[Propertalk] Sermon Resources for Proper 21: Part 1 of 2

[Joe Parrish]

Sermon Resources for Proper 21: Part 1 of 2
Mark 9:38-50  -  Be at Peace with One Another


Mark 9:38-50  -  Five Differences between a Franchise Faith and an Authentic Faith by Leonard Sweet

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Mark 9, the sermon titled "Be at Peace with One Another" 

One person armed with the Gospel of peace can change the world. Telemachus did. He was a monk who lived in the 5th century. He felt God saying to him, "Go to Rome." He was in a cloistered monastery but he put his possessions in a sack and set out for Rome. When he arrived in the city, people were thronging in the streets. He asked why all the excitement and was told that this was the day that the gladiators would be fighting in the coliseum, the day of the games, the circus.  He thought to himself, "Four centuries after Christ and they are still killing each other, for enjoyment?" He ran to the coliseum and heard the gladiators saying, "Hail to Caesar, we die for Caesar" and he thought, "this isn't right." He jumped over the railing and went out into the middle of the field, got between two gladiators, and tried to stop them. The crowd became enraged and stoned the peacemaker to death.

When the Emperor of Rome, Honorius, heard about the monk he declared him a Christian martyr and put an end to the games. Legend has it that the very last Gladiatorial game was the one in which Telemachus died.

 

Jesus said, "Have salt in yourselves - be at peace with each other." Sometimes it seems we have gladiatorial games going on inside the church, inside our homes, at work? The games have been going on for as long as we can remember! Who will be a Telemachus? Who will be the monk who jumps into the arena, sacrifices himself, and brings peace? Peace can be made but it sometimes comes at a heavy price.

 

My question this morning is why are we so often at odds with one another? Why don't we have peace in our lives?

 

1. We fight to protect our turf.

2. We destroy the weak among us.

3. We will not let go of that which destroys us.

 

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


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Second Sermon by Len Sweet

 

Mark 9, the sermon entitled 'Five Differences between a Franchise Faith and an Authentic Faith' 

 

A. J. Jacobs is an American journalist and guinea pig who write books based on plunge experiences. Once he joined Mensa and read all thirty-two volumes of the Encyclopedia Britannica to see what it would be like to be "The Know-It-All: One Man's Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World (2004). In another plunge experience he decided only to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth about everything in life. That project had the title I Think You're Fat (2007), which kind of says it all about how that project went. In another plunge experience, he decided to outsource everything in his life to India, including reading bed-time stories to his kids and arguing with his wife. That project bore the title My Outsourced Life (2005). To understand dating, he became a single woman (The Guinea Pig Diaries [2009]). He may be the funniest non-fiction author writing today.

 

But AJ Jacobs is now most famous for his The Year of Living Biblically: One Man's Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible (2007), which "chronicles his experiment to live for one year according to all the moral codes expressed in the Bible, including stoning adulterers, blowing a shofar at the beginning of every month, and refraining from trimming the corners of his facial hair (which, he followed by not trimming his facial hair at all)." You will soon be seeing this at the movies, as Paramount has picked up the screenplay rights.

 

One of the witticisms of Jacobs in this book has never left me after I read it. He mentioned that part of his challenge in living as a Jew, not just following the 10 Commandments but keeping all 613 Commandments (248 Positive Commandments, 365 Negative Commandments) is that his relationship to the Jewish faith was "about the same as that of Olive Garden to an Italian restaurant." 

 

When I read that it stopped me flat: how many people are Christian in about the same way that Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant? How many churches are Christian in about the same way that Olive Garden is an Italian restaurant, or Taco Bell is a Mexican restaurant, or Colonel Sanders is a southern cooking restaurant?...

 

The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.

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Changing the Signs

 

William Barclay, a British theologian, tells the following story in his commentary on this Biblical text. He told a story about someone changing signs. That is, at an intersection of the road, one sign would point to the city of Seattle and another sign would point to the city of Tacoma. And the boy wondered to himself: How many people could I send down the wrong road if I changed the signs? Your very life is a sign post with a sign on it. Are you sending people down the wrong road or the right road?

 

Edward F. Markquart, Millstones

 

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