[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for December 6th - Part 1 of 2

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Advent 2:

     Luke 3:1-6 - "So You Want To Go To Bethlehem, Do You?"
     Luke 3:1-6 - "If This Is Your Faith, Tell Me Your Stories" by Leonard
Sweet

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Luke 3, the sermon titled "So You Want To Go To
Bethlehem, Do You?"

Each year, during the season of Advent, the church sets off on a journey.
We begin to prepare our hearts and our minds for the coming of the
Christ-child, so that this time he will have a proper place to be born.

And we think we know the way to Bethlehem. We can find it on the map. It's
not that far from Jerusalem, by today's standards; shouldn't be a problem.

But the problem is that so much has changed since our last visit. A whole
year has passed, a year that brought many changes in our lives, some of them
good, some of them not so good, some of them heartbreaking. The geographic
map of life has changed, and even old familiar places don't seem the same
any more. So maybe we could use a little help in finding our way back to
Bethlehem this year. That is, if you still want to go.

If we were to ask any of the writers of the gospels how to get to Bethlehem,
I think we might be surprised by their answer.

"So you want to go to Bethlehem, do you? Tell you what to do: go on out to
the desert, outside of the relatively safe confines of Jerusalem. Keep going
till you get to the Jordan River. You'll know it when you see it.
It's the only river around these parts. You'll find a man there - strange
looking old coot - standing knee-deep in the water, just baptizing folks
left and right, as fast as he can. That'll be John the Baptist. You ask him
how to get to Bethlehem. If you want to get to Bethlehem, you have to start
there at the Jordan with John. He's the only one who can help you get
there....

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by
joining www.eSermons.com.
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How many of you remember or have every played the "Six Degrees of Kevin
Bacon" game?

In the mid-90s this silly party game challenged players to find a way to
link the actor Kevin Bacon with any other actor using no more than six
connections. (For instance, Val Kilmer was in "Top Gun" with Tom Cruise who
was in "A Few Good Men," which also featured Kevin Bacon.) Eventually what
was really just a movie trivia game became a way for us to see ourselves as
somehow related to anyone else on the planet with just six simple steps.
Poking fun at himself and at this trend, Kevin Bacon starred in a Visa check
card commercial. In the commercial a cashier won't take Bacon's check when
the actor has no identification on him. Bacon leaves and returns with a
group of people, explaining to the cashier, "Okay, I was in a movie with an
extra, Eunice, whose hairdresser, Wayne, attended Sunday School with Father
O'Neill, who plays racquetball with Dr. Sanjay, who recently removed the
appendix of Kim, who dumped you sophomore year. So you see, we are
practically brothers!"

By 2005 the quest for the "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon" took on a serious
scientific status when The National Geographic Society, IBM, and the Witt
Family Foundation launched "The Genographic Project." Although originally
designed to trace the migration patterns of certain indigenous peoples,
anyone could participate in the Project. All that was required was to send a
DNA sample - a simple cheek swab - and the scientists would analyze the
sample's mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosomes - the location for the genetic
markers for specific populations. These genetic markers would allow the
researcher to trace the long distant ancestry, the genetic history, of any
individual.

What the researchers hadn't figured into their analytic assignment, however,
was the fact that anytime you try and put a big family together squabbles
are going erupt.

The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining
www.Sermons.com
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Shake It Off and Step Up!

A parable is told of a farmer who owned an old mule. The mule fell into the
farmer's well. The farmer heard the mule braying and went to the site.
After assessing the situation the farmer sympathized with the mule but
decided that neither the mule nor the well was worth the trouble of saving.
Instead he called his neighbors and asked them to bring their shovels and
bury the poor mule and put him out of his misery.

The mule seemed hysterical. When the dirt struck his back he shook it off.
As the farmer and his friends continued to shovel a thought struck the
farmer. After each shovel of dirt was thrown onto the mule he said, "Shake
it off and step up." The mule did what he asked, after every shovel of dirt.
After a time the old mule stepped triumphantly out of the well. What seemed
to bury him actually became his road to freedom.

There is an alternative to every impossible situation. The way is not always
visible to us. But our task is not to work miracles, that is up to God. Our
responsibility is to prepare the way, committing every ounce of energy we
have to the possibility of the transforming power of God, remembering that a
single act of kindness can bring hope to generations yet to come.

Keith Wagner, Possibilities Unlimited
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There Is Work to Do!

What a message for us at Advent! "Let every heart/Prepare him room" we sing.
Perhaps we would do well to say let every heart get out the bulldozers and
backhoes, the rock crushers and road graders:

There are mountains that need to come down - mountains of racism, sexism,
ageism, and any other "-ism" that blocks our way to healthy relationships
with one another and with our Lord.

There are valleys to be filled - valleys of depression, despair, loneliness,
grief, pain, any of which can keep us from the rich relationship the Savior
offers and that keep us from enjoying the fellowship of the faith.

There are crooked places to be made straight - yes, there is perversity,
even among those we might never imagine; fine exteriors mask rotten
interiors of abuse, neglect, immorality, even violence.

There are rough places to be made smooth - rough places that have come
because of oppression and injustice.

There is work to do! Bring on the heavy equipment!

David E. Leininger, One Shock after Another
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