[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for January 16 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Epiphany 2
 
John 1:29-42 - "I've Got a Strong Case of the Can't Help Its'"
John 1:29-42 - "You Bring Me Great Pleasure" by Leonard Sweet
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John 1, the sermon titled "I've Got a Strong Case of the ''Can't Help Its"  
 
One of the great celebrative anthems that comes to us from the African-American culture is the powerful spiritual "Ain't Got Time To Die." It was written by Hall Johnson and it has these joyfully dramatic words:
 
"Been so busy praising my Jesus,
Been so busy working for the Kingdom,
Been so busy serving my Master
Ain't got time to die.
If I don't praise him,
If I don't serve him,
The rocks gonna cry out
Glory and honor, glory and honor
Ain't got time to die."
 
In this inspiring and wonderful spiritual, the composer is underscoring and celebrating the joy and excitement of being a Christian, the joy and excitement of serving our Lord in gratitude for what he has done for us. The point that this spiritual is trying to drive home to us with great enthusiasm is that when we really become Christians, when we really commit our lives to Christ; then, we can't sit still. We become so excited, so thrilled, so grateful for our new life in Christ that we can't help but love Him, praise Him, serve Him, and share Him with others.
 
This is precisely what happened to Andrew. He found the Messiah, he encountered Jesus - and he was so excited he couldn't sit still. Immediately, gratefully, excitedly, he ran to share the good news with his brother Simon. It reads like this in the first chapter of John's Gospel:
 
"(Andrew) first found his brother, Simon and said to him: 'We have found the Messiah'" Then Andrew brought Simon Peter to Jesus. This was the greatness of Andrew. He was the man who was always introducing others to Jesus. Three different times in the Bible, Andrew comes to center stage and each time he is bringing someone to meet Jesus. 
 
Here in John 1, he brings his brother Simon Peter. In John 6, Andrew brings to Jesus the boy with the five loaves and two fish. And in John 12, we find Andrew bringing to Jesus the enquiring Greeks who wanted to meet Jesus and visit with Him. Andrew's greatest joy was sharing the good news of Christ and bringing others into the presence of Christ. Having found Jesus, he could not sit still, he could not help it. He had to share Christ with others.
 
A minister friend of mine tells about a woman in his church who is so excited to be a Christian. She has a shady past and had pretty much hit bottom when a friend reached out to her and brought her to church. The church member welcomed her warmly and loved her into the circle of their love and God's love. She started going to church faithfully. She joined a wonderful Sunday School class. She began studying the Bible daily. She started praying regularly and in the process was converted. She realized for the very first time in her life that God loved her, even her! She came to understand that even though she had done all those sordid things in her earlier life, that God still loved her, forgave her, accepted her, valued her, treasured her. She was absolutely bowled over by that "Amazing Grace" and she committed herself to Christ heart and soul. Recently she said to her minister, "I'm so excited to be a Christian, that I've got a strong case of the "can't help its." 
 
This is also true of Andrew. He, too, had a strong case of the "can't help its." He was so grateful, so thrilled, so excited about Christ that he just could not sit still. He could not keep Jesus to himself. You know, as I think about this and as I think about my own personal life and spiritual pilgrimage, I can tell you that I also have a strong case of the "can't help its." It goes with being a Christian. Let me show you what I mean by speaking out of my own personal life with three thoughts. Try these on for size with me and I'm sure that you will think of others out of your own personal and spiritual life, but for now, let me share these three with you.  Because we are Christians...

 
1. We Can't Help But Be Grateful.
2. We Can't Help But Be Confident.
3. We Can't Help But Be Loving.
 
The rest of this sermon following the outline above can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com. 
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John 1:29-42, the sermon titled "St. Andrew Christians" by Leonard Sweet  
 
Even in the most barren desert you can find an oasis or two. 
 
In the wasteland of television you can find an oasis of decency and compassion. Take the commercials sponsored by the "Foundation for a Better Life." Here is lifted up such radically righteous behavior as, oh, some young kid giving up his bus seat to an elderly woman, or, more shockingly, a taller man kindly reaching up to grab an out-of-reach package for someone who is vertically challenged.
 
How sad that such ordinary human activities now rate their own TV commercial because they are perceived as so uncommon and extraordinary. Even more telling and tragic is that such images move our hearts and souls, as though they were truly exceptional events.
 
We parade the pedestrian. We applaud what should be ordinary. We are so acclimated to badness that to entertain an expectation of decency and the occasion of excellence is almost beyond our belief. It is far easier to believe that everyone lies, that everyone is evil, than to open ourselves to the possibility that someone might genuinely be offering us something good. 
 
And what if that "something" was more than simple politeness or momentary care? What if the "something" being offered to us was a whole new truth, a whole new life, a whole new possibility of being? What if offering that kind of message was our definition of the "right" thing to do?
 
In today's gospel text we are faced with two examples of someone doing a crazy "right" thing...
 
The rest of Leonard Sweet's sermon can be obtained by joining www.Sermons.com 
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A Change in Posture
 
In a cathedral in Copenhagen, Denmark there is a magnificent statue of Jesus by the noted sculptor Bertel Thorvaldsen. When Thorvaldsen first completed the sculpture he gazed upon the finished product with great satisfaction. It was a sculpture of Christ with face looking upward and arms extended upward. It was a statue of a majestic, conquering Christ.
 
Later that night, however, after the sculptor had left his fine new work in clay to dry and harden, something unexpected occurred. Sea mist seeped into the studio in the night. The clay did not harden as quickly as anticipated. The upraised arms and head of the sculpture began to drop. The majestic Christ with arms lifted up and head thrown back was transformed into a Christ with head bent forward and arms stretched downward as if in a pose of gentle invitation. At first Thorvaldsen was bitterly disappointed. As he studied the transformed sculpture, however, he came to see a dimension of Christ that had not been real to him before. It was the Christ who is a gently, merciful Savior. Thorvaldsen inscribed on the base of the completed statue, "Come Unto Me," and that picture of the Lamb of God in his mercy has inspired millions.
 
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
 
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The Many Ways to Come and See
 
William Muehl is on the faculty of Yale Divinity School, and he has spent many years teaching people who are about to become ministers and those who are already ministers. "The roads to Christian faith are as varied as the people who profess it," says Professor Muehl. "There in the congregation is the man who would rather be sitting in the car in the church parking lot reading the sports page of the Sunday paper were it not for the fact that his wife has insisted that he put on a suit and tie and accompany her into the sanctuary. There also is the teenager in the balcony with one ear on the pastoral prayer and the other focused on the whispers of her boyfriend. There is the couple who have come because they were invited by the family across the street and they had no handy excuse not to say yes.  There is the young woman who is there because of the music and who reads the hymnbook during the sermon."
 
The point of all this is that the calling to follow Christ is a pathway which is marked "come and see." It is a pathway which is far more important because of where it leads than because of where it begins. It may begin, as it did for Muehl, as a pain in the body, or, as it has for others, as a longing in the heart, a struggle in the soul, or a wondering in the mind. It is a path which some people enter alone, which others enter by tagging along with friends or family, and down which yet others are dragged, at first reluctantly, by parents or teachers. No matter how we begin, we see as we travel that the pathway has been cleared for us by the Christ who goes before us, making of our many beginnings a common journey. "Come and see," we are told, though the voice which calls us sometimes seems faint, filtered through the voices of the ordinary folk around us. And, for whatever reason, we do go, and, then, we do see. What we see is that, no matter who we were when we started, we end up with a new name, a new identity, given by Christ. What we see is that, no matter how we began our travel, we end the journey resting in the Christ who is all in all.
 
Thomas G. Long, Shepherds and Bathrobes, CSS Publishing, Inc.
 
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Martin Luther King, Jr. - Captured by the Spirit of Christ
 
Two months before his assassination, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., spoke to his congregation at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta about his death in what would oddly enough become his eulogy. 

"Every now and then I think about my own death, and I think about my own funeral," Dr. King told his congregation. "If any of you are around when I have to meet my day, I don't want a long funeral. And if you get somebody to deliver the eulogy, tell them not to talk too long. Every now and then I wonder what I want them to say. Tell them not to mention that I have a Nobel Peace Prize, that isn't important. Tell them not to mention that I have three or four hundred other awards, that's not important. I'd like someone to mention that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to give his life serving others. I'd like someone to say that day that Martin Luther King, Jr., tried to love somebody. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try to feed the hungry. I want you to be able to say that day that I did try, in my life, to clothe those who were naked. I want you to be able to say that I did try to visit those in prison. I want you to say that I tried to love and serve humanity." Dr. King concluded with these words: "I won't have any money left behind. I won't have the fine and luxurious things of life to leave behind. But I just want to leave a committed life behind." 

Did Martin King have that level of commitment when he first began his ministry? It's doubtful. He had youthful enthusiasm to be sure. He had strong convictions. He was well brought up, with an outstanding Baptist preacher as a father. But people who are truly captured by the spirit of Christ do so generally after years of walking in Christ's footsteps. Our faith is validated and grows as we "come and see." 

King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
 
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