<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1" http-equiv=Content-Type>
<META name=GENERATOR content="MSHTML 8.00.6001.18876">
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=JoeParrish@compuserve.com href="mailto:JoeParrish@compuserve.com">Joe
Parrish</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org
href="mailto:PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org">PROPERTALK.topic@ecunet.org</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, March 07, 2010 1:05 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Sermon Points - Luke 13:1-9 - Part 5</DIV></DIV>
<DIV><BR></DIV><FONT face=TimesNewRoman>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>We moderns (and postmoderns) are also adept at
externalizing. In addition, our contemporary affection for the adequacy of
causal explanations escalates our use of diversionary tactics. Jesus, however,
twice brings the judgment home by employing first-order discourse: “unless you
repent you will all likewise perish” (13:3, 5).</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><A
href="http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/12-1_Luke-Acts/12-1_Simpson.pdf"><FONT
size=4>http://www2.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/12-1_Luke-Acts/12-1_Simpson.pdf</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>Gary M. Simpson</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV><FONT size=4>
<DIV>"It’s my punishment," she said, "for smoking these damned cigarettes. God
couldn’t get my attention any other way, so he made my baby sick." Then she
started crying so hard that what she said next came out like a siren: "Now I’m
supposed to stop, but I can’t stop. I’m going to kill my own child!"</DIV>
<DIV align=left>
<P>This was hard for me to hear. I decided to forego reflective listening and
concentrate on remedial theology instead. "I don’t believe in a God like that,"
I said. "The God I know wouldn’t do something like that." The only problem with
my response was that it messed with the mother’s worldview at the very moment
she needed it most. </P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=641">http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=641</A></FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>Barbara Brown Taylor, 1998</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV align=left><FONT size=4>In the little Georgia country church of my
childhood, there was a story the older folks loved to tell again and again,
laughing over it and savoring it and embellishing it. The tale involved a
certain Sunday night in October 1938. Evening prayer services were in full swing
when a man named Sam, a member of the congregation who lived down the road from
the church, charged into the prayer meeting trembling with fear and excitement.
Finally gaining the breath to speak, he shouted, "Martians are attacking the
earth in spaceships! Some of ‘em have already landed in New Jersey!" The
preacher halted in mid-sentence; the congregation stared at Sam blankly. "I
s-s-swear," he stammered, now a little unsure of his footing. "I h-h-heard it on
the radio."</FONT></DIV>
<DIV align=left>
<P><FONT size=4>What Sam had heard, of course, was Orson Welles’s now infamous
Mercury Theater radio production of <I>War of the Worlds, </I>but no one in the
congregation was aware of that at the moment. For all they knew, the world
outside was coming to a flaming end. The little flock looked apprehensively at
the preacher, but he was mute and indecisive, never having had a sermon
disrupted by interplanetary invasion. Finally one of the oldest members of the
congregation, a red-clay farmer of modest education, stood up, gripped the pew
in front of him with his large, callused hands, and said, "I ‘speck what Sam
says ain’t completely true, but if it is true, we’re in the right place here in
church. Let’s go on with the meetin’." And so they did.</FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4><></FONT></P>
<P><FONT size=4>No one bothered to tell them that the patients in the back ward
were abandoned cases, so they visited them regularly, bringing flowers, fresh
baked cookies, prayer, cheerfulness and mercy. Before long, some of the patients
began to respond, a few of them even becoming healthy enough to move to other
wards. </FONT></P>
<P><A href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2165"><FONT
size=4>http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2165</FONT></A></P></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Thomas G. Long., 2001</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jesus’ reply is shocking. One would expect that Jesus would at
least lash out against Pilate and call down curses on such a cruel man. But no
such venomous vindictiveness is pronounced against Pilate. Instead, the tables
are turned against the reporters: "unless you repent, you will all perish."
</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>...this view is reflected in John 9:2 where Jesus came across
a blind man and the disciples asked Jesus whose sin it was that resulted in him
being born blind. Jesus rejected that view when he replied, "Neither this man
nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed
in him." </FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Clent3nt.html">http://www.cresourcei.org/lectionary/YearC/Clent3nt.html</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Jirair Tashjian</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - - -</FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>"Why?" we ask. "Why did this happen to them? Why did this
happen to me?" Probably for no good reason. Bad and good things happen all the
time. As Willimon rightly argues, the notion that only good things happen to
good people was put to rest when Jesus was put upon the cross. The more crucial
question is, in all circumstances of joy and pain, can you trust God to be God?
Can you love God without linking such love to the good or bad things that come
your way in life?</FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><A
href="http://day1.org/1758-beyond_whats_fair">http://day1.org/1758-beyond_whats_fair</A></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4>Robert Dunham</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4>- - - -
-</FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT size=4><FONT
size=4></FONT></FONT></FONT></FONT> </DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>