[Propertalk] Fw: Sermon Resources for February 28

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Lent 2:

     Luke 13:31-35 - "Who Lives in You?"
     Luke 13:31-35 - "Giving Up" by Leonard Sweet

Luke 13, the sermon titled "Who Lives in You?"

Who lives in you? That's the question that comes to mind as we read those
words of Jesus this morning when he tells the Pharisees, "Go tell that fox
(Herod) that I will drive out demons and heal people today and tomorrow
and on the third day reach my goal." I will do what I must. For God lives
in me. I am a citizen of heaven. Let him do what he must!

Let your imagination run free for a moment and picture yourself, your
personality, who you are really, as a house. Any kind of house will do --
just so it's yours. For some it may be a huge castle, with lofty turrets
and banners waving in the breeze, a place that is safe and secure. For
others it may be a rustic cabin, tucked away in the woods, a peaceful and
quiet refuge. For others still, it might be a nice little retirement home,
with a rocking chair on the front porch, a shade tree in front and a nice
warm breeze stirring flowers blooming in front.

Now, move in closer and imagine the front door of that house. Picture
someone pushing the doorbell, clanking the knocker, or rapping on the
door. If someone came to the door of your house, who would they find
inside? Who lives in you?

I'm not sure about you, but I've met people who gave me the distinct
impression that if I went inside the "houses" of their lives, I wouldn't
find anyone home. Or if I went inside their houses, they would be so
cluttered with junk that there wouldn't be any room for anyone. Or some
whose houses are great and impressive on the outside, but once I entered
everything would be artificial.

Who lives in you? That's the question for us to address this Second Sunday
in Lent. Who lives in you? What guides your decisions? What sets the
course of your life? What determines the way you think and treat others
around you? Most of us would like to say that it is our Christian faith
that determines who we are. But is that so? For there are two kinds of
people who can be home -- citizens of the world and citizens of heaven.

Who lives in you? Think back over the decisions you've made this past
week. Who made them -- a citizen of this world or a citizen of heaven?
Recall the way you spoke to those around you and the way you treated
others. Who was present then? What about the offering you bring this
morning, what kind of relationship with God does it reflect? Is it a
citizen of heaven, the child of God, who is present in us? Or is it a
stranger of this world, one who cares little about others, who thinks
first of him or herself, whose actions fail to give witness to the
allegiance we claim to have with God?

Who lives in you? What stirs you each day of your life? We'd like to...

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by
joining www.eSermons.com.
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Luke 13, the sermon titled "Giving Up"

Lent started early this year. With the east coast up to its eyebrows in
snow, the Lenten season was underway.

I only learned recently that every year Fat Tuesday comes to an abrupt end
at midnight. New Orleans police shut down the Mardi Gras festivities
promptly at 12 am in reverence for Ash Wednesday. The stroke of midnight
is the moment Bourbon Street revelers must give it up.

We always think of "giving up" something for Lent. Some people give up
meat. Others give up sweets, or alcohol, or television. If you want to
face a real Lenten challenge try giving up your cell phone for forty days!
[At this point you might want to make a karaoke moment and ask what people
are "giving up."] But even that might be enough to get you in a true
Lenten mood.

Preacher Kimberly Long tells this story at the beginning of one of her
Lenten sermons. Entering church on Ash Wednesday, Nora Gallagher
encounters a friend who, when asked what she is giving up for Lent, quips:
"Anne's giving up drinking, Terri's giving up chocolate, and I'm just
giving up" ("Things Seen and Unseen," Journal for Preachers, Lent 2007,
p.9).

Ever feel like that? "Just giving up"?

"Just give up" was the Pharisee's advice to Jesus in today's gospel text.
Herod is after you. He has you marked for death. Get out of town quick.
Give up your mission here.

When Jesus hears this warning, he surprises those Pharisees by both
disregarding and embracing their message. Jesus dismisses the threat of
Herod with a flip and a quip. Herod is nothing but a "sly fox," Jesus
quips, forever plotting but powerless against God's mission in the world.
Jesus has his own schedule, his own agenda, his own mission to fulfill,
and the time-frame has already been divinely determined.

But Jesus also asserts he WILL give up. He WILL give himself up. He WILL
travel to Jerusalem and meet head on the traumatic tradition of that city
encapsulated in this phrase - "Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets
and stones those who are sent to it" (v.34). Jesus will give up
everything, his very life, in order to fulfill his eternal mission of
salvation.

Let me put it as clearly as I can: Jesus will "give it up" in order that
we might "get it all".

The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining 
www.Sermons.com
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The World of the Prophet

What would you do if someone gave you one million dollars and then told
you to come back as often as you liked and you could have whatever money
you needed whenever you wanted?  Just ask and it is yours.  What if he
told you to tell all your friends and they could also come and have a
million dollars?  Do you think you would tell your friends?  Do you think
you would show up regularly to receive more from this very wealthy and
very generous person?

What would you think if you told your friends and they had you arrested?
What would you think if people said you were an idiot for getting money
from this generous person?  What if people killed you for telling them
about this person who was giving away free money?  Would you expect people
to accuse you of being narrow minded when you told people that they
couldn't get free money from any other person?  Would you expect people to
say things like, "You know if we get our money every week, we won't really
appreciate it?" Would you expect people to hunt down this very wealthy,
very generous person and kill him?

Welcome to the world of the prophet.  If you were to take my recent
examples and replace the money with forgiveness, you would exactly
describe the insanity that faces the prophet, the apostle, and all the
messengers of God.  God wants to cover us in His gifts of forgiveness,
life, and salvation and for some reason, that makes people angry.

James T. Batchelor
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Three Questions

Jaques Maritain, the great French philosopher of the last century, said
there were really only three questions that had to be answered: "Who am
I?" "Where am I?" and "Where ought I to be going?" Jesus knew who he was,
and where he was, and where he had to go. Lincoln knew. So have all great
leaders and great men and women of faith known. Do we know? Or are we out
of focus, our goals fuzzy and ill-defined? Our world is so insane, but not
any more so than the world of Jesus. Most people in his day, went to work
every day, and came home, and were pulled this way and that. And they
didn't ask the big questions very often. We remember Jesus because he did.

William R. Boyer, As a Hen Gathers Her Brood
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Under His Wings

Listen to these great hymns that were sung during Jesus' day in the
Synagogues and Temple worship in Jerusalem.

"Hide me in the shadow of thy wings." 17:8.
"In the shadow of thy wings I will take refuge till the storms of
destruction pass by." 57:1
"Oh to be safe under the shelter of thy wings." 61:4
"In the shadow of thy wings I sing for joy." 63:7
"Under his wings you will find refuge." 91:4

How do we know these songs were sung? They are the songs found in the book
Psalms. Psalm 17, 36, 57, 61, 63, and 91 speak of the protective wings of
God. So when Jesus expressed his desire to comfort Jerusalem he used an
image widely understood, "I have longed to gather your children together,
as a hen gather's her chicks under her wings." But Jesus' desires go
unfulfilled for Jerusalem was "unwilling," Jesus said, to receive the
shelter he offered.

But lets not miss a significant point being advanced here: In the Psalms
it is Yahweh who longs to gather Israel under his protective wings. Here
in the Gospel of Luke it is Jesus. An equation is being drawn. Jesus
equals God. How very sad then that Israel refused.

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com.
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Called Together

In his Large Catechism Martin Luther describes the church: "There is on
earth a little holy flock or community of pure saints under one head,
Christ. It is called together by the Holy Spirit in one faith. I was
brought to it by the Holy Spirit and incorporated into it through the fact
that I have heard and still hear God's Word. In this Christian church we
have the forgiveness of sins, which is granted through the holy sacraments
and.the Gospel"

Martin Luther, L.C., Creed, 417:51-54.

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Rejection and Refusal to Listen

Robert Fulton, an artist and engineer was responsible in the early 1800's
for putting sailing ships out of business. He made the steamboat a
standard on the open seas. It is said that he presented his idea to
Napoleon. After a few minutes of this presentation Napoleon is reported to
have said, "What, sir, you would make a ship sail against the wind and
currents by lighting a bonfire under her decks? I pray you excuse me. I
have no time to listen to such nonsense."

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com.

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The Old Mother Hen

Have you ever seen a chicken hawk go after its prey? The old mother hen is
often aware of the presence of the hawk in time to gather her chicks under
her wing. With a furious fuss she squawks till her brood is safe by her
side. She fluffs out her wings and protects them with her own body. The
chicken hawk dives and the old hen turns her body toward him and cocks a
wary eye without moving from her children. The predator comes in again for
the kill and the mother spreads her wings even wider. A third time he
dives only to be thwarted by the determined self-sacrifice of the mother
hen. She is too big to be a target and the chicks are too safe to be
seized so he flies away.

Brett Blair, www.eSermons.com.

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Shelter

In Mission, British Columbia, a fellow by the name of Ike tells the story
about his Grandpa's hen house which burned to the ground one day. Ike
arrived just in time to help put out the last of the fire. As he and his
grandfather sorted through the wreckage, they came upon one hen lying dead
near what had been the door of the hen house. Her top feathers were singed
brown by the fire's heat, her neck limp. Ike bent down to pick up the dead
hen. As he did the hen's four chicks came scurrying out from beneath her
burnt body. The chicks survived because they were insulated by the shelter
of the hen's wings.

Richard J. Fairchild

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A Pompous Pretender

Jesus called Herod a fox after some Pharisees reported that Herod wanted
to kill Jesus. Jesus' response challenged any such plans: "Tell Herod I've
got work to do first." Jesus was not implying that Herod was sly, rather
he was commenting on Herod's ineptitude, or inability, to carry out his
threat. Jesus questioned the tetrarch's pedigree, moral stature and
leadership, and put the tetrarch "in his place." This exactly fits the
second rabbinic usage of "fox."

When Jesus labeled Herod a fox, Jesus implied that Herod was not a lion.
Herod considered himself a lion, but Jesus pointed out that Herod was the
opposite of a lion. Jesus cut Herod down to size, and Jesus' audience may
have had an inward smile of appreciation at a telling riposte.

We need to start translating "fox" with its proper Hebraic cultural
meaning: A pompous pretender. Jesus was direct. Antipas was a shu.AL ben
shu.AL (a fox, the son of a fox), a small-fry.

Randall Buth, That Small Fry Herod Antipas, Or When A Fox Is Not A Fox.

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Compassion for the Suffering

In England in the 1940s a young woman entered Oxford University with
little focus. She had no idea what to do with her life. But she soon came
under the influence of a colorful professor of English, a writer with a
gift, named C. S. Lewis. She became a Christian through much of his
influence.

She left Oxford, against the advice of friends and family, and began to
study nursing. After five more years of rigorous training, she was
certified as a nurse.

But her story doesn't end there, for her questing Christian spirit would
not let her rest with the way things were. You see, she ended up working
on a cancer ward in a London hospital. Gradually, she came to realize that
most of the doctors ignored the patients who were deemed terminally ill.
As a result she watched many of them die virtually alone.

Greatly troubled she felt that Christian compassion needed to be expressed
to these patients in a visible way.

The conclusion to this illustration and for many additional illustrations
and sermons for the Lent 2 can be accessed at www.Sermons.com.