[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for August 7 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Resources for Proper 14 

Matthew 14:22-33 - "Fear"
Matthew 14:22-33 - "Save Me, Lord" by Leonard Sweet
 
Matthew 14, the sermon title “Fear" 
 
In the story of creation found in the Book of Genesis, we read where Adam and Eve had partaken of the forbidden fruit, something which had been specifically denied them. Knowing that God is searching for them, they attempt to hide. It is a scene perhaps reminiscent of many of our childhoods when we had done something that we were not supposed to and we literally hid from our searching parents. Finally God finds them, as we know that He will, for, after all, where can we go to hide from God? God asks them why they are hiding. Do you remember the response that Adam gave: “Because, I was afraid?”
 
I think this very poignant story reminds us that fear is so basic to whom we are as humans, it goes all the way back to the beginning of time. To be human is to experience fear.
 
There seems to be no limit to our fears. In a peanuts cartoon strip Charlie Brown goes to Lucy for a nickels worth of psychiatric help. She proceeds to pinpoint his particular ‘fear’. Perhaps, she says, you have hypengyophobia, which is the fear of responsibility. Charlie Brown says no. Well, perhaps you have ailurophobia, which is the fear of cats. No. Well, maybe you have climacophobia, which is the fear of staircases. No. Exasperated, Lucy says well, maybe you have pantophobia, which is the fear of everything. Yes, says Charles, that is the one!
 
Sometimes we feel like we are afraid of everything. We are afraid of ourselves. We are afraid of people. We are afraid of the future. We are afraid of the past. We are afraid of life. We are afraid of death.
 
Every person, every Christian, must fight their own fears. Even Paul, the sturdy Christian warrior, had to do so. Paul had fallen flat on his face in Athens. He did exactly what he intended not to do, and in his own eyes he had failed. He wrote of his arrival in Corinth: “For when we came into Macedonia we had not rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings; within were fears.” Paul was full of fears, just like you and me--the fear of inadequacy, the fear of failing.
 
But perhaps the most surprising fear of many people and one that we do not like to address is the fear of God. It is the fear that God is not really on our side. It is the fear that God will put us out on a limb and leave us.
 
It is not a new idea. One of the great fears of the ancient people was that God would fall asleep. Can you imagine such a thing? When the prophets of Baal could not get their Gods to rain down fire on the top of Mt. Carmel, Elijah taunted them: Maybe your God is asleep, he said. On the other hand, the Jews took great comfort in the fact that the God of Israel neither slumbered nor slept.
 
Over and over again the message of the Bible is fear not. When Abram took his family to the Promised Land he feared that he was turning his back on everything he knew, his security for the unknown. God spoke to him: Fear not Abram, I am your shield and your reward will be great
 
When the Jews stood at the Red Sea and could see Pharaoh’s chariots coming on the horizon, they cried out that they would all be slaughtered. Moses said to them: Stand still, fear not, and see the salvation of the Lord.
 
When the angel of the Lord came to Mary and said that she would bear a child, she trembled with fear. What would become of her? Said the angel: Fear not Mary, for you have found favor with God.
 
Fear not! Fear Not! It is how we would like to live. How do you do it?
 
1. First, we must confront our fears.
2. Second, we must understand that too much doubt can sink us.
3. Third, we must remember that regardless of what happens, God will be with us.
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup
  
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Matthew 14, the sermon titled " Save Me, Lord " by Leonard Sweet 
 
British naturalist Alfred Russell Wallace was without peer in the 19th century except for one name: Charles Darwin. One of Wallace’s most astute observations about nature has gotten totally forgotten in the whole debate over the “survival of the fittest.” Wallace made a surprising discovery about the saving nature of struggle. 
 
One day Wallace was observing moths struggling to hatch out from their cocoons. One of the larger insects seemed to be having a particularly hard time getting out. After hours of watching this moth beat desperately with its yet undeveloped wings to break out of the cocoon, Wallace couldn’t take it anymore. Moved by the creature’s life-and-death struggle, Wallace decided to lend a helping hand. Gently, being careful not to injure the insect, Wallace used his sharp knife to cut open the remainder of the cocoon and freed the moth from that transformation chamber.
 
But something was wrong. The moth was not injured. It began beating its wings to pump them up. Its body unfolded and filled out. Yet in the ensuing days, compared to all the other moths that had struggled their way out of their cocoon captivity, Wallace’s moth appeared smaller. Its movements were noticeably weaker. Even its wing and body color were less vivid, pale and dull. Over the course of its brief life span the “helped out” moth flew poorly, fed inefficiently, and finally died long before its time. 
 
In this little experiment Wallace discovered that his compassion was actually cruelty. The struggle against the cocoon was nature's way of strengthening and developing the moth's wings so it could fly. The “easy-way-out,” the struggle-free hatching, was a recipe for failure, not success. The struggle to break free from a cocoon was a necessary, life-enhancing, life sustaining part of a successful moth’s existence. The struggle made the moths stronger, their shades of color more vivid, and increased their vitality.
 
Parents know this, but how hard is it for us to do this. One of the worst things we can do for our children is give them everything they want. Why? Because there will never be an end to “all we want.” Give someone everything they want and they will simply want more. 
 
One of the other worst things we can do for our children is to do everything for them. If you find yourself cutting your teenage son’s meat for him, you know somewhere along the way you went too far, “helped out” too much. Doing everything for another, even out of love and compassion, insures the other will have a gray and dreamless life. Like the over-aided moth, they will have no strength, no vibrancy, no soaring spirit in their living.
 
In today’s gospel text Jesus shows his great love for his disciples by sending them off, by themselves, without his help, to struggle alone… 
 
Click here:  http://www.sermons.com/signup or call 1-800-777-7731 to join.
 
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We All Need This Boat
 
Our friend William Willimon, the Dean of the Chapel at Duke, tells of a visit he made one afternoon to the office of a lawyer in his congregation. It was just a drop-in. Will says he did not know the man that well - his wife seemed to bear the church interest for the family. Listen to the story in Will's own words:

"It was at the end of the day. I entered the outer office of his law firm. Everyone had left. All was dark, except for a light coming from the inner office. He called to me. Invited me to come back to his office.

"'Didn't expect to see you here, preacher,' he said in a voice that sounded tired. 'Come on in, I was just about to fix myself a drink. Can I interest you in one?'

"'Sure,' I said, 'if it's caffeine free, diet.'

"He poured out the drinks, offered me a seat, reared himself back in his chair, feet on the disordered desk before him.

"'What sort of day have you had?' I asked.
"'A typical day,' he said, again sounding tired. 'Misery.' 
"'Oh, I'm sorry. What was miserable about it?' I asked.

"'My day began with my assisting a couple evict their aging father from his house so they could take everything he has while he's in the nursing home. All legal. Not particularly moral, but legal. Then, by lunchtime I was helping a client evade his workers' insurance payments. It's legal! This afternoon, I have been enabling a woman to ruin her husband's life forever with the sweetest divorce you ever saw. That's my day.'

"What could I say?
"'Which,' he continued, 'helps explain why I'm in your church on a Sunday morning.'

"'I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed,' I said, 'thinking what on earth I have to say in a sermon which might be helpful to you on a Sunday.'

"'It's not the sermon that I come for, preacher,' he said, fixing his gaze upon me. 'It's the music. I go a whole week sometimes with nothing beautiful, little good, until Sunday. Sometimes, when that choir sings, it is for me the difference between life and death.'"

Why are YOU here? You don't have to answer. The fact that you ARE here is enough. You NEED this ship. We all do. Stay in the boat. Because it is here we hear, "Take heart. It is I; don't be afraid."

David E. Leininger, quoting William Willimon
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