Matthew 3:1-12

Object: The lying game. You have probably played this game but called it something else. The idea is that you will ask a child a question, have them either answer truthfully or with a lie, and then have everyone else try to guess if they are telling the truth or not. After everyone has guessed, ask the child if they told the truth or not so everyone knows if they were right and then either congratulation the child for tricking everyone, or congratulate the others for guessing correctly.

When Ryan Barbarisi was in fifth grade at Grace Community Christian School in Tempe, Arizona, his teacher asked each member of his class to finish this sentence — “I would be rich if . . . ” — and then to draw a picture of what he or she was thinking about. Here is what Ryan wrote: “I would be rich if I had enough money to buy a mansion and a red Ferrari. I would like to have these things because if I had a mansion, I would have a good life. If I had a Ferrari, I would burn up the streets.”

A little while, and you will no longer see me…. (v. 12)

As the autumn of 1796 approached George Washington, who was nearing the end of his second term as President of the United States, set about to accomplish what many considered unthinkable — write a farewell letter to the nation he’d led in battles both military and political for 45 years.

Prayers usually include these concerns and may follow this sequence:



These responses may be used:




Let us pray for the Church and for the world, and let us thank God for his goodness.

Almighty God our heavenly father, you promised through your Son Jesus Christ to hear us when we pray in faith.

He had been looking forward to Sunday afternoon all week. As a pastor, Sunday afternoons were usually as busy as any time, with youth groups and then preparing for Sunday evening services. But this week, there was no youth group meeting. And this week, there were no Sunday evening services. He had been very careful to protect the calendar so that nothing got scheduled in place of these things, and he would have a full Sunday afternoon, and evening, all to himself -- or at least with the family. Who knows? Maybe he would read a book. Or maybe go for a walk.

If I mentioned Sophia to you, what memories would it evoke? Would you think of a movie called Sophie's Choice? Or perhaps you know of someone whose name is Sophia. Some of you might think of a controversy stirred up several years ago at a women's conference that was exploring feminine images for God. Some who objected to their ideas accused them of pagan worship when they used Sophia to refer to the feminine side of God.

Probably most of us are familiar with the phrase that serves as the title for my sermon this day -- on a need-to-know basis. Some of you who work in government jobs or on highly classified positions where national security is involved certainly know what it means. When I first came to this church I made the mistake of asking someone where he worked and when he told me of the famous government agency whose headquarters are near here I made the mistake of asking him what he did there. The response was: "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." Okay. I learned a big lesson on that one.

One of the Apollo 17 astronauts said that, as he looked back upon the earth from the moon, the earth, spinning slowly against the vast, black background of space, looked like "a big, blue marble." Think about how beautiful, but fragile and precious, irreplaceable and unique, the earth is. Consider the earth.

From Psalm 8, our First Reading: