  QCD sum rules are useful tools for studying the spectral properties of
hadrons; however, assumptions underlying standard sum-rule analyses can lead to
inconsistencies with known results of chiral perturbation theory. This
possibility is demonstrated with QCD sum-rule extractions of the nucleon mass
and $\sigma$ term. In both cases, inconsistent chiral behavior leads to an
uncertainty in the sum-rule predictions of $\sim 100\,\text{MeV}$.
