[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Mar. 7 (Lent 3C) Luke 13:1-9

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Mar. 7 (Lent 3C). They focus on 
Luke 13:1-9, where Jesus warns his listeners to repent or perish.


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/03-07ir/Luke.13.1-9.doc

HTML file (web page):
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/03-07ir/Luke.13.1-9.htm

WordPerfect file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/03-07ir/Luke.13.1-9.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: Preaching is not the art of making a sermon and 
delivering it.  Preaching is the art of making a preacher and delivering 
that.  (Bishop William A. Quayle)


TITLE:  A Change in Time


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  Jesus calls us to repent -- to change the direction 
of our lives -- to put ourselves in alignment with God's will for our lives.


SCRIPTURE:  Luke 13:1-9


<>
Repent!  Change your direction!  And receive God's blessing!


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 STORIES:

The latest issue of Discover magazine (March 2010, pages 66-74) has an 
article about Barry Marshall, the man who discovered that ulcers are caused 
by a bacterial infection rather than stress.  Until he discovered that, 
people would take antacids to control the pain.  Many of them had part of 
their stomachs removed.  A fair number of them died.  Ulcers were no 
laughing matter.  Barry Marshall discovered that ulcers are caused by 
bacteria -- not stress.  He found that he could cure ulcers with 
antibiotics -- quickly, easily, and effectively.  But what he could NOT do 
was to get the medical profession to listen to him.  They were convinced 
that ulcers were caused by stress, and they thought that Barry Marshall was 
a quack.  Marshall wrote papers about his discovery, but medical journals 
refused to publish them.  He still has their letters of rejection -- when he 
gives speeches today, he shows slides of those rejection letters.  He tried 
to get clinical trials approved, but nobody would listen.  But finally the 
Reader's Digest ran an article on his work.  And then the National Enquirer 
ran an article.  If you know anything about medical research, you know that 
the National Enquirer is not where you want your work published.  But so 
many people read the articles that the Food and Drug Administration could no 
longer ignore Marshall.  He was allowed to run a trial, which proved that he 
was correct -- and many thousands of people today owe their lives to his 
findings.
I was amused by something that Marshall said at the end of the article.  He 
said that it is now much easier to get medical journals to pay attention to 
offbeat ideas.  People today say, "Hang on a minute!  I had better make sure 
that this is not a Barry Marshall paper (in other words, a real breakthrough 
idea).  I don't want to have MY name on that rejection paper he shows in his 
lectures." (page 74).


...insight came to me when I read Charles Lindbergh's book, The Spirit of 
St. Louis.  In that book, he recounted in detail his thirty-hour flight from 
New York to Paris.  Conscious that even a small error in direction could 
cause him to miss Paris -- and possibly even to miss Europe -- he followed a 
carefully plotted chart and updated his course at least once an hour.  He 
flew thousands of miles over ocean no reference points.  When he finally 
spotted land, he was astonished to learn that he was almost exactly on 
course.  What a wonderful discovery!


A few months ago two Northwest Airlines pilots overshot their airport by 150 
miles (240 km.) because they were using their laptops to figure out the new 
crew scheduling system.  They finally recognized their error and were able 
to make it back to the airport -- but their carelessness put 149 lives at 
risk.


THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

The first time Jesus appears, in the first Gospel,
the first instruction he gives is "Repent."

>From then on, it's his most consistent message.
In all times and every situation, his advice is to repent.
Not just the scribes and Pharisees,
not just the powerful --
he tells even the poor and oppressed
that repentance is the key to eternal life.

Frederica Mathewes-Green, The Illumined Heart

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

He that feels himself alarmed by his conscience,
anxious for the attainment of a better state
and afflicted by the memory of his past faults,
may justly conclude that the great work of repentance has begun.

Samuel Johnson

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Sleep with clean hands,
either kept clean all day by integrity
or washed clean at night by repentance.

John Donne

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Repentance is despair of self,
despairing of self-help in removing the guilt
that we have brought upon us.
Repentance means a radical turning away from self-reliance
to trust in God alone.
To repent means to recognize self-trust
to be the heart of sin.

Emil Brunner

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

What is repentance but a kind of leave-taking,
looking backward indeed,
but yet in such a way as precisely to quicken the steps
toward that which lies before.

Soren Kierkegaard

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
<>
HYMN STORY:  Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven

Henry Francis Lyte, the author of this hymn, didn't have an easy life.  His 
father abandoned the family while Henry was still a boy.  Then Henry's 
mother and brother died, leaving Henry an orphan at age nine.  A Christian 
couple, Dr. and Mrs. Robert Burrows, learned of his circumstances, took him 
in, and provided for his education.

Lyte studied for the ministry, was ordained, and served several small 
churches -- the last in Brixham on the English Channel -- a pleasant fishing 
village where he served for 23 years.  While at Brixham, he formed a Sunday 
school that enrolled 800 children.

While at Brixham, Lyte wrote a great many hymns based on the Psalms. 
"Praise, My Soul, the King of Heaven," based on Psalm 103, is one of those. 
Queen Elizabeth had it sung as the processional for her coronation.  Another 
of Lyte's hymns, "Abide with me," was the favorite hymn of King George V.

Lyte suffered ill health for most of his life, and died at age 54.  He had 
never been anything but a village pastor, but he enriched the lives of all 
those in his community -- and the 800 children in his Sunday school -- and 
the sailors to whom he carried on a special ministry -- and all of us who 
enjoy his hymns.

I suspect that no one would have been more surprised than Henry Lyte to 
learn that one of his hymns was the favorite of King George and another was 
sung at Queen Elizabeth's coronation.  But that is often how God works --  
using people whom we might think to be ordinary to give us extraordinary 
blessings.

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


www.sermonwriter.com

www.lectionary.org