[Propertalk] Sermon Quotes for Proper 19B (Gospel) - 9/13/09 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

So I have been thinking of illustrations of people who have been carrying genuinely heavy crosses. I will tell several, brief stories. 

I know this man who is carrying for his ninety-four year old father who is dying. The burden is heavy. I know of a family who recently cared for their ninety-eight year old mother as she slowly died. The burden was heavy. I know of a young woman who took family leave from Boeing to carry for her dying mother for weeks and months. The burden was heavy. None of these crosses were made out of lightweight aluminum; none of them were made out of soft foam rubber. These crosses were all heavy, heavy like wood. 

A second illustration. Let's talk about parents who care for their sick children. To truly love is to carry the burden and pain of childhood. It is at the heart of love. Now, I could use many examples, but I am thinking of two sets of parents who cared for their children when their children were having seizures. These two children from two different families were having seizures. One particular child has as many as eighteen seizures a night. Then it got down to twelve. Nasty seizures. Day after day, night after night, week after week, month after month. Every night of every week of every month, these parents took care of their children with his nightly episodes of seizures that could not be medically controlled. Both mothers were nurses and both knew of medical resources but those medical resources did not stop the seizures in their children. None of their crosses were made out of lightweight aluminum; none of them were made out of soft foam rubber. These crosses were all heavy, heavy like wood. 

Then, there are illustrations of "I want to help you carry that heavy cross." I am thinking of this woman whose husband had Alzheimer's Disease. The burden was genuinely heavy and friends said to her, "Let us help carry that cross. Let us help you carry that burden. It is too much to carry for person." Not light-weight aluminum. Not painted foam rubber but wood. 

I think of a friend who had hepatitis and was dying of a liver disorder. The people in our parish said, "Let us help you carry that cross. Let us help you carry that burden. It is too heavy for one person to carry." Not light-weight aluminum. Not painted foam rubber but wood.

I think of a woman whose husband was dying of cancer and friends said, "I want to help carry that cross. That cross is too heavy for one person." Not light-weight aluminum. Not painted foam rubber but wood.

St. Francis of Assisi said; "It is in giving that we receive. It is in dying that we are born to a new and living hope." Jesus said, "He who loses his life will find it."

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_brrr_the_water_is__cold.htm

Pastor Edward F. Markquart

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Having come from the seventh grade retreat recently, I am aware again that seventh graders have enormously big hearts that feel the power of suffering. And as these seventh graders talked about the power of death in their lives, the reality and painfulness of divorce in their families, you knew that it hurt. If anyone says, "O, go and head and get a divorce. It doesn't create pain." Such people haven't listened to seventh graders share their pain having lived through divorces. That does not mean that people shouldn't get divorces but let's not pretend that divorces do not cause pain in the children. And I hear those kids say and I am quoting, "I don't know what I would have done without God. I would not have made it through without God. I would have gone crazy without God.

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_b_if_i_were_god.htm

Pastor Edward F. Markquart

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A man by the name of Harold Luccock, a pastor and theologian, wrote the following words about this passage. I found his words illuminating. "Taking up the cross of Christ is a deliberate choice of something that could be evaded. To take up a burden that we are under no compulsion to take up except for the love of Christ living inside of us. It makes the choice of taking upon ourselves the burdens of other people's lives. Of putting ourselves, without reservation, at the service of Christ and the world. Of putting ourselves into locked struggle with evil, whatever the cost."

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We have parents in our congregation who have mongoloid children. The children have pretty several limitations from birth. I have seen the quality of love and care that these parents possess, these parents who have children who suffer from mongoloid disorders. I notice Wendy and Marlys, as parents, who care for their son, Cail. These parents have been carrying for Cail for thirty-two years and it has not been easy. You think of the sacrifices, the millions of little sacrifices, that were given to Cail during the past thirty-two years. Or, I am thinking of a set of parents who have been taking care of their disabled son for years and these parents came in because their disabled son had died. It was the Kraus family in our church. I think of this family carrying for their child and grandchild for all these years. I think that this was a family who knew what it meant to deny themselves, pick up their cross and follow Christ. In the Bible, in this sentence, is the word, must. We must deny ourselves, pick up the cross and follow Christ. The "must" is not simply a legalistic command but an invitation of compassion. It has a "compulsive compassion," and I simply have to do this. I have to do the work, the job in life, that God has given me to do. 

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_a_peter_the_stumbling_block.htm

 Pastor Edward F. Markquart

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