[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Mar. 21 (Lent 5C) John 12:1-8

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Mar. 21 (Lent 5C) . They focus 
on the Gospel lesson, John 12:1-8, the story of Mary anointing Jesus' feet.


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/03-21oe/John.12.1-8.doc

HTML file (web page):
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/03-21oe/John.12.1-8.htm

WordPerfect file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/03-21oe/John.12.1-8.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:  I wonder if the strong sense of frustration which 
comes over me so frequently on Sunday evening and to which many other 
parsons have confessed is merely due to physical lassitude or whether it 
arises from the fact that every preacher is trying to do a bigger thing than 
he is equal to -- and fails.  I have an uneasy feeling that it may be native 
honesty of the soul asserting itself. (Reinhold Niebuhr)


TITLE:  Extravagance -- A Wonderful Perfume


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  Christ calls us to love prodigally, even as we have 
been loved prodigally.


SCRIPTURE:  John 12:1-8
<>

FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:

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

Scroll down to John 12.  There are four sermons on this text posted there.


TRUE STORY:

...two stories.  The first is of Sergey Brin, one of the founders of Google. 
Brin was born in the Soviet Union, and came to the United States at age six. 
The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society helped his family to escape the Soviet 
Union and get established in America.  Without their help, Brin would 
probably still be in Russia today.

Last October, Brin gave a $1 million gift to the Aid Society that helped his 
family -- a way of saying thanks.  But many people were critical of his gift 
because it was so small.  Brin is worth $16 billion -- that's billions with 
a B.  He has paid $4.5 million dollars to reserve a space on a space flight. 
By comparison, $1 million doesn't seem like much.  Maybe it was all that the 
Aid Society needed -- I don't know.  What I do know is that his million 
dollar gift reflected Brin's mathematical approach to life. It was a 
measured gift-- small enough to have zero impact on his life.  It was 
anything but prodigal -- anything but over-the-top -- anything but 
extravagant.

When reporters interviewed Brin concerning his gift, he said, "Our 
foundation is not soliciting proposals.  Be sure to include that (in your 
stories)."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/25/us/25donate.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sergey_Brin

My second story has to do with a much more modest gift -- but one that 
reminded me of Mary's extravagant gesture with the perfume.  Gloria Spann, 
Jimmy Carter's late sister, once spoke of their father. She said:

"You know the man in the novel Magnificent Obsession
who did things for people
provided they would never tell anybody he had done it?
My father lived like that.

One of the families in town was destitute one Christmas.
The town got up a basket.
(But Dad) ordered a silk dress sent to (the mother of the family) 
anonymously.
I said, 'Daddy, why did you do that?'
He said, 'She has no money, but she's getting food -- she's being looked 
after.
But never in her life has she had a silk dress'."
.


THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

What can I give him, poor as I am?
If I were a shepherd, I would bring a lamb;
If I were a wise man, I would do my part;
Yet what I can I give Him -- give Him my heart.

Christina Rossetti, "A Christmas Carol"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

High among the devil's preferences in Holy Writ must be the verses that can 
be perversely warped out of their real meaning to make nice booby traps. 
Here is a beauty: "For you always have the poor with you."

Halford E. Luccock

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Full many a flower is born to blush unseen
And waste its sweetness on the desert air.

Thomas Gray, "Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard"

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We can risk loving as passionately as God loves.
For we know that the love God makes possible
is no scarce resource that must be hoarded
so that it can be distributed in dribs and drabs --
a little here and a little there.
Love is not a rare commodity;
rather, the more we love with the intense particularity of God's love,
the more we discover that we have the capacity to love.

Stanley Hauerwas


*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Love is a poor mathematician,
and never knows how to set sensible limits on its ministry.

Edward Read

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
<>
HYMN STORY:  Let Us with a Gladsome Mind

Take a moment to listen to these words, and then I will tell you something 
surprising about them.  The words are:

Let us, with a gladsome mind,
Praise the Lord, for he is kind;
For his mercies aye endure,
Ever faithful, ever sure.

(NOTE:  The "aye" in this case is pronounced with a long a -- rhymes with 
"weigh."  It means "ever" and not "yes" -- from George William Rutler's 
book, Brightest and Best)

The something surprising is this:  These words were written by a fifteen 
year old schoolboy.  That will seem less surprising if I tell you who the 
boy was.  He was John Milton, who grew up to be a famous poet -- author of 
the epic poem, "Paradise Lost."

Milton based "Let us with a gladsome mind" on Psalm 136.  He hadn't intended 
to write a hymn, but his poem was set to music by a church organist, John 
Bernard Wilkes, long after Milton's death, using a tune written originally 
by John Antes, a Moravian composer.

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


www.sermonwriter.com

www.lectionary.org