You’ve got to be kidding!

Date: February 20, 2011

Liturgical Sunday: Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany

RCL Scripture: Psalm 119:33-40; Leviticus 19:1-2, 9-18; 1 Corinthians 3:10-11, 16-23; Matthew 5:38-48

Sermon Title: You’ve got to be kidding

St. Mark’s [audio:https://wordsfromthemiddle.ca/wp-content/uploads/110220_-_St_Marks.mp3|titles=You’ve got to be kidding!]

As you may notice when you look above these words you may see that there is only one recorded sermon. Well, technology let me down. As I may have mentioned I use an MP3 player to record sermons. My part in the recording debacle was that I did not turn on and carefully examine the MP3 player prior to Sunday. When I turned it on, it told me it was full and then said “Bye.” Not at all helpful, I couldn’t even delete something so I could use it, it just gave me the, far from helpful, notification that it was full and the quit. Well, now what. Fortunately I carry a Blackberry, not entirely by choice but it was free when I last upgraded so I went for it. The Blackberry has a Voice Notes option, what they don’t tell you, or at least if I was ever told it was so subtle I didn’t notice it, you only have 10 minutes of recording time. So, when my MP3 player pulled up lame, I switched to my Blackberry and recorded the least interesting 9 minutes and 59 seconds of my sermon at Knox. Bother.

I figured this out by the time I got to St. Mark’s and more or less stopped at the 9:30 mark and started another video note so there is one full sermon and if anyone really, really wants to hear the first half of the Knox sermon, let me know and I’ll send it along. Oh, I forgot to mention that Blackberries record notes in a weird format so I had to find a converter before I could even begin the process of stitching the two pieces together, but it is all good now.

I hope you enjoy the sermon and I am very interested in any reaction to my interpretation of Matthew 5:48 “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.” I think I might be on to something there that I have not encountered before, at least not to my recollection.

Once again, my apologies for only one sermon this week.

Blessings and go out and be perfect!

Barry