper 25 | OT 30 | Pentecost 20
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32 – Children's Sermons / Resources
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31 – Commentary / Exegesis
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Plus thousands of non-lectionary, scripture based resources...

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For November 2, 2025:

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Habakkuk 1:1-4, 2:1-4 and Psalm 119:137-144
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One of the features of Synagogue worship is the Shema. The Hebrew word is “Hear!” and is the opening for Deuteronomy 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” God’s people are commanded to “hear” these words. They come from the Lord. And these three scriptures invite us to hear God and each other, something that is lacking in our society today.
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Fred Craddock tells of a vacation encounter in the Smokey Mountains of eastern Tennessee years ago that moved him deeply. He and his wife took supper one evening in a place called the Black Bear Inn. One side of the building was all glass, open to a magnificent mountain view. Glad to be alone, the Craddocks were a bit annoyed when an elderly man ambled over and struck up a nosey conversation: “Are you on vacation?” “Where are you from?” “What do you do?”
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Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18 and Psalm 149

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John E. Sumwalt
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Call them the good old days. Call it the Golden Age. It’s not unusual for people to look back in their youth, or to the youth of their country, as somehow more perfect, honorable, or simpler. C.S. Lewis was always skeptical about claims that chocolate was better in one’s youth. It wasn’t better. Our taste buds were stronger and more receptive.

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The Roman Catholic Church's canonisation of Edith Stein some years ago, fuelled considerable controversy. Edith Stein was born and bred into a Jewish family, becoming a Roman Catholic Christian at the age of 31. She was also a leading German intellectual in the early thirties, during the run-up to World War 2, although she gave up that career in order to become a Carmelite nun. But she didn't deny her Jewish roots, for in 1933 she petitioned the Pope, Pious XI to write an encyclical in defence of the Jews.
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Call to Worship:

Jesus didn't reject anyone, even those who were liars and cheats. By a simple act of friendship Jesus turned Zaccheus' life around. In our worship today let us consider friendship and all that it means.


Invitation to Confession:

Jesus, there are some people I don't like.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, there are some people I reject.
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Jesus, there are some people I keep out of my circle of friends.
Lord, have mercy.


Reading:

SermonStudio

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The world offers many blessings, but none of these things will save us: only the blessing of God in Jesus Christ can do that.

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Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
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John W. Clarke
This chapter of Luke brings us ever closer to the end of Jesus' public ministry. Jesus enters Jericho, just fifteen miles or so from the holy city of Jerusalem. It is here that Jesus transforms the life of Zacchaeus, the tax collector. This is one of the few stories that is peculiar to Luke and is a wonderful human-interest story. The fact that Zacchaeus is willing to climb a tree to see Jesus is a clear indication that he really wanted to see and meet the carpenter from Nazareth. His eagerness to see Jesus is rewarded in a very special way.
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Then he looked up at his disciples and said: "Blessed are you who are poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who are hungry now, for you will be filled. Blessed are you who weep now for you will laugh. Blessed are you when people hate you, and when they exclude you, revile you, and defame you on account of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for surely your reward is great in heaven; for that is what their ancestors did to the prophets.
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This is a story written for people who had been or were about to be persecuted, if not enslaved. (The book of Daniel was probably written in the mid-second century B.C. during a period of Seleucid [Syrian] domination in Palestine.) It tells them and us how their ancestors had once faced a similar slavery under the oppression of the Babylonians centuries earlier. The implication was that if these ancestors could endure and overcome such bondage, so could they and so can we.
Gary L. Carver
Ulysses S. Grant fought many significant battles as commander of the Union forces in the War Between the States. He also served as President of the United States where he probably engaged in as many battles as he did while he was a general. Toward the end of his life he fought his toughest battle -- with cancer and death.
Richard E. Gribble, CSC
There is an apocryphal story told that after completing his masterpiece, the Mona Lisa, the famous Italian Renaissance artist Leonardo da Vinci went to a nearby tavern to celebrate the event with his friends. While in conversation and sipping a little of the local wine, Leonardo noticed that many in the tavern were making sport of an ugly fool who made his living going from tavern to tavern, entertaining patrons for a spare coin or a crust of bread. This man truly was an ugly person; he seemed to be more of a troll than a man. His small beady eyes were not centered in his oversized head.

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