[Propertalk] FW: Sermon Resources for June 5 - Part 1

Sat Jun 4 16:47:27 EDT 2011

Sermons for Easter 7: 

   John 17:1-11 - "The Meaning of Life"

   Luke 24:44-53 - "The 4 Words that Tell What It Means to Be a Christian"
by Leonard Sweet

John 17, the sermon titled "The Meaning of Life"  

In Act 5 scene 5 of Shakespeare's Macbeth, the character Macbeth has heard
that the queen is dead and he knows his own death is imminent. At this time
he delivers his famous soliloquy:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow and tomorrow

creeps in this petty pace from day to day, 

To the last syllable of recorded time, 

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools 

The way to dusty death. Out, Out, brief candle 

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player 

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage 

and then is heard no more. It is a tale 

Told by an idiot. Full of sound and fury signifying nothing.

Is Macbeth right? Is life nothing but a shadow having no substance, no
meaning? Writers and philosophers since recorded time have tried to answer
the question. I don't think any of them have been successful in answering
the question to everyone's satisfaction. Some one once said that "Trying to
speak about the ultimate reality is like sending a kiss through a
messenger." I understand their point: Something of its truth is lost in the
translation.

What is the meaning of life? A philosophical question to be sure but this is
not only the philosopher's question. It is a genuinely human question and
therefore a question that we all ask. It might be a question that is asked
in despair or hope, out of cynicism, or out of sincere curiosity and a deep
desire to have goals and guidance in life. However we raise the question
about the meaning of life, it is our most basic and fundamental question.

And so it comes as no surprise that Jesus deals with this question and
answers it. Surprisingly, the answer is not given in the context of an
argument with the Jewish leaders or in a discussion with his disciples, and
it is not given in the Sermon on the Mount where Jesus deals with so many
fundamental issues. It is telling that Jesus deals with the meaning of life
in the context of prayer.

In the context of what has been called, by many scholars, Jesus' High
Priestly Prayer. The Disciples are in the upper room, now. They have just
finished the Passover meal and Jesus is thinking about his crucifixion which
will occur within the next 24 hours. He knows he is about to leave his
disciples alone in the world and he goes before God as a priest would, to
intercede for them, to pray for them.

Listen again to his prayer. I am lifting out a few key verses: "While I was
with them, I protected them and kept them safe, but I will remain in the
world no longer.Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name-the name
you gave me-so that they may be one as we are one. Father, the time has
come. Glorify your Son, that your son may glorify you. For you granted him
authority over all people that he might give eternal life.and this is
eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ,
whom you have sent." It is in this third verse that Jesus delivers the
meaning of eternal life and in essence the meaning of life itself. He says,
"Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent."

In essence, Jesus says, "the meaning of life is this: that you have a
relationship with God, and me his Son, Jesus Christ." And that's the long
and short of it! But, Jesus himself, understood just how difficult it was
going to be not only for his disciples but for all of us to come to this
very simple realization in life and so he prays for two key things. First,
in order that we might understand the meaning of life.

1. He Prays for Our Protection from the World.

2. He Prays That We Might Know God.

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by
joining  <http://www.esermons.com/signup> http://www.sermons.com/signup

_______________________

Luke 24, the sermon titled "The 4 Words that Tell What It Means to Be a
Christian" by Leonard Sweet 

Is life becoming more complex, or what? I don't know about you, but I'm
needing some simplicity to offset that complexity. 

I'm looking out at some of you: we have in our midst some people who are
tech-savants, up-to-the-nanosecond in every new app and digital advance,
every new social media minutia; and we have in our midst some
"off-the-grid," computer-phobic, techno-anaphylactic Luddites. 

And then there are the rest of us, the most of us--the in-betweeners. 

But whoever you are, we can agree on one thing: our twenty-first century
lives are amazingly complex. 

Every day we live in these soon-to-be teenage years of the 21st century, we
use skills that would befuddle previous generations. Driving computers
masquerading as cars. Using microwave ovens. Functioning simultaneously in
different time zones all across the world. Understanding how events in
Pakistan tonight will give our world a different tomorrow. Grasping the
enormity of destruction and loss that tornados and fires, hurricanes and
tsunamis, have done, even thousands of miles away from us, only hours after
those wounds have been inflicted.

We accept and even thrive in this complex, interwoven world. Our most
abandoned moments in this new world? When our electronic umbilical cords get
severed. When the power goes out don't you still find yourself reaching for
the light-switch? How about trying to "google" some piece of information? Or
longing for news-updates that you cannot access? 

The great blessing of local, regional, and national emergency response
networks is that they are comprehensive and coordinated with all sorts of
emergency services. The curse of our twenty-first century response to
emergencies is that they depend upon the power grid to work. If you are
really in the middle of a major emergency - like the killer tornadoes that
have so decimated the Midwest and South this spring - you do not have access
to any of the vast sources of information and "new updates" that are
available to all those who are not personally caught up in the whirlwind.
Those most in need of information are those who are most cut off from
information.

When the disciples hunkered down in the upper room after the crucifixion -
let's call them 'upper room shut-ins' -- they were "off the grid" of their
cultural information highway.

The rest of the sermon can be found by joining Sermons.com. 

_____________________

Keepers of the Aquarium

Paul Harvey, the well known radio broadcaster, once said, "Too many
Christians are no longer fishers of men but keepers of the aquarium."

I take that to mean that we Christians are more concerned about preserving
the Church than we are about touching the lives of other people, more
concerned about preserving our "religion" than we are about helping people
discover the source of wholeness, the fountain of living water that wells up
to eternal life.

Richard J. Fairchild, The Last Words of Jesus
_______________________________

Prayer Doesn't Change God; It Changes Me

In a scene from Shadowlands, a film based on the life of C.S. Lewis, Lewis
has returned to Oxford from London, where he has just been married to Joy
Gresham, an American woman, in a private Episcopal ceremony performed at her
hospital bedside. She is dying from cancer, and, through the struggle with
her illness, she and Lewis have been discovering the depth of their love for
each other. As Lewis arrives at the college where he teaches, he is met by
Harry Harrington, an Episcopal priest, who asks what news there is. Lewis
hesitates; then, deciding to speak of the marriage and not the cancer, he
says, "Ah, good news, I think, Harry. Yes, good news."

Harrington, not aware of the marriage and thinking that Lewis is referring
to Joy's medical situation, replies, "I know how hard you've been praying
.... Now, God is answering your prayer."

"That's not why I pray, Harry," Lewis responds. "I pray because I can't help
myself. I pray because I'm helpless. I pray because the need flows out of me
all the time, waking and sleeping. It doesn't change God; it changes me."

Thomas G. Long, Whispering the Lyrics, CSS Publishing Company.

__________________________

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