[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Aug. 2 (Proper 13B) John 6:24-35

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Aug. 2 (Proper 13B). They focus 
on John 6:24-35, the story of the people crossing the sea to find Jesus.

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Microsoft Word file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/08-02ru/John_06.24-35.doc

HTML file (web page):
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/08-02ru/John_06.24-35.htm

WordPerfect file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/08-02ru/John_06.24-35.wpd


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<>
Dick Donovan


A THOUGHT ON PREACHING:  A preacher should have the skill to teach the 
unlearned simply roundly, and plainly; for teaching is of more importance 
than exhorting. (Martin Luther)


TITLE:  Relief from Soul-Killing Rules


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  To please God, we don't need to follow soul-killing 
rulebooks, but simply need to believe in Jesus and try to follow him.


<>
Martin Luther observed:

     "God's wonderful works which happen daily are lightly esteemed,
     not because they are of no import
     but because they happen so constantly and without interruption.
     Man is used to the miracle that God rules the world and upholds all 
creation,
     and because things daily run their appointed course, it seems 
insignificant,
     and no man thinks it worth his while to meditate upon it
     and to regard it as God's wonderful work,
     and yet it is a greater wonder
     than that Christ fed five thousand men with five loaves
     and made wine from water."


<>
 The "I AM" sayings in this Gospel are as follows:

    - "Ego eimi he" (4:26)
    - "Ego eimi the bread of life" (6:35).
    - "Ego eimi the living bread" (6:51).
    - "Ego eimi the light of the world" (8:12; 9:5).
    - "Before Abraham was, Ego eimi" (8:58).
    - "Ego eimi the door of the sheep" (10:7).
    - "Ego eimi the door" (10:9).
    - "Ego eimi the good shepherd" (10:11).
    - "Ego eimi the resurrection and the life" (11:25).
    - "Ego eimi the way, the truth, and the life" (14:6).
    - "Ego eimi the true vine" (15:1).


<>
  Meister Eckhart said it well seven hundred years ago.  He said:

     "There are people who want to see God
     with the same eyes with which they look at a cow,
     and they want to love God
     the same way they love a cow -- 
     for the milk and the cheese."

<>
But there is one line in the Lord's Prayer that covers most of our 
prayers -- and it is this:  "Give us this day our daily bread."  <>
<>
In his book, Keep Your Head Down, Doug Anderson tells about his father -- a 
really lousy father -- seldom home -- usually drunk -- married three 
times -- children by two wives.  Doug seldom saw his father.  He comments:

     "Growing up without my father had certain advantages.
     My father's presence would have been worse than his absence,
     because he would have tried to kill in me what he'd killed in himself.

     "My father had turned away from his own talent.
     He was a gifted artist and photographer....
     But after the war, with my mother's help,
     he went to night school to get his CPA certificate,
     which could be had without a college degree in those days.

     "He became appallingly responsible after that.
     When...I would ask him for money... he would say things like,
     'You've got champagne taste and a beer pocketbook, son.'
     He became the practical man,
     and his considerable talent fell into shadow" (pages 32-33).

<>
FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:

http://www.lectionary.org/SermLinks/NT/NT04john.htm

Scroll down to John 6.  There is one sermon on this text posted there.


TRUE STORY:

See the Doug Anderson story <> above.


THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

Who worships God as God, God hears.
But he who worships God for worldly goods, worships not God;
he worships what he worships God for
and employs God as his servant.

Meister Eckhart

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Don't forget until too late
that the business of life is not business,
but living.

B.C. Forbes,
founder of Forbes, a magazine about business

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For a small living, men run a great way;
for eternal life, many will scarce move a single foot from the ground.

Thomas à Kempis

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Pity the nation whose factory chimneys
rise higher than her church spires.

John Kelman

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I have often thought that if Hollywood stars
have any God-given role to play in our society
it is to teach us that happiness, satisfaction in life, has nothing to do 
with fun.
These rich, beautiful and celebrated individuals
do indeed have constant access to what they desire -- 
glamorous parties, fancy cars, expensive homes, luxurious vacations,
a steady supply of attractive sex partners,
invitations to exciting sporting and theatrical events.
And yet in memoir after memoir,
many of these celebrities reveal the unhappiness hidden beneath all the fun:
depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, broken marriages,
troubled children, profound loneliness.
We should feel greatly indebted to all the Hollywood stars
who have written about their sad lives.
If we could only learn from their experiences....

Dennis Prager

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<>
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