[Propertalk] Fw: SermonWriter: Apr. 11 (Easter 2C) John 20:19-31

[Joe Parrish]

The following are SermonWriter materials for Apr. 11 (Easter 2C). They focus 
on the Gospel lesson, John 20:19-31, the story of Jesus' disciples following 
his crucifixion.


NO PASSWORD REQUIREMENT: We are posting these materials on the web with no 
password.  To access those files, you MUST use the following links.  If 
clicking on the link fails to work, copy the link and paste it in the 
address window near the top of your browser.  Then hit the ENTER key or 
click GO.

Microsoft Word file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/04-11as/John.20.19-31.doc

HTML file (web page):
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/04-11as/John.20.19-31.htm

WordPerfect file:
http://www.lectionary.org/SW/04-11as/John.20.19-31.wpd


A TIP: If you want the Word or WordPerfect files, LEFT-CLICK on the link and 
see what happens.  That should bring up a dialog box that asks if you want 
to open the file or save it.  Choose OPEN.  Then save it wherever you like 
on your hard drive.

If that doesn't work, RIGHT-CLICK on the link.  You should get a sub-menu. 
Hopefully, "Save Target As" will be one of the options.  Click on that. 
Then save the file wherever you want on your hard drive.


<>
Dick Donovan


A THOUGHT ON PREACHING:  Surely the preacher's greatest sin is to put people 
to sleep with the greatest story ever told. (Bruce W. Thielemann)


TITLE:  Breaking the Chains of Fear


SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  Our faith in the risen Christ and his promise of 
resurrection for us help us to break the chains of fear in our lives.


SCRIPTURE:  John 20:19-31
<>

FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO:

http://www.lectionary.org/SermLinks/NT/NT04john.htm

Scroll down to John 20.  There are several sermons on this text posted 
there.


TRUE STORY:

Kurt Wallenda lived on top of the world. He thrilled crowds with his daring 
stunts on the high wire until the fateful day in 1978 when his show ended. 
Wallenda plunged 75 feet to his death before an audience of thousands in San 
Juan, Puerto Rico.

What happened? His widow explained that Kurt had never been one to know 
fear.  Confidence marked his style. But when he started worrying, little 
details of safety preoccupied his mind. He checked and double-checked the 
tightrope to make certain that everything was secure. This was a different 
Karl. For the first time his energies were not devoted to confidently 
walking the wire, but to not falling. From then on he was an accident just 
waiting to happen.


THOUGHT PROVOKERS:

We find ourselves listening still to a man
crowded with his disciples into a narrow room on a dead-end street,
saying quietly in the face of measureless defeat,
while the ghost of that fear which had stalked them there
began its chattering at the door,
"Be of good cheer; I have overcome the world."

Paul Scherer

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Someone has said that "Fear is faith in the thing we don't want to happen."
This produces a tension over that thing.
Then surrender that false faith in the wrong thing
and fasten that faith on God, your father.

E. Stanley Jones

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Given a strong hub,
a person can take a surprising number of shocks and bumps
on the outside rim
without sustaining permanent damage.

Oveta Culp Hobby

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

History shows that when religion wanes in any country,
it is not replaced by popular nationalist philosophy
that leads to universal happiness and peace....
The vacuum left by the waning of religion in western countries
has been filled by an army of superstitious cults and beliefs.
Perfect secularism by no means casts out fear.

David H.C. Read

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Faith is not the way around pain;
it is the way through pain.
Faith doesn't get rid of the opposition;
it invites it over for dinner.
Faith doesn't give you the winning point at the last second;
it ties the game and sends you into overtime.
Faith doesn't give you the solution;
it forces you to find it.
Faith doesn't teach you at the moment;
it teaches in retrospect.
Faith doesn't provide a net to fall into
when your fingers are about to give way
as you hang suspended over the cliff;
faith gives your fingers the strength to hang on just a little longer.
In other words, faith doesn't do anything
when it's doing something.

Mike Yaconelli

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

<>
HYMN STORY:  Open My Eyes

Psalm 119:18 is a prayer for spiritual insight.  It asks God, "Open my eyes, 
so that I may behold wondrous things out of your law."  Reading that verse 
inspired Clara Scott to write the hymn "Open My Eyes."  The opening verse of 
the hymn asks, "Open my eyes, that I may see glimpses of truth thou hast for 
me."

But Clara was not satisfied to pray for open eyes.  She also wrote, "Open my 
ears, that I may hear voices of truth thou sendest clear."

And she was not satisfied to ask God to receive blessings.  She also prayed 
that God would make her a blessing by helping her to speak to others about 
what God had revealed to her.  She wrote, "Open my mouth, and let me bear 
gladly the warm truth everywhere."

Clara understood, and helped countless others to understand, that it is more 
blessed to give than to receive --and that we, as Christians, are called to 
share the good news that we have received.

Clara wrote a number of other hymns, and even published a book entitled, 
Truth in Song for Lovers of Truth -- but "Open My Eyes" is the hymn for 
which she is remembered today.

Clara published "Open My Eyes" in 1895.  Two years later, as she was riding 
in a carriage, her horse was spooked and began running crazily through the 
streets.  Clara was thrown from the carriage and killed.  Reflecting on 
that, one of her biographers commented that she never knew how popular her 
hymn, "Open My Eyes" had become.

But I believe that one of her heavenly blessings will be to know just how 
many people have been blessed by the hymn that she wrote so late in her 
life.

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


<>
www.sermonwriter.com

www.lectionary.org

Richard Niell Donovan