[Propertalk] Fw: Sermonwriter for Proper 7, June 20, 2010

[Joe Parrish]

forwarded:

Sermon

Writer

Resources for Lectionary Preaching

                                                                                           Proper 7 

Ordinary Time 12
Year C
 

June 20, 2010 
A THOUGHT ON PREACHING:  The preaching event is a modeling of praise, an act of lyrical articulation that breaks the muteness and shatters the deathly control in which our life is held. It is the task of the preacher to permit such praise, to summon to such praise, and to legitimate it. That task requires an enormous act of poetic imagination. (Walter Brueggemann -- courtesy of Fr. Charles Hoffacker)

 

 

TITLE:  The Exorcist!

 

 

SERMON IN A SENTENCE:  Christ delivers us from the evils that threaten to destroy us.

 

 

SCRIPTURE:  Luke 8:26-39

 

 


<>

SERMON illustration:     

 

<>

The late 1960s were enormously successful years for Johnny Cash.  He had many gold albums, was hosting The Johnny Cash Show on television, and was country music's most popular performer.  

 

But not everything was as it seemed.  Cash had been abusing drugs for years, and they were having their deadly effect.  He wrecked cars, smashed footlights at the Grand Ole Opry, and was jailed for drug possession.  His wife was divorcing him.  His health was on the brink.  

 

In 1967, Cash hit bottom.  One night, high on drugs and full of despair, he drove to the Nickajack Cave near Chattanooga.  The Nickajack Cave is deep, wandering for miles underground.  Cash walked inside, flashlight in his hand.  He walked deeper and deeper into the cave until his flashlight burned out.  Then he lay down to die.  But then, in Cash's own words: 

 

"I felt something -- 

that love, the warm presence of God that I knew as a boy.  

I understood that I wasn't going to die, 

there were still things I had to do. 

 'But how can I?  I don't know how to get out of here.  I got no light.'  

Then the voice seemed to answer back, 'Get up and go.'"

 

Cash got up and started moving through the darkness.  At some point he smelled a bit of fresh air, and he followed that to the cave's exit -- and new life.  

 

Cash's struggles with his demons were not over.  Drug relapses haunted him for years.  He said: 

 

"I've been in that dark place.  

I fight the beast in me every day.  

I've won a few rounds with God's help.  

And that's what matters most to me now -- 

feeling good about my relationship with God."  

 

<> 

FOR MORE SERMONS ON THIS TEXT, GO TO: 

 

http://www.lectionary.org/SermLinks/NT/NT03luke.htm 

 

Scroll down to Luke 8.  There are links to two sermons on this text posted there.

 

 

TRUE STORY:  

 

See the story of Johnny Cash and the Nickajack Cave in the sermon above.

 

 

THOUGHT PROVOKERS:   

 

Today as never before 

it is important that human beings should not overlook 

the danger of the evil lurking within them.  

It is unfortunately only too real, 

which is why psychology must insist on the reality of evil 

and must reject any definition that regards it as insignificant or non-existent.

 

Carl Gustav Jung, Swiss psychiatrist

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

Our culture does not believe in wickedness -- that is, in culpability.  

The "conviction of sin" is hardly possible to us.  

We believe not in sin and forgiveness 

but in illness and recovery.  

It is the endless message of our culture that everyone is basically good 

and that most of our problems will be solved when we realize this -- 

in other words, when we build up our self-esteem.

 

Brian Abel Ragen

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

You probably know of Paul Tillich, the German-born American theologian and author who died in 1965.  And you probably know of Rollo May, psychologist and author.  

 

May tells about an incident that took place in Tillich's classroom.  Tillich said, "If there is a devil, I do not know."  The class responded with uproarious laughter.  Rudolf Bultmann had demythologized the bible.  Nobody believed in the devil.  Tillich's students could not believe that one of the century's most brilliant theologians was taking the devil seriously -- leaving open the possibility of the devil's existence.  Rollo May comments, "No doubt most of us did not pause to recall that this speaker had just come from his experience with Hitler."  

 

The amazing thing is that anyone who had "just come from his experience with Hitler" could have any doubt that there is a devil.

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds 

and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them.  

But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being.  

And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?

 

Alexander I. Solzhenitsyn, The Gulag Archipelago

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

 

It is tempting to deny the existence of evil 

since denying it obviates the need to fight it.

 

Alexis Carrel

 

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

HYMN STORY:  At the Name of Jesus (Based on Philippians 2:5-11)

 

Caroline Noel, the daughter of an Anglican clergyman, was born in London in 1817.  Early in life, she discovered her talent for poetry, and by age twenty had written several hymns.  Then she pursued other interests and wrote nothing for twenty years.   At age thirty-five, however, she became an invalid -- whether through illness or accident I do not know.  Five years later, she once again picked up her pen with a view toward writing hymns that would comfort people in her circumstances.  She named a collection of her works The Name of Jesus and Other Poems for the Sick and Lonely.  It was in that collection that she published this hymn, "At the Name of Jesus."

 

This hymn, however, is not what we would expect in a collection aimed at comforting the sick and lonely.  It is, instead, a hymn about Jesus -- how God glorified Jesus -- how we should glorify Jesus -- how Jesus bore his suffering on the cross so that he might rise victorious over death.

 

However, properly understood, the last verse is comforting, because it promises strength to those who place Jesus on the throne of their hearts -- who let him subdue all that is unworthy within them.  It calls us to "Crown him as (our) captain in temptation's hour," and to "Let His will enfold (us) in its light and power."  

 

While this verse doesn't mention suffering, it does reflect Caroline Noel's understanding that all people -- even the sick or lonely -- can find strength by making Jesus captain of their lives -- by wrapping themselves in Jesus' will so that they might experience his light and power.

 

You might or might not be sick or lonely.  You can be sure, however, that you will at some point experience troubled times -- times when you need God's help -- God's strength.  When that happens, come back and read once again the words of this hymn -- especially the last verse.  It will tell you how to become strong so that you might move through the troubled times to the light that lies beyond.

 

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

 

www.sermonwriter.com

 

www.lectionary.org

Dick Donovan 




 

 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20100614/df309e09/attachment.htm>