[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Dec. 20 (Advent 4C) Luke 1:39-55

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Dec. 20 (Advent 4C). They focus
on Luke 1:39-55, where Mary sings her song of praise and joy that we call
the Magnificat.


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Dick Donovan



A THOUGHT ON PREACHING:  In a sense, that's what a sermon is for: to hang
the holy possible in front of the mind of the listeners and lead them to
that wonderful moment when they say, "If it were true, it would do." To pass
from that to belief is the work of the Holy Spirit, not of the preacher or
the teacher. (Joseph Sittler -- courtesy of Fr. Charles Hoffacker)


TITLE:  A Life Worth Living


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  God doesn't promise us a bed of roses, but he does
promise us a life worth living.


SCRIPTURE:  Luke 1:39-55

I came across a story from one of those Chicken Soup books that I would like
to share with you.  It was written by Sean (pronounced Shawn) Coxe, who had
been feeling sorry for himself after suffering a series of personal crises.
He spent his last $300 to travel to Florida to see his father.  On their
final evening together, they went to the beach to watch the sun set over the
Gulf of Mexico.  It was beautiful -- one of those moments that would bring
joy to any heart -- but it didn't bring joy to Sean's heart.  He said:

"You know, Dad,
if we could take all the great moments
we experience in our lifetimes
and put them back-to-back
they wouldn't last twenty minutes."

What a miserable thing to say in the midst of enjoying one of those precious
moments.

"You know, Dad,
if we could take all the great moments
we experience in our lifetimes
and put them back-to-back
they wouldn't last twenty minutes."

But his father just thought for a moment -- and then looked at Sean -- and
said, "Precious, aren't they!"

That says it, doesn't it!  "Precious, aren't they!"  Those occasional,
out-of-the-blue times when life just heaps on joy are indeed precious, and
we need to allow ourselves the pleasure of capturing their joy.

Yes, there will be tough times.  But we can deal with those as they come.
In the meantime, let's enjoy the good times as they come.

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FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:
http://www.lectionary.org/SermLinks/NT/NT03luke.htm

Scroll down to the correct chapter and verse.


TRUE STORY:

See the Sean Coxe story above.


THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

In the early 1800s, Alexis de Tocqueville traveled throughout America and
wrote about what he observed.  He was a keen observer indeed.  Some of the
things that he wrote still strike us as true, even though nearly two hundred
years have passed.  Here is one example:

"In America I saw the freest and most enlightened men, placed in the
happiest circumstances which the world affords:  it seemed to me as if a
cloud habitually hung upon their brow, and I thought them serious and almost
sad even in their pleasures..., forever brooding over advantages they do not
possess" (From Tocqueville's book, Democracy in America).

In other words, we have lots of reasons to be happy, but we can't quite pull
it off.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

There are only two kinds of people in the end:
those who say to God, "Thy will be done,"
and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done."
All that are in hell, choose it.
Without that self choice there could be no hell.
No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it.
Those who seek, find.  To those who knock it is opened.

C. S. Lewis, The Great Divorce

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Shared joy is double joy
and shared sorrow is half-sorrow.

Swedish proverb

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

We can choose to live meaningfully and happily amidst adversity.  Dr. Lewis
Thomas wrote about Senator Hubert Humphrey, who was admitted to Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center for the cancer which ultimately killed him.
This is what Dr. Thomas observed:

Senator Humphrey "was somber upon admission, and knew that his chances for
survival were almost nil.  But the "almost" was the focus of his attention.
He transformed himself, I think quite deliberately, into the ebullient,
talkative Humphrey -- not so much for his own sake as for what he saw around
him.

"There were about 40 patients on his floor, and Humphrey took on the whole
floor as his new duty.  Between his own trips to X-ray or various other
diagnostic units, he made ward rounds in his bathrobe and slippers, stopping
at every bedside for brief but exhilarating conversations, then ending up in
the nurses' station, bring all the nurses and interns to their feet smiling.
During his hospital stay, Humphrey's rounds became famous.

"One evening I saw him taking Gerald Ford along, introducing him delightedly
as a brand-new friend for each of the patients.  Nodding and smiling
together, Ford leaning down to be close to a sick patient's faint voice,
they were the best of professionals, very high class."

Dr. Lewis Thomas, The Youngest Scientist

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

If we answer the call to discipleship, where will it lead us?
What decisions and partings will it demand?
To answer this question we shall have to go to Him,
for only He knows the answer.
Only Jesus Christ who bids us follow Him,
knows the journey's end.
But we do know that it will be a road of boundless mercy.
Discipleship means joy.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *


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HYMN STORY:  Hark, the Glad Sound!

This hymn was written by Philip Doddridge in 1735.  Doddridge was a pastor
of a Dissenting church, which means that he did not accept the authority of
the Church of England.  He wrote this hymn and many others -- perhaps 400 in
all -- not for publication but to be sung by his congregation.  His
congregation didn't use hymnals, but instead had someone sing the hymn line
by line from the pulpit with the congregation repeating each line in turn.

Most of Doddridge's hymns were inspired by a particular scripture, and that
was true of this hymn, which was inspired by Isaiah 61:1-2.  The King James
Version reads:

"The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me;
because the Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek;
he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives,
and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,
and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all that mourn."

When Jesus spoke in his hometown synagogue in Nazareth, he quoted those
verses from Isaiah and then said, "Today this scripture has been fulfilled
in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).  In other words, Jesus was saying that he had
come to preach good news, to bind up those who were broken, to proclaim
liberty to captives, and to comfort those who mourn.  It is in celebration
of this work of Christ that we sing this hymn.


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


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