[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Illustrations for Oct. 18th

[joeparrish at compuserve.com]

Sermon Resources for Proper 24:

 

    Mark 10:35-45  -  The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power
    Mark 10:35-45 -   Operation Omega  by Leonard Sweet

 

Mark 10, sermon titled “The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power" 

 

During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that George Washington got back on horse and rode off.

 

Where did Washington learn such leadership skills? I have no doubt he learned them here. In these words of Jesus: Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. The young corporal had these words modeled to him from the man at the top. The disciples, likewise, receive from their leader a picture of servant hood.

 

And it is high time they start imitating their leader. It is now five days before Jesus' crucifixion. Four days before his betrayal and trial. One day before the clearing of the temple. A few hours before the Triumphal Entry. If the Disciples are going to start appropriating Jesus' teachings in their life it ought to be now. But it doesn't happen. Moments before the most crucial events in their life they are a bickering, petty, bad-tempered quarrelsome lot. We need to learn from this not-so-flattering moment in the life of the disciples.

 

How is it that critical moments can be so close at hand and we are off wondering what's in it for me? It has to do with the three poison pills of:

 

1. Position

2. Prestige

3. And Power

 

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.


_______________________

 

Second Sermon by Len Sweet

 

The full text of the following sermon is available at www.eSermons.com. 
Sign up today at: http://www.esermons.com/signup Or call: 1-800-777-7731.

 

[Members: Please see Mark 10 the sermon entitled ‘Operation Omega’] 

 

Sometimes we can get things so perfectly wrong that we don’t have even a hint that we’ve stepped in it again. Here’s one example:

 

Drive through any town or suburb in America and you will see signs announcing the names of local churches. There will be a “First Presbyterian, a “First United Methodist,” a “First Baptist,” a “First United Church of Christ.” Only after the “First” designation has been snapped up to later churches start to shop around for a different name. “Second” isn’t very popular. Better to be “Third” or “Fourth.” There is even one “Twelfth Presbyterian Church” that I know of. Every church wants to be “First.” And if they can’t be first, most abandon being numbered altogether.

 

There is a church in Dayton, Ohio, founded and pastored by the Rev. Dr. Daryl Ward, that has taken a step out of that traditional line up. They call themselves “Omega Baptist Church.” What is “Omega?” “Omega” is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. The divine declaration of being “the alpha and the omega” is another way of saying “the first and the last.” In other words, “Omega Baptist Church” isn’t claiming “first” place for itself. It is putting itself at the end of the line. It’s another way of calling itself the “Last Baptist Church.”

 

Being last, being the bottom of the heap, being so far out of the competition that the competition doesn’t even know you are there, is so NOT the place any of us want to be. The American dream of “pulling yourself up by your bootstraps,” of homegrown grit and a gimcrack, “go-get-‘em” spirit, is the capstone of our society. The reward of hard work is to get ahead, get to the top, to be first in all you do. Second place is second rate. We all want to “go for the gold.” We all want to win. 

 

James and John, the “Sons of Zebedee,” certainly did. In today’s gospel text they try to shake Jesus down. “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you.” Isn’t that a shake-down? They want to ensure for themselves the best seats in the house at the messianic banquet in the glorified future. They want to sit at the head of the table, on the right and the left hand of Jesus himself. They want the honor that they think should come from following Jesus. 

 

But Jesus turns their hoped-for hierarchy on its head…

 

___________________________

 

Everybody Wants to Be Somebody

 

Everybody wants to be somebody. Since the dawn of history, human beings have been trying to move up the scale of importance. The clincher used by the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve was "when you eat of [the tree of good and evil], your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Henri Nouwen says that ever since then, we have been tempted to replace love with power. "The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led." This is a theme running through the Bible, through human history and through our own psyche.

 

Kenneth L. Carder, The Call to Downward Mobility, The Christian Century, p. 869


_____________________

 

One Positive Thing

 

"There are many negative things that can be said about James and John," writes William Barclay. "They were nakedly ambitious and proud: they wanted, and believed they deserved, places of honor in Jesus' kingdom. They were ignorant and insensitive: their request for places of honor came right after Jesus had told of His coming suffering and death. But there's one positive thing you can say about James and John: they believed in Jesus. Here was a poor, homeless, persecuted carpenter and yet James and John believed Jesus was a king. They believed that He would conquer the power structure of Rome."  Even their crude ambition reflected their faith in Christ. 

 

William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, pp. 254, 255.

____________________

 

 

Accomplish the Vision of your Church, Let Sermons.com Professionals Help:

 

Stewardship Campaigns
www.sermons.com/Stewardship_Campaign.asp

 

Capital Campaign
www.sermons.com/Capital_Campaign.asp

 

Church Loans
www.sermons.com/Church_Loans.asp

 

Church Construction Company
www.sermons.com/Church_Construction_Company.asp


Church Logo
www.sermons.com/Church_Logo.asp

 

Church Website Design
www.sermons.com/church_website.asp


Church Audio-Visual Installation
www.sermons.com/Church_Audio-Visual_Installation.asp

 

____________________

 

 

Looking for an EZ Pass

 

On many of our nation’s toll roads, rather than stopping at a toll-booth to toss some change in a hopper, you can now purchase a transponder, sometimes called an EZ-Pass, and zip through in the left lanes without even slowing down to the acceptable speed limit. Instead of cash, tickets and paper receipts, it’s a microchip tag placed on your windshield containing pertinent data which eases your way. Your data is quickly read by a tollbooth electronic antenna as your car zooms on through. It automatically deducts your appropriate toll tax. This computerized collection system then sends a monthly statement to your home with tallies of times and places for your records. EZ-Pass is like a debit card for your car, only quicker. No more stopping at the tollgate, the narrow gate.
 
Jesus says, I am the narrow gate. There’s no quick way in. There’s no shortcut. If he wasn’t the Christ himself already, he’d be the perfect patron saint of tollgates.
 
Sometimes it seems that everybody wants the easy way to the front of the line, a quick way to glory and fast track to success. Including James and John, the brothers Zebedee, who want front-row seats numbering two and three. Put yourself in their shoes for a moment and see if you can identify with their self-centeredness. These guys gave up everything to follow Jesus. They followed Jesus when nobody knew him. They followed Jesus before his miracles. Now that he was popular, James and John were feeling the swell of fame. After all, they were Jesus’ best friends, his disciples! So we can understand why two of them came to Jesus with their request.
 
David Beckett, EZ-Pass
____________________

Why Do We Seek?

 

A simple test of character is the question: "Why?" Why does the candidate seek the power a political position holds? Why does the actor seek fame in Hollywood or on Broadway? Why does the business person seek wealth or the climb up the corporate ladder? Why does the person of faith seek a position of ministry?

 

There is nothing intrinsically wrong with ambition in any of these fields. In fact, most people use ambition to better themselves and their surroundings. But the question must be asked: why do they seek? Do they want to wealth and fame and power for themselves alone? Or do they want to use these ambitions for the greater good? These were the questions Jesus asked his followers when the subject of ambition raised its head among the Apostles.

 

Larry Broding, The Glory of Christian Leadership

______________________

 

 “Others”

 

In just a few short weeks we will begin to see people in uniforms in shopping malls ringing bells collecting donations for the poor. They are doing the work of the Salvation Army.

In 1878, when the Salvation Army was really beginning to make its mark, men and women from all over the world began to enlist. A man who had once dreamed of becoming a bishop in another denomination crossed the Atlantic from America to England to enlist in the Salvation Army instead. His name was Samuel Brengle. Brengle left a fine pastorate to join William Booth's Army. At first General Booth accepted his services reluctantly and grudgingly. Booth said to Brengle, "You've been your own boss too long." So in order to instill humility in Brengle, he made him work by cleaning the boots of other trainees.

Discouraged, Brengle said to himself, "Have I followed my own fancy across the Atlantic in order to black boots?" Then, as in a vision, he saw Jesus bending over the feet of rough, uneducated fishermen. "Lord," he whispered, "you washed their feet; I will black their shoes."

Samuel Brengle went on to establish the Salvation Army in America. At the time of his death, the Salvation Army was thriving in both the United States and in Canada. Just before his death Brengle sent out a short memo to all of his top leaders. This memo had one single word written on it: "Others." 

 

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com

 

__________________

 

 

I Hate To Leave This Church

 

A Methodist pastor once wrote about power and politics in his denomination. Methodist preachers, he notes, are under the care of a bishop. Bishops, in turn, are Methodist preachers who are elected by fellow Methodist preachers after an extensive campaign for the office in which the candidate tries not to be caught campaigning. As he observes, It is a long-standing Methodist tradition that bishops must not appear to have sought their office and, once elected, the new bishop must make a public declaration that "I didn't seek this office and I didn't want it but, once the Lord calls" ... Methodist preachers take all of this with a grain of salt, the same way Baptist congregations have learned to be somewhat skeptical when one of their preachers moves on to a better church claiming, "I hate to leave this church and I would rather stay here, but the Lord calls." Baptists note that the Lord rarely calls someone out of one church into another church unless that church has a higher salary. Methodists have likewise noted that there have been few preachers who, once they are elected bishop, turn the job down.

 

"Teacher, we want you to put us on your right and on your left. But keep it quiet. Don't make it too obvious. Others may become offended that we asked first." By telling us this story, Mark knows what you and I know: we are prone to the same desire for privilege and protected status. We want a Jesus who will give us what we want, a Lord who can shower a little power on us, a Savior who can make us better than we are.

 

William G. Carter, No Box Seats in the Kingdom, CSS Publishing.

 

____________________

 

 What's in It for Me?

 

A number of years ago, a small book appeared for ministers. Titled The Penguin Principles, it attempted to help naive clergy get a handle on the people of their congregations. Most of the material in the book was written with tongue in cheek, so it has some truth in it. According to the book, the first principle of church life goes like this: "Despite the pious things we say, at any given time, less than five percent of any group in the church is operating with purely Christian motivation. The other 95 percent is asking, 'What's in it for me?'"

 

William G. Carter, No Box Seats in the Kingdom, CSS Publishing.

  

______________________

  

Service

 

Have you heard the beautiful children's story about the three trees? The trees were talking in the forest one day about their dreams for the future. The first tree said it would like to be made into a cradle, so that it might go on living as a support for the fragile life of a tiny new baby. The second tree wanted to be made into a big ship, so that it might go on living, carrying important cargo and influential people to exotic new lands. The third tree longed to stay right where it was, existing only as a tree, but growing ever taller, and pointing ever higher, to remind everyone that there is a God in heaven who loves them.  Those were their dreams:  One wanted to be a cradle, one wanted to be a mighty ship, and one wanted to be a tall tree, pointing people toward God.

 

But then one day the woodcutters came and chopped down the three trees...and destroyed their dreams.  The first tree was not made into a cradle, but into a simple feeding trough, a manger for animals.  But the manger was sold to a family in Bethlehem, and on the night Jesus was born, that simple feed box became the cradle for the Christ Child.

 

The second tree was built into a boat, but not the kind it had dreamed of--not a mighty ocean-going vessel--but a tiny inexpensive fishing boat. A man named Simon Peter bought the boat, and on one warm afternoon when the crowds pressed in, Jesus himself climbed aboard that small fishing boats that he might preach good news to the multitudes.

 

The third tree also was deprived of its dream…

 

The conclusion to this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons for Proper 24 can be accessed at www.Sermons.com.

 


-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20091014/3c9b61a9/attachment.htm>