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<DIV>Sermons for Proper 8: </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> Luke 9:51-62–
<STRONG>“Journey to Jerusalem” </STRONG> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> Luke 9:51-62–
<STRONG>“How to Handle Criticism? Keep Moving” </STRONG>by Leonard Sweet</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Luke 9 - the sermon titled "Journey to
Jerusalem"</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV>In 1536 Reformer William Farel recruited John Calvin to come to Geneva,
Switzerland to pastor St. Peter's Church. Calvin, a sickly man all his life, was
on his way to Strasbourg to be a quiet scholar, but he relented under this need,
this request, to become a pastor.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Two years later, the
city fathers publicly banished Calvin from Geneva. Actually, Calvin felt
relieved. The moral chaos of the city was terrible. He went to Strasbourg. Three
years later in 1541, the same city fathers who had tried to humiliate him begged
Calvin to return and help restore order.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">He didn't want to go
this second time, either, "yet," he wrote, "because I know that I am not my own
master, I offer my heart as a true sacrifice to the Lord."</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">This became the
motto of Calvin's life. His emblem would include a hand holding out a heart to
God with the inscription, prompte et sincere ("promptly and sincerely").
Promptly and sincerely Calvin answered a call to very difficult
task.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">Jesus had moved from
obscurity to prominence in a matter of months. News of his miraculous healing
had spread throughout the region. Crowds flocked to benefit from his powerful
presence. His disciples followed him with enthusiasm. The long-awaited kingdom
was at hand.</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">But his fortunes
soon began to change. Opposition developed. The crowds got smaller. The zeal of
the disciples began to wane. Caesar’s reign became more self-evident than God’s
dawning reign. It was to this background, Luke tells us, that Jesus resolutely
“set his face to go to Jerusalem.” Why should he spoil success by going to the
capital? His strength was in the countryside. But there was no changing his
mind. To announce God’s reign, he would have to go to the center of earthly
power. What caused Jesus to journey to Jerusalem?</SPAN></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><SPAN style="COLOR: black">1. First, He Knew
Who He Was.<BR>2. Second, He Knew Where He Was Going.<BR>3. Third, Jesus Knew
Who Walked with Him.</SPAN><SPAN style="COLOR: black"><BR></SPAN> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The rest of this sermon following the outline
above can be obtained by joining <A title=blocked::www.eSermons.com
href="http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/admin/FCKeditor/editor/dialog/www.eSermons.com">www.eSermons.com</A>.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">_______________________</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><FONT size=4
face="Times New Roman"></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Luke 9 - the sermon titled “How to Handle
Criticism? Keep Moving” by Leonard Sweet </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">How do you like it when people criticize you?</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">The person who first said “Sticks and stones can
break my bones, but words can never hurt me” either lived as a hermit or was an
out-and-out liar. Words can hurt. Words do hurt. Words can hurt a lot. Words can
hurt a lot more and do a lot more long-term damage than any puny stick or
stone.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">Studies have shown how lasting an impression, how
lifetime an impact, words can have on children. Children who receive constant
criticisms about their looks, or their brains, or their abilities, grow up
believing the words thrown at them. Some of you here this morning are spending
your adulthood with the sound of “dummy,” “fatso,” “geek,” “airhead,” “loser,”
echoing in your ears.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">Words can stunt spirits. Words can break hearts. We
cut each other’s throats with our tongues.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">So what can we say to those who use words to wound
us? How should we handle our critics? How should we respond to criticism? When
someone throws an arm around our shoulder which is really a hand at our throat,
what do we do? Should we take the criticism to heart? Weigh its content? Let it
roll off our back? Fire back a critical volley of our own in return?</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">I personally like that last option. An
eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a tooth is the most tempting when criticism lashes
out at you red in tooth and claw. You want red? Let’s keep it red. Right?</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">After all we live in a red-in-tooth-and-claw
culture of criticism.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">No matter what news broadcast you listen to, you
won’t hear a “news report.” You’ll get an acid-etched critique of others.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">Real bombs and bullets are being fired off in Iraq
and Afghanistan. But in the war for political power and influence, it is the
constant lobbing of critical grenades that keep our own back yards blasted and
barren of hope.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">The website complaints.com boasts on its home page:
“Often a single complaint posted to Complaints.com about a business appears
higher in the search-result rankings than the home page of the business that is
the subject of the complaint.”</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">If you look at the tv programs we’re watching, and
the magazines we’re reading, it seems we all want our first course to be dishing
dirt.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">Biblically, the “culture of critique” often hasn’t
worked too well for the critics. There are certain Bible stories we tuck our
kids into bed with. But there are others that give parents pause, and could very
well give children nightmares.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in">There is a Christian radio station that promises
listeners it is “Safe for the whole family.” Really? So the Bible is “safe?”
Jesus is “safe?” That was his message? “Come follow me, and I’ll lead you into a
safe life?” You really think all portions of the Bible are “safe for the whole
family?”…</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 5pt 0in"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be
obtained by joining <A title=http://www.sermons.com/
href="http://www.sermons.com/"><FONT
color=#800080>www.Sermons.com</FONT></A></DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">___________________________</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">A New Kingdom Coming</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">John Wycliffe had a vision of a Bible in the
common English tongue. But dogmatists anchored to the past killed him for it.
John Huss dreamed a dream of a responsible Christian life guided by the
scriptures. Traditionalists burned him at the stake. Martin Luther was awakened
to a new reality of God's grace -- an awakening not shared by contemporaries
profiting from the status quo. Consequently, he was hunted for years for
revealing an exciting and preferable future. A kingdom was coming and the powers
of the past could not prevail against it.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Maurice A. Fetty, The Divine Advocacy, CSS
Publishing, Lima, Ohio.</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">___________________</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"><BR>A Whole New Set of Values</DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt"> </DIV>
<DIV style="MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt">Barbara Brown Taylor once said that if a man in
the church loses his job, the pastor may well call this person to offer sympathy
and prayer. But suppose that a pastor one day got wind of the fact that a
certain member of his congregation had gotten a big promotion at work along with
significantly more pay. And suppose the pastor then called this person and said,
"Charlie, I've heard your news and so was wondering if it would be OK if I came
by sometime to pray with you about this. I'm concerned about the temptations
this new venture may throw your way as well as what it may do to your ability to
serve here at church. So I'd like to pray for God's strength for you in the face
of this new success."<BR> <BR>Probably we'd be taken aback. But as Brown
Taylor notes, that is only because we do cordon off parts of our lives from the
total claims Jesus makes on us. We act as though we are our own after all and so
why would the church have anything to say to us so long as life is chugging
along smoothly? If we ask that, however, we reveal that we, too, quietly resist
the same self-denying sacrifice that seems so offensive to some outside the
church. It looks as though the only way you will ever see this self-denial as a
source of comfort is if you die and are reborn. You need to kill off ordinary
ways of defining value and bring to life a whole new set of values. The place to
start is by admitting that without God, you are lost in sin's wilderness and
unable to find your own way out. Once you know that, you are wide open to the
call of the one who hopefully says, “Follow me.”<BR> <BR>Scott Hoezee,
Comments and
Observations<BR>___________________________________________________</DIV>
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