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Searching for truth in all the wrong places

Commentary
Proper 7 | Ordinary Time 12 - C
1 Kings 19:1-4 (5-7) 8-15a
Galatians 3:23-29
Luke 8:26-39
Mark J. Molldrem
Gods and goddesses are plentiful these days, luring adherents into strange expressions of faith. Lam Sai-wing is a very up-scale jewelry salesman, who boasts the world's most expensive bathroom. It cost him 4.9 million dollars to appoint his toilet facility with solid gold furnishings, jewels on the ceiling and two 24-carat commodes as the center of attraction. This extravagance is Lam's way of giving testimony to his fortune, which he claims hit the stratosphere after he worshiped the goddess of mercy, Kuan Yin, at one of her temples on the Kowloon Peninsula in China.
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Call to Worship:

Jesus warned against with those who store up treasures for themselves but are not rich towards God. Through our worship today let us pledge ourselves to seek our treasure only in God.

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Jesus, sometimes we envy others because of all they possess.
Lord, have mercy.

Jesus, sometimes we desire all that money can buy.
Christ, have mercy.

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For he satisfies the thirsty, and the hungry he fills with good things.... Let those who are wise give heed to these things, and consider the steadfast love of the Lord.
-- Psalm 107:9, 43

Kirk R. Webster
How do you focus on something unseen? How can we set our minds on that which we can't touch, or taste, or verify scientifically? Most practical people want proof. Abstract propositions are difficult to get our arms around, especially if they are from another time and place.
Thomas A. Renquist
This story begins with gift -- with blessed gift -- with miraculous, blessed giftedness. And I will even tell you now the theme of the story: if you keep your eye on the giftedness of everything, then you yourself can be a gift, you can be a giver, rather than a hoarder.
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" 'It was I who taught Ephraim how to walk, I took them up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them' (11:3). They did not know me. Do you?

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