[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Feb. 14 (Transfiguration C) Luke 9:28-43a

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Feb. 14 (Transfiguration C). 
They focus on Luke 9:28-43a, the story of Jesus' transfiguration.


NO PASSWORD REQUIREMENT: We are posting these materials on the web with no 
password.  To access those files, you MUST use the following links.  If 
clicking on the link fails to work, copy the link and paste it in the 
address window near the top of your browser.  Then hit the ENTER key or 
click GO.

Microsoft Word file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/02-14qp/Luke.9.28-43.doc

HTML file (web page):
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/02-14qp/Luke.9.28-43.htm

WordPerfect file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/02-14qp/Luke.9.28-43.wpd


A TIP: If you want the Word or WordPerfect files, LEFT-CLICK on the link and 
see what happens.  That should bring up a dialog box that asks if you want 
to open the file or save it.  Choose OPEN.  Then save it wherever you like 
on your hard drive.

If that doesn't work, RIGHT-CLICK on the link.  You should get a sub-menu. 
Hopefully, "Save Target As" will be one of the options.  Click on that. 
Then save the file wherever you want on your hard drive.
<>

Dick Donovan


A THOUGHT ON PREACHING: The preacher brings a report from the battlefield of 
the conflict between Christ and Satan.  The news is that for the whole of 
humankind Jesus Christ has won the victory in his death and resurrection. 
(James W. Cox)


TITLE:  Blessings at the Bottom of the Mountain


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  By the grace of God, we are privileged to experience 
the glory of God, both when we are on the mountaintop and when we return to 
the bottom.


SCRIPTURE:  Luke 9:28-36, (37-43)
<>
FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:
http://www.lectionary.org/SermLinks/NT/NT03luke.htm

Scroll down to the correct chapter and verse.


TRUE STORY:

In 1953, Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay became the first people to stand 
atop Mount Everest.  Most people today are too young to remember how 
miraculous that seemed.

- In those days we believed that no one would ever run a four-minute mile.
- And no one would ever go to the moon.
- And no one would ever climb Mount Everest.

Those were impossible dreams.  Impossible!  But in 1953, Hillary and Norgay 
climbed Mount Everest.  Can you imagine what it felt like to stand on Mount 
Everest and look out at the Himalayas?

Even more significantly, can you imagine what it felt like for Hillary and 
Norgay to turn their backs on that mountaintop and begin their descent? 
They couldn't stay long, because their oxygen would run out.  So they took 
photographs -- and ate a Mint Cake.  Hillary left a crucifix in the snow. 
Then, after only fifteen minutes at the top of the world, they turned around 
and began their long journey to the bottom of the mountain.

You would think that they would have grieved as they began their descent. 
They had worked so hard -- and now their goal had come and gone.  It was 
unlikely that either of them would ever see the top of Mount Everest again.

But in his autobiography, Nothing Venture, Nothing Win (yes, that's the 
correct spelling), Hillary talked about that.  He said:

"I am thankful for the tasks still left to do --
for the adventures still lying ahead.
I can see a mighty river to challenge;
a hospital to build;
a peaceful mountain valley with an unknown path to cross;
an untouched Himalayan summit
and a shattered Southern glacier --
yes, there is plenty left to do."



THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

On two occasions, Jesus invited his closest friends, Peter, John and James, 
to share in his most intimate prayer.  The first time he took them to the 
top of Mount Tabor, and there they saw his face shining like the sun and his 
clothes white as light (Matthew 17:2).  The second time he took them to the 
garden of Gethsemane, and there they saw his face in anguish and his sweat 
falling to the ground like great drops of blood (Luke 22:44).  The prayer of 
our heart brings us both to Tabor and Gethsemane.  When we have seen God in 
his glory we will also see him in his misery, and when we have felt the 
ugliness of his humiliation we also will experience the beauty of his 
transfiguration.

Henri J. M. Nouwen, Reaching Out

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

It is we who are responsible for transfigurations; God never refuses them; 
we just have to lend ourselves to them.  Not only are we responsible for 
transfigurations but also for disfigurations:  think of all the closed, 
ungrateful, dimmed faces around us.  Of all those who have failed to find a 
welcome, a smile, understanding, and whose light has gone out as a 
result....

Remember when you were engaged, in love, the joy you found in bringing a 
smile to your loved one's face, watching the expression on it transformed? 
How long since you stopped transfiguring each other like that, how long 
since you stopped exercising your power of transfiguration over each other? 
Remember how, when your children were little, you never tired of attracting 
their attention, making them smile, filling them with confidence?  Now their 
expressions are often closed and ungrateful and they sham indifference, but 
do you think you can strip this mask off them, do you think you can still 
work your power of transfiguration on them?

Louis Evely, Our Prayer

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

It is not just war and disease and famine and obvious social injustice that 
appall us; it is also the pervasive waste of human potential.  Aware of 
godlike capacities, we see individual lives dedicated to rudimentary 
deadening, demeaning pursuits.  Aware of transcendent possibilities in 
everyday activities, we see our best and brightest people attracted to cold, 
insensitive manipulation on one hand, and trivial quasi-artistic fads on the 
other.  And we see God's image grubbing and grabbing for meaningless 
consumer products.  Waste!

George B. Leonard, The Ultimate Athlete

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

I bet the disciples had sore feet and growling stomachs sometimes, and it's 
clear from the Gospels that they were often making things up as they went, 
making mistakes and doing the best they could....  What's astonishing about 
the stories the magisterium is meant to preserve and interpret is their 
claim that god came into a haphazard and bumbling and continually reinvented 
world exactly like our own -- in fact, that God has come into this world, 
right now, the world of the rolling fields and the doughnut crumbs and the 
slow, sweet chanting of the prayers at noon.

Chris Anderson

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Before God or Jesus or church can be anything more than a bore, you have to 
be looking for something more out of life than what Sony, Cadillac, Chase 
Manhattan, and even Allstate can offer.  Even if you have set your sights 
higher than this, and want to be a "good person," as long as you think you 
can achieve this alone and unaided, it seems that God is unnecessary, Jesus 
is superfluous and church is a nuisance.  What you need is not religious 
information but an expansion of your heart's wishes, so that you may ask the 
questions Christ came to answer and long for the things He came to give.  In 
a word, you must be open to the transcendent, hungry for the fullness of 
life.

Fr. James DiGiacomo, S. J., in America

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
<>

HYMN STORY:  Christ, Whose Glory Fills the Skies

This hymn was written by Charles Wesley, the brother of John Wesley and the 
author of so many hymns ("Love Divine, All Loves Excelling," "O for a 
Thousand Tongues to Sing," "Christ the Lord Is Risen Today," "Hark the 
Herald Angels Sing," and more than six thousand others).

This hymn celebrates Christ's glory -- glory being a Biblical word usually 
associated with the splendor of God's presence or the splendor of God's 
creation.

Jesus Christ shared God's glory -- God's magnificent presence.  His glory 
was revealed on the Mount of Transfiguration to three of his disciples, 
Peter, James, and John.  Seeing that glory astonished them -- terrified 
them.  My guess is that, if God were to reveal himself to us in all his 
glory, we might be a bit overwhelmed too.  But the disciples didn't have any 
reason to be afraid.  Jesus didn't come to hurt them, but to help them.

In this hymn, Wesley sees Christ's glory filling the skies like the sun --  
triumphing over the shades of night.  I like that vision of Christ's glory, 
because it helps me to see Christ in every sunrise.  Christ's glory floods 
the world with light and dispels the darkness, just like the sun.  The son, 
S-O-N, is like the sun, S-U-N, bringing light and warmth and life to our 
world.

NOTE:  See more hymn stories at http://www.lectionary.org/hymnstories.htm



www.sermonwriter.com

www.lectionary.org