[Propertalk] FW: Sermon Resources for June 5 - Part 2

Sat Jun 4 16:47:27 EDT 2011

Then It Is Still Night

An old rabbi once asked his pupils how they could tell when the night had
ended and the day had begun. "Could it be," asked one student, "when you can
see an animal in the distance and tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?" "No,"
answered the rabbi. Another asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the
distance and tell whether it's a fig tree or a peach tree?" "No," answered
the rabbi. "Then when is it?" the pupils demanded. "It is when you can look
on the face of any person and see that it is your sister and brother.
Because if you cannot see this, it is still night."

Frank Schaefer, Christ's Last Words

___________________________

Humor: Giving While We Are Alive

I'm sure you've heard the old story of the conversation between a pig and a
cow. The pig is complaining to the cow that nobody ever has a kind word for
him. "Look at the way I give of myself," he says. "I produce bacon, ham, and
pork chops. The bristles of my skin are used for brushes, my hide for
luggage. Why, some people even pickle my feet and consider them a delicacy.
Why is it then that everyone speaks more kindly of you, the cow, than of
me?" To which the cow replied, "My friend, perhaps it is that I give of
myself while I am still alive."

Lee Griess, Return to The Lord, Your God, CSS Publishing Company 

___________________________

Losing Sight of Life's Goals

In Steven Covey's best seller "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,"
talks about how we can lose sight of our main goals in life. In no other
place are the consequences more destructive than in our families: Covey
writes:

        "I value my children. I love them, I want to help them. I value my
role as their father. But I don't always see those values. I get caught up
in the "thick of thin things." What matters most gets buried under layers of
pressing problems, immediate concerns, and outward behaviors. I become
reactive. And the way I interact with my children every day often bears
little resemblance to the way I deeply feel about them."

For us Fathers...to truly be known by our children would be wonderful. I
suspect that this is so much more difficult for men than women. And yet here
in Jesus' prayer it is his first thought, that we might know the Father and
the Son. This, he says, is salvation. You want to know what being saved
means, what the meaning of life is? It is written here in Jesus prayer: If
you will come to know God, the only true God, and the Son whom he has sent,
you will be saved.

You might say this is difficult for me to do--to know God. Yes it is. It is
difficult for you to do. But it is not difficult for God to make himself
known to you.

Brett Blair,  <http://www.esermons.com/newadmin/www.eSermons.com>
www.eSermons.com 

_________________________

A Weapon Terrible to Behold

In one of my favorite Peanuts cartoons, Lucy comes into the living room to
find Linus in control of the TV. She demands he change the channel. "What
makes you think you can walk right in here and take over?" asks Linus.

"These five fingers," says Lucy. "Individually they're nothing but when I
curl them together like this into a single unit, they form a weapon that is
terrible to behold."

"Which channel do you want?" asks Linus.

Turning away, he looks at his fingers and says, "Why can't you guys get
organized like that?"

Brett Blair,  <http://www.esermons.com/newadmin/www.eSermons.com>
www.eSermons.com 

____________________________

Prayer for Work

Peter Marshall once began a Senate session with this prayer, "O Lord,
forgive us for thinking that prayer is a waste of time, and help us to see
that without prayer our work is a waste of time."

Robert J. Bryan, All Constantly Devoted to Prayer.

__________________________

To clasp the hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising against the
disorder of the world.

Karl Barth

__________________________

Shoving It All Back

The moment you wake up each morning, all your wishes and hopes for the day
rush at you like wild animals. And the first job each morning consists in
shoving it all back; in listening to that other voice, taking that other
point of view, letting that other, larger, stronger, quieter life come
flowing in.

C.S. Lewis

___________________________

Individual Skills

We still have to live in the world and each of our individual skills can be
used to enhance the kingdom. Some are more visible than others. Some are
very subtle. For example; Idlers of a seacoast town watched the village
smith day after day as he painstakingly wrought every link of a great chain
he was forging. Behind his back they scoffed at such care being taken on
such an ordinary thing as a chain. But the old craftsman worked on, ignoring
them as if he had not heard them at all.

Eventually the chain was attached to a great anchor on the deck of an ocean
vessel. For months it was never put to use. But one day the vessel was
disabled by a breakdown in its steering apparatus while nearing the coast in
a storm. Only a secure anchorage cold prevent the vessel from being driven
onto the rocky coast. Thus the fate of the ship and hundreds of passengers
depended on the strength of that chain. No one knew of the care and skill
that had been lavished on each link of that chain by an obscure smith who
was only doing his best. The chain held, both the ship and its passengers
and crew were saved. The blacksmith had saved the day.

Keith Wagner, In a Different World

______________________

Grabbing up the Truths

Forty-three years ago, I read something by Sherwood Anderson in an
upper-level literature class at Albion College. Which took me a while to
find, given that I wanted to see if it was as I remembered it. But I did.
And it was.

Anderson shared a legend, suggesting that in the beginning there was a
valley filled with truths. And the truths were all beautiful. There were
truths about every subject under the sun. There were truths about virginity
and truths about passion....truths about wealth and truths about
poverty....truths about thrift and truths about profligacy....truths about
carefulness and truths about abandon. There were hundreds and hundreds of
truths, all of them beautiful.

And then the people came along, pouring into the valley.

The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional illustrations
and sermons for Easter 7 can be accessed at  <http://www.sermons.com/>
www.Sermons.com.

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