[Propertalk] FW: Sermon Resources for August 14 - Part 1

Sat Aug 13 16:07:09 EDT 2011

Resources for Proper 15 

Matthew 15: (1-10) 21-28  - "Great Is Your Faith"

Matthew 15: (1-10) 21-28 - "Live and Learn" by Leonard Sweet

Matthew 15, the sermon title "Great Is Your Faith" 

What would you think if I told you that on your tombstone would be inscribed
a four-word epitaph? Well, you might respond, it would depend on who would
write this epitaph--an enemy or a loved one. It might also depend, you might
say, on how well this person knew and understood you. If a newspaper critic
wrote of a concert pianist the four words: "He was a failure," you could
always say: That was his opinion. But if one of the world's great musicians
wrote, "He was a genius," then you are apt to take the remark more
seriously.

There was a character in the Gospel who Jesus once described with four
immortal words: Great is your faith. She was a Canaanite woman who came from
the country to the north of Palestine, a country hostile to the Jews. She
was presumably married, she had at least one child; but that's all we know
about her. We don't know whether she was a good woman or a bad woman. We
don't know her name. All we know of her is that in this single encounter
with Jesus he spoke to her this four-word epitaph: Great is your faith.

Only four words but they are enough to make her immortal. We can trust these
words as being true because the expert on faith spoke them. Jesus searched
for faith, as a gem collector would fine jewels. He did not always find it
in his disciples. On no occasion that we know did he ever say of Peter,
James, and John: Great is your faith. More often the words he spoke to them:
You of little faith. On only one other occasion did Jesus praise a person
for their faith. Interestingly, that was a Roman soldier stationed in
Capernaum.

We regard this Canaanite woman with more than just an academic interest. She
awakens in us a feeling of admiration, perhaps even envy, because she stands
where most of us would like to stand. What faithful Christian would not like
it said of him or her: Great is your faith? Think of what it would mean if
an aspiring young artist had Picasso place his hand on his shoulder and say:
You have a great talent. How wonderful it would be then to a believer in
God, if Jesus would place his hand on our shoulder and say: You have a
remarkable talent for faith. But how does one qualify for this praise? What
does one have to do? To answer these questions let us take a closer look at
her story.

1. Crossing Barriers

2. Refusing to Be Put Off

3. Going in Faith and Humility

The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by
joining
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Matthew 15, the sermon titled "Live and Learn" by Leonard Sweet 

Is anyone's memory of study hall a fun one? 

Either you were the studious type, who really wanted to use that hour of
enforced peace and quiet to get some work done, or you were the kid that was
bored, trying to think of ways to sneak out, send notes, shoot spit-wads, or
otherwise somehow liven up that deadly hour. 

But the shushings of study hall monitors and librarians aren't common to all
cultures. 

At traditional Orthodox yeshivas, the bais midrash, the study hall, is
filled with noise. Not just noise, but debates and sweat, as matched
chavrusas - learning partners - verbally battle it out over how best to
interpret the texts and traditions of the Jewish faith. The "bais midrash,"
the study hall or library that holds all the necessary reference books for
the yeshiva students, was NEVER quiet. 

The traditional study of Talmud is with a partner, your "chavrusas," with
whom head-to-head, nose-to-nose debate, dialogue, even
shouting-at-the-top-of-your-lungs, is part of the learning process. These
face-to-face exercises, testing the depth and breadth of the students'
knowledge, is what the yeshiva call learning. In fact, a yeshiva student
won't ask, "What are you studying?" Rather, the appropriate question is
"What are you learning?" Studying infers a solitary, sedentary ingestion of
information. Learning is a social, active, expectorating exercise - a
dialogue that must necessarily engage two or more individuals in order for
true learning to be accomplished. In the Jewish tradition, "learning" is a
verb, a never-finished action. 

The apostle Paul, a learned Pharisee, well-schooled in the Torah, in the
learning traditions of the rabbis, bolding preached Christ's imminent return
throughout his early letters. Yet as time went by, as the Christian message
began to spread, as Christian churches were planted and began to grow, and
Jesus still did not return, Paul's learning curve began to deepen. The
communities he was now addressing had second, even third generation
Christians in their midst. The first believers began to pass away. Somewhere
between Paul's writing of 1 Thessalonians and 2 Timothy, a span of about
fourteen years or so, the apostle gradually came to a new understanding. 

In short, Paul changed his mind. Christ's return may NOT be imminent, and
Christians should be prepared to live and die as a faith community without
ever experiencing that event. 

Yet changing one's mind has gotten nothing but bad press. In the
feeding-frenzy of political campaigns, any evidence that any candidate
re-positioned, re-thought, or simply re-considered their original views on
any given issue is lambasted as flip-flopping or wishy-washy. In the Main
Stream Media's (MSM) judgment, any adjustment of one's stand, or one's
understanding, over the course of twenty or thirty years is deemed a sign of
weakness and used as evidence of a morally and/or intellectually deficient
mind. 

Learning, continually interacting with and challenging the experiences and
informational input that surrounds us, is a life-long process.
Gerontologists are now recommending that as we age we intentionally set up
new, unexpected circumstances or encounters for ourselves every single day,
in order to keep our brains fit and flexible. Such simple learning exercises
as taking a different route to the store, doing a crossword puzzle, planning
and executing a sewing, building, or other creative project, all help
contribute to keeping our neurons firing, our brains healthy, and
strengthening our mind's ability to learn. 

In fact, there are really only two questions to ask yourself. 1. Am I
learning something? 2. Am I contributing something? If the answer to either
is no, then get out of there. If the answer to both is yes, you're right
where God wants you to be.

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_____________________

Have Faith Anyway

The place was a suburb of Detroit. The speaker, Nobel Peace Prize winner
Elie Wiesel. The subject: "After Auschwitz, Can We Still Believe!" Jews and
Gentiles alike filled the great synagogue to listen to the recollections of
one who survived the furnaces of Dachau. Thin and fragile, Wiesel stood at
the podium for nearly an hour telling one story after another of the horror
and despair of those bleak days in the '30s. His stories were of people
confused with their imprisonment and sometimes destroyed with their release.

Painfully, silently, the audience relived the events of Wiesel's young life
when he was the only surviving member of his family. Finally the stories
ceased. His eyes dropped to the floor. There was no sound at all in that
mammoth room for what seemed an agonizing eternity. Then he repeated the
question, "After Auschwitz, can we still believe?" He shook his head slowly,
sadly, "No, no,..." before concluding powerfully, "but we must!"

Concerning whether or not to have faith, there is no choice. There was none
for that Canaanite mom, none for Elie Wiesel, there is none for you and me.
The message of this wonderful mother is "Chose to believe anyway!" You may
not feel you are allowed to have faith, have it anyway. You may not feel God
loves you, believe it anyway. You may come to understand that you are not
included, include yourself anyway. Even the dogs get the crumbs that fall
from the master's table.

David E. Leininger, Hang In There!

_____________________________

The expectancy that hopes great things of God is the passport to the
kingdom.

George Buttrick

_________________________________

A Little Time Alone

John R. O'Neil, in his book The Paradox of Success tells about a
psychologist who was once summoned for a delicate interview with a top
executive who had been acting oddly. Every Wednesday afternoon, this
hard-charging company man would leave his office for a 3:00 P.M. appointment
and did not return. He never told anyone where he went, but because he was
observed entering a nearby apartment building, it was assumed he must be
visiting a mistress.

Not so. The executive explained his habit to the psychologist quite easily.
Inside Apartment 2B waited, not a luscious blonde, but a professional
woodworking shop that he had set up, where he labored happily to turn out
furniture and knick-knacks. He kept his special appointment with himself
faithfully because it was his retreat from the demands he fulfilled so
carefully day in and day out. He needed this chance to be alone with
himself, engaged in an activity that took his mind far from the job and
focused his attention in a calming way. The psychologist pronounced him
eminently healthy. This was the man's retreat from pressing
responsibilities. 

You have to admire Jesus' commitment to maintaining balance in his life. The
Savior took time to go apart. Many of us could learn from him. We, too, need
a time apart. As someone has said, we need to go apart before we come apart.
So here Jesus is on retreat. And this woman will not leave him alone. Maybe
it was her timing.

King Duncan, When You Need Help, Collected Sermons,
<http://mail.churchmail.com/lists/lt.php?id=Kk8GAgABDwNQRAMDBUsDAABWWg%3D%3D
> www.Sermons.com 

_____________________

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