[Propertalk] Sermon Quotes Proper 19B (Gospel) - 9/13/09 Part 6

[Joe Parrish]

"losing one's life" is appropriate for discipleship in another
sense. It means life can be used up, spent, on others.

http://www.luthersem.edu/word&world/Archives/14-3_Sex/14-3_Juel.pdf

Donald H. Juel, 1994
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Life in the kingdom of God is not about preservation. It's about laying down your life. It's about surrendering your self totally to God and taking the road of the Cross. But the amazing thing is, the good news is, that life is found in that very surrender. Real life. Everlasting life. 

http://www.nph.com/nphweb/html/pmol/webjun25.htm

Preacher's Magazine, Editor Stefanie Hendrickson, 2006 
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About 30 years ago Pope John XXIII popularized the expression "reading the signs of the times" as a way of doing theology. According to this method, before saying anything about God one should first listen to the situation, to what is going on in the world around us, to hear what it may be telling us about the creator. The assumption here is that God is active in the world and in people's relationships and by reflecting on these we can learn much about God. This was in contrast to the "a priori" method which assumed that "somebody up there" had all of the answers already worked out and it was up to the faithful to just implement them. 

http://www.bible.claret.org/liturgy/daily/sundays_pierse/cycleB/B_24thSunOT.htm

Gerry Pierse
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For those who do not suffer persecution, the words of Jesus may seem less relevant. However, most people have a cross of one kind or another: illness or disability -  addiction - an unhappy family-life - bereavement - and more... For them, being willing to endure and persevere requires as real a commitment as those facing persecution. In the eyes of the world they may not seem as heroic - but their fidelity and perseverance form their path to eternal life.


http://www.wellsprings.org.uk/weekly_wellsprings/year_b/sunday_24.htm


Catherine McElhinney and Kathryn Turner, 2006
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If today's 'elders' (ordained & lay, them & us) see preserving the status-quo as the essence of keeping the faith, those already in the margins will be alienated further & still further. Are we taking on board the kind of Messiah Jesus is, with all the implications flowing from that, any better than those of old? Are we, any more than Peter, grasped by what it means that Jesus is Messiah? 

http://www.angelfire.com/journal2/marginallymark/MMK83138LENT2.html

Brian McGowan
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Preaching the Gospel-Evangelizing-is neither optional nor seasonal; it is fundamental to the heart of our relationship with God.  We "are not allowed" to either keep the Good News to ourselves or change the King's message to appeal to the crowd.
2 Timothy 4:3-5
[3] For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but {wanting} to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires; [4] and will turn away their ears from the truth, and will turn aside to myths. [5] But you, be sober in all things, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. (NAS)

http://onefamilyoutreach.com/bible/Mark/mk_08_27-38.html

This study may be freely distributed, as long as it bears the following attribution: Source: Jerry Goebel: 2005 © http://onefamilyoutreach.com
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The New Revised Standard Version, out of a commendable desire to be gender-inclusive, transposes Jesus' singular formulations into the plural ("If any want to become my followers, let them deny themselves," etc.). But this paraphrase loses the original's sense of immediacy, of personal address -- the impression that each and every individual is confronted by Jesus' call and must say either yea or nay to it.
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There is a price to be paid for such assurance; it involves looking death coldly in the eye. But that is a price that we will all eventually have to pay. In The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn describes how he learned to do this amid the starvation and brutality of a Soviet prison camp:

"From the moment you go to prison you must put your cozy past firmly behind you. At the very threshold, you must say to yourself, 'My life is over, a little early, to be sure, but there's nothing to be done about it. I shall never return to freedom. I am condemned to die -- now or a little later. . ."' Confronted by such a prisoner, the interrogator will tremble. Only the man who has renounced everything can win that victory.

http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=1997

Joel Marcus, 2006
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