[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Aug. 16 (Proper 15B) John 6:51-58

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Aug. 16 (Proper 15B). They 
focus on John 6:51-58, where Jesus says, "I am the living bread that came 
down from heaven."

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Dick Donovan


A THOUGHT ON PREACHING:  Some plague the people with too long sermons; for 
the faculty of listening is a tender thing, and soon becomes weary and 
satiated. (Martin Luther)


TITLE:  Jesus' Forever Bread


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  When we partake of Jesus (whether through the Lord's 
Supper or just believing in him), he gives us the sustenance that satisfies 
today and through eternity.


SCRIPTURE:  John 6:51-58

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FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:

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

Scroll down to John 6.  There are two sermons on this text posted there.


TRUE STORY:

There is real hunger in this country.  In his autobiography, Malcolm X told 
of his childhood.  He said:

     "My mother was working, when she could find any kind of job.
     In Lansing, there was a bakery where, for a nickel,
     a couple of us children would buy a tall flour sack
     of day-old bread and cookies,
     and then walk the two miles back out into the country to our house.

     "Our mother knew...dozens of ways to cook things with bread and out of 
bread.
     Stewed tomatoes with bread, maybe that would be a meal.
     Something like French toast, if we had any eggs.
     Bread pudding, sometimes with raisins in it.
     If we got hold of some hamburger,
     it came to the table more bread than meat.
     The cookies that were always in the sack with the bread,
     we just gobbled down straight.

     "But there were times when there wasn't even a nickel
     and we would be so hungry that we were dizzy.
     My mother would boil a big pot of dandelion greens, and we would eat 
that.
     I remember that...children would tease us, that we ate 'fried grass.'

     "Sometimes, if we were lucky,
     we would have oatmeal or cornmeal mush three times a day.
     Or mush in the morning and cornbread at night."
- - - - -

I read a story about a hungry man who, through the kindness of one man, 
received what I call Jesus' "Forever Bread."  The man's name was Larry 
Stewart.  In 1971, Larry was working as a salesman, but wasn't selling 
anything.  When I say that he was hungry, I mean that he hadn't eaten in two 
days.  Finally, in desperation, he went to the Dixie Diner and ordered a 
breakfast for which he could not pay.  When the check came, he confessed his 
plight to the owner, Ted Horn.  Instead of calling the police, Ted reached 
down under Larry's chair and came up with a twenty dollar bill in his hand. 
He said, "Son, you must have dropped this."

Larry said, "It was like a fortune to me."  But listen to what he said next. 
Listen carefully.  Larry said, "Thank you, Lord."  You see, he knew where 
that twenty dollar bill came from.  I'm sure that he thanked Ted Horn, but 
he said, "Thank you, Lord!"  He went on to say:

     "Right then, I just made a promise.
     I said, 'Lord, if you ever put me in a position to help other people,
     I'll do it."

You see, Larry had received food for his stomach, but there was something in 
him that understood that he could have even more -- food for his soul.  And 
so he said:

     "Lord, if you ever put me in a position to help other people,
     I'll do it."

Larry got his life turned around financially, and he remembered Ted Horn's 
kindness -- and he remembered his promise to the Lord.  He became a Secret 
Santa.  For 26 Christmases, he anonymously gave hundred dollar bills to 
people in need.  During those years, he gave away more than a million 
dollars.  I don't know how many people he helped during those years, but I 
know that the Lord helped him.  The Lord gave Larry food for his soul.  The 
satisfaction that he received never rang hollow.

- - - - -

THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

God's help is nearer than the door.

William G. Benham

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

It is impossible for that person to despair
who remembers that his helper is omnipotent.

Jeremy Taylor

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

God is no distant deity but a constant reality,
a very present help whenever needs occur.
So?  So live like it.  And laugh like it!
(The apostle) Paul did.
While he lived, he drained very drop of joy
out of every day that passed.

Charles R. Swindoll

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

O Lord, support us all the day long,
until the shadows lengthen
and the evening comes,
and the busy world is hushed,
and the fever of life is over,
and our work is done.

Then in Thy mercy grant us a safe lodging,
and a holy rest,
and peace at the last.

Book of Common Prayer

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

God does not offer us a way out of testings of life.
He offers us a way through,
and that makes all the difference.

W. T. Purkiser

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

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HYMN STORY:  Now Thank We All Our God

Martin Rinckart (1586-1649 A.D.) was born in Eilenburg, Germany -- a small 
city near Leipzig, which in the 20th century ended up behind the Iron 
Curtain in East Germany for several decades.

Rinckart studied for the Lutheran ministry, and was called to serve as 
pastor of the church at Eilenburg, his home town.   He arrived there just 
before the beginning of the Thirty Years War, a war that devastated Germany 
in general and Eilenburg in particular.  Being a walled city, Eilenburg 
became a place of refuge and soon became badly overcrowded, rendering it 
susceptible to disease.  The plague of 1637 decimated the town, killing 
8,000 people, including Rinckart's wife.  Rinckart often conducted forty or 
fifty funerals in a day for plague victims.

It seems incongruous that a hymn like "Now Thank We All Our God" should come 
out of such circumstances.  However, Rinckart wrote the first two stanzas, 
not as a hymn for public worship, but as a table grace for his family.  At 
the end of the war, his hymn was sung to celebrate the signing of the Peace 
of Westphalia -- the treaty that ended the war.

But we would know nothing of this hymn except for the good work of Catherine 
Winkworth, an English woman who translated many German hymns into English --  
this hymn and "Christ the Lord is Risen Today" being the best known.

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


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BIBLIOGRAPHY:

Barclay, William, The Daily Study Bible, "The Gospel of John," Vol. 1 
(Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press, 1955)

Borchert, Gerald L., New American Commentary: John 1-11, Vol. 25A 
(Nashville: Broadman Press, 1996)

Brown, Raymond, The Anchor Bible: The Gospel According to John I-XII (Garden 
City: Doubleday, 1966)

Bruce, F. F., The Gospel of John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing 
Co., 1983).

Brueggemann, Walter; Cousar, Charles B.; Gaventa, Beverly R. and Newsome, 
James D., Texts for Preaching: A Lectionary Commentary Based on the 
NRSV--Year B (Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press, 1993)

Carson, D. A., The Pillar New Testament Commentary: The Gospel of John 
(Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1991).

Craddock, Fred R.; Hayes, John H.; Holladay, Carl R.; and Tucker, Gene M., 
Preaching Through the Christian Year B (Valley Forge: Trinity Press 
International, 1993)

Gossip, Arthur John and Howard, Wilbert F., The Interpreter's Bible, Volume 
8 (Nashville: Abingdon, 1952)

Guelich, Robert A., Word Biblical Commentary:  Mark 1 - 8:26 (Dallas:  Word 
Books, 1989)

Howard-Brook, Wes, Becoming the Children of God: John's Gospel and Radical 
Discipleship (New York: Maryknoll, 1994).

Lincoln, Andrew T., Black's New Testament Commentary: The Gospel According 
to Saint John (London: Continuum, 2005)

Kostenberger, Andreas J., Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament: 
John (Grand Rapids:  Baker Academic, 2004)

Marcus, Joel, The Anchor Bible:  Mark 1-8 (New York:  Doubleday, 1999)

Morris, Leon, The New International Commentary on the New Testament: The 
Gospel According to John (Grand Rapids: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 
1995).

O'Day, Gail R., The New Interpreter's Bible, Volume IX (Nashville: Abingdon, 
1995)

Ridderbos, Herman (translated by John Vriend), The Gospel of John: A 
Theological Commentary (Grand Rapids:  William B. Eerdmans Publishing 
Company, 1997)

Sloyan, Gerald, "John," Interpretation (Atlanta: John Knox Press, 1988)

Smith, D. Moody, Jr., Abingdon New Testament Commentaries: John (Nashville: 
Abingdon, 1999)

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