[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for December 11 - Part 2

[Joe Parrish]

The Royal Doors Are Opening!
 
In the Orthodox Church, the sanctuary is separated from the congregation by a wall pierced by several doors.  The central ones, known as the royal doors, are opened at certain critical points in the service.

Eugene Trubetskoy, a Russian prince and a religious philosopher, made reference to this in his dying words, when he cried out, "The royal doors are opening!  The great Liturgy is about to begin." [Quoted in George Every, Richard Harries, and Kallistos Ware, eds., The Time of the Spirit: Readings through the Christian Year (Crestwood, New York: St. Vladimir's Seminary Press, 1984), p. 43.]  What he had seen so often in the church's liturgy on earth was now apparent to him in the liturgy which takes places in heaven.  The royal doors were opening in a new and astounding way.

We might do well, all of us, especially in this time of Advent, to recognize how the death of a Christian is like that.  The royal doors open.  The great Liturgy is about to begin.

Charles Hoffacker, God's Doorman 
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The President as a Mouse
 
This may sound ridiculous but it gives us an idea of what it means when we say God became human and made his dwelling among us. Imagine the most powerful and prestigious person in the world, let's say the president of the United States, of his own free-will becomes a mouse – small, furry, insignificant, and extremely helpless and vulnerable. He chooses to become a mouse because he wants to live among all other mice. He leaves the White House, and the prestige and honor that go with his office. He becomes a mouse in order to help all other mice.

You see, there are mousetraps in kitchens all around the world. The people who own these kitchens are determined to kill every last mouse. And one after another the mice are killed. The President shouts at the mice until he is hoarse to warn them of the danger and shoos them away but the smelly cheese on the deadly mousetraps is just too inviting. And so the most powerful man in the world happily becomes a mouse because he loves all mice and wants to do something to save them.

In a similar way and in a more radical way the all-powerful and eternal God has chosen to plunge himself into the arena of human life as you and I live it, and take on the flesh and bones of our humanity.

Vince Gerhardy, God Has a Word for You
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What Are You Looking For?
 
Chaim Potok was an intensely religious man; a Jew who explored the dimensions of faith in our lives. From an early age, Potok knew he wanted to be a writer. But his mother wasn't so sure. When he went away to college she said, "Son, now I know you want to be a writer. But I want you to think about brain surgery. You'll keep a lot of people from dying. And you'll make a lot of money." To which Potok responded, "No, Mama, I want to be a writer."

But, "No," is not what Mama wanted to hear. So, every vacation break for four years she would repeat her comments about his becoming a brain surgeon and keeping people from dying and making a lot of money, and always his response was the same. Finally the son had enough, and, when the same mantra began, he cut off his mother with exasperation, and with great passion he told his mother, "Mama, I don't want to keep people from dying, I want to show them how to live." 

This morning's Gospel Lesson from John is a "call" story, but unlike so many call stories in scripture this one is not crisp, dramatic, or decisive. Today there is no flashing light, no booming voice, no clear instructions as to what the disciples are to do. Instead, what we hear is Jesus asking a question - a strange, penetrating question. But it is the question that forms the foundation for understanding "call" for understanding vocation. The question is: "What are you looking for?"

Susan R. Andrews, Sermons for Sundays: In Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany: The Offense Of Grace, CSS Publishing Company, Inc.
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Open Up to the Living God
 
Some time ago, a young executive of the '60s generation came up to me and said, "You know, I think my generation emphasized external, societal morality while the previous generation emphasized internal, personal morality. That generation believed a moral person would produce a moral society. My generation believed a moral society would produce a moral person." But John addressed both. If his was a voice that spoke out for social justice and structures of morality, it was also a voice that spoke inwardly for individual integrity. If it was a mistake to believe moral people automatically produce a moral society, it was also a mistake to believe a moral society will produce moral people. A good structure administered by corrupt people can produce corruption. And a good person administering a bad structure can still produce corruption. These days we don't like John's message of personalrepentance. If we have the courage, we much prefer to talk about problems out there -- about political and economic reform, about accountability, efficiency, and effectiveness in our educational system, about urban renewal and social action. These should be talked about.

But John presses his message of change even further, right on into the heart of every hearer. And the message is -- repent, turn around, open up, make God the center of your life instead of self, or family, or business, or profession, or sports, or success, or power, or money, or popularity, or status. Turn away from those lifeless, death-dealing idols, says John. Open up to the living God. Make a straight path to your heart for him. 
 
Maurice A. Fetty, How to Profit from Prophets, CSS Publishing Company
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Advent: Time to Listen
 
Barbara Brown Taylor tells about the day W. H. Auden read some of his poetry at Princeton . The hall was packed with hundreds of students and faculty. They had come to hear "the great one." But when Auden (then an old man) began to read, his voice was so soft that even the microphone couldn't pick him up. So people began whispering to their neighbor: "What did he say?" And those who thought they had heard a part of what he'd said, whispered back the part they'd heard - or what they remembered from a prior reading of Auden, triggered (in that moment) by what they thought they'd heard. While others, not quite hearing - and not quite knowing -  guessed at what he was saying. And pretty soon, the whispers drowned out the poet.  
 
Which, if you ask me, is what sometimes happens in our churches, else why would there be so much interest in the word of God, yet so little clarity about the word of God? Unless, of course, we all whisper better than we listen.  
 
Sometimes I wish God would scream. Or shout. At least raise his voice. Getting in my face, as it were. As to why God doesn't, I have no answer. I wish I did.  
What I do know is what I just read. That God came to the world (with the barest hint of a whisper) in the form of a child. A speechless child.
 
William A. Ritter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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The Harvest of Love
 
That blessed saint, Helen Keller once wrote: "Christmas is the harvest time of love. Souls are drawn to other souls. All that we have read and thought and hoped comes to fruition at this happy time. Our spirits are astir. We feel within us a strong desire to serve. A strange, subtle force, a new kindness animates man and child. A new spirit is growing in us. No longer are we content to relieve pain, to sweeten sorrow, to give the crust of charity. We dare to give friendship, service, the equal loaf of bread and love."

Peace, power and purpose. "The light shines in the darkness…" In these very busy days of preparation, may His peace, His power and His purpose dwell in our hearts.

Helen Keller 
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Only When I'm Alone
 
It may be that one of our own challenges is to know who we aren't. There's a story about a woman finding herself alone in an elevator with the famous and very handsome Robert Redford. As the elevator moved up the floors, the woman, like many of us might, found herself uncontrollably staring at the movie star. Finally, in her excitement and nervousness, she blurted out: "Are you the real Robert Redford?" To which Redford responded, "Only when I'm alone."
 
That story reveals that Robert Redford is not simply another pretty face, but he has grown into a wisdom that must serve him well. For like John the Baptist, he obviously knows who he is not. 
 
Mary Lynn Tobin, Finding Our Voice 
 
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Letting God Bless You
 
In his book Letting God Bless You John Killinger concludes with the challenge:
 
Permit God to bless you. Don’t look around you and think how hard life is. Look around and see how filled with mystery and goodness it is. See how wonderful the world looks when you know God is at work redeeming it and setting up the anti-structures, so that humility and purity and compassion and longing for justice and peace will all be fulfilled and rewarded in the eternal scheme of things. 
 
Give thanks to God for the richness of existence.
Then look around to see who you can share it with.
That will make you even richer.
 
If you will learn to live this way every day, you will always have a song in your heart and the path before you will be lined with flowers. Joy will spring up inside you like a fountain, and you will lie down to sleep at night with peace in your soul…
 
The conclusion to this illustration and many additional illustrations and sermons for Advent and Christmas can be accessed at www.Sermons.com.


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