[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for August 22 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Proper 16: 
 Luke 13:10-17 – “A Crippling Spirit”
 Luke 13:10-17 – “Mulliganeers, All” by Leonard Sweet
 
Luke 13, the sermon titled "A Crippling Spirit" 
 
I want to encourage you to do something. If you have never read Victor Hugo’s memorable novel, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, pick up a copy and read it. Hugo uses an interesting literary technique in the story. The reader is allowed to see the basic decency and humanity of Quasimodo, the hunchback, while the crowd sees him only as a monstrous freak. The story, in its essence, is part tragedy, and part hope.

Our text this morning, not surprisingly, comes from Luke’s Gospel. This story also, is part tragedy and part hope. Luke is the only Gospel writer who records this event in the life of Christ. But Luke, being a physician, would have been drawn to a story like this. He does not go into a lot of detail. In only three verses he tells us that there was a woman who was a hunchback. We do not know her name; we do not know about her family background. We know that she has had this condition for eighteen years. The implication is that she had not been born with it. Perhaps it was a calcium deficiency, a spinal injury, or genetic, or some extreme case of osteoporosis. We don’t know. We are simply told that a spirit has crippled her. Jesus called her over and said, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” We are told that she suddenly stood erect, and began praising God.

I am not quite sure what to make of this spirit. But, in some way it is responsible for this woman’s tragic circumstances. As we take a closer look at this story there are other spirits at work. There is at work...


1. The crippling spirit of the woman.
2. The legalistic spirit of the synagogue ruler.
3. The joyful spirit of the congregation.
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.eSermons.com.
_______________________
 
Luke 13, the sermon titled “Mulliganeers, All” by Leonard Sweet 
 
Way back in cold old February, fourth grader Patrick Timoney came face-to-face with what “zero degrees” really mean. Not “zero degrees” Fahrenheit, but “zero degrees” of tolerance.
 
It seems Patrick had taken some of his favorite Lego toys to school to show off to his buddies. Any parent of young children can tell you those little, tiny Lego guys are natural born killers.
 
They hide in the couch to poke you when you sit down.
They stab you in the foot as you cross the floor.
They can single-handedly destroy expensive vacuum cleaners, dishwashers, and washing machines.
 
Patrick’s favorite Lego toy was an inch-and-a-half tall policeman figure. The Lego policeman came armed with his own teeny-tiny gun. That minuscule piece of plastic succeeded in getting Patrick kicked out of school. It seems the “zero tolerance” policy about bringing “weapons” on school grounds extended to include that Lego ornament, that toothpick-sized armament.
 
Sorry, but sometimes “zero tolerance” makes “zero sense.” At least zero common sense.
 
A “zero tolerance” policy is what the synagogue leader was advocating in today’s gospel lesson. Charged with keeping the reading and reflection of the Torah on the straight and narrow, this officious official couldn’t see beyond the letter of the law, beyond the jot and tittle of his title. No “work” on the Sabbath meant strict adherence to every stated restriction. No “work” on the Sabbath meant avoiding every rabbinically-vetoed activity.
 
In other words, the synagogue official had come to see the Sabbath as one great big “thou shalt not.” Instead of being a celebration of the divine presence, Shabbat became a cell to quarantine human activities and confine the Spirit…
 
The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com
________________________
 
Everyone’s a Critic
 
One night at Birdland, the legendary jazz bar, Cab Calloway was introducing a promising young saxophone player. As the sax player finished his set, a self-appointed jazz critic came over to him and said, in front of Cab, "You aren't that good, man. All you can do is play like Charlie Parker." 

Cab took the young man's sax and handed it over to the critic. "Here," he said, "you play it like Charlie Parker." 

Isn't it true that whenever you are trying to do something significant, somebody comes around to criticize? Busybodies. The world is full of them. 

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
 
__________________________
 
Celebrate Restoration
 
How many businesses have gone bankrupt because they forget their existence depended upon serving their customer?  Initially, there is a hunger in eyes of the entrepreneur to "serve the customer." An overarching attitude of “I can do that!”

The business booms and slowly they can't keep up with sales. Managers manage and consultants consult, but they don't know the customer.  They know the government, laws, taxes, they create forms and policy.  Sales and service people spend more time looking down at paper than up at people.  The customers become the government bureaucrats, accountants and the attorneys who track the "bottom line" but don't add to it. Soon, every dollar that changes hands costs $0.75 in paperwork.

This was what had become of the church in Christ’s day; and it is what has become of too many churches today.  The woman in this story was released from 18 years of binding pain.  A true community would fall to its knees in worship of Jesus; forget the tithing plea and the worship order — they would just sit in awe of God’s mercy.  Yet, this religious leader sees the woman as a distraction to his liturgical sensibilities.  One Saturday morning, the Bearer of Salvation walked into this man’s synagogue and he sent him packing -- without so much as a membership card.

In Luke’s Gospel, this was Christ’s last visit to a synagogue.  Our Lord extended his hand to the religious one last time and they would not shake it.  In the process, they look like fools; they go from being indignant to being humiliated.

Where am I in this picture?  Am I the fool who can’t move aside for Jesus?  Am I the hypocrite who is left hardened in ritual while the need for healing cries out all around me?  Am I the idiot who can’t see the point of the text because an ‘i’ was left undotted or a ‘t’ was left uncrossed?

Lord, remind me that my salvation is based upon the "woman who is set free" and not following the proper protocol for worship and ritual.  Let me celebrate restoration — not analyze its doctrinal soundness.
 
Jerry Goebel, There Are No Wimpy Christians in Heaven
_________________________________________
 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20100817/0b2c68fb/attachment.htm>