[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for December 16

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Advent 3 
Luke 3:7-18 – “The Divine Opportunity”
Luke 3:7-18 -- “Your Life as a Provenance of the Jesus Story” by Leonard Sweet
 


 
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Luke 3 - the sermon title “The Divine Opportunity” 
 
Opportunity comes with so many different faces that we often don't recognize it. That's probably why we sometimes miss its call. A previous generation said that opportunity comes dressed in overalls. And they were largely right, for nothing succeeds like hard work. Our generation thinks that opportunity comes with a college diploma. It may, but there's no guarantee. 

The divine opportunity comes in what is, to our human eyes, the most unlikely garb of all. It's no wonder we don't recognize it; or that, recognizing it, we resist it. This Advent season is an especially good time to experience the divine opportunity. Any time is God's season; but because you and I find certain settings and circumstances especially hospitable to religious experience, Advent and Lent are particularly attractive.

The first Advent preacher, John the Baptizer, offered opportunity in a compelling, almost ferocious way. When you read his words, you don't think he's offering opportunity; I expect that if we had heard him in person, we would have been even more doubtful. William Barclay said that John's message "was not good news; it was news of terror" (The Gospel of Luke, Westminster John Knox Press, p. 28). I understand what Professor Barclay was saying, but I see it differently. It seems to me that good news must sometimes come dressed in rough clothing. 

That was surely the nature of John's approach…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 


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Luke 3 - the sermon titled “Turning Potholes into Mud Puddles on the Bethlehem Road” by Leonard Sweet   
 
Did you hear? NASA is already testing prototypes of space suits for the first astronauts who will walk on the surface of Mars. Scientists are hoping this event might happen around 2030. That means by the time all the infants playing baby Jesus in this year’s bathrobe dramas known as “Christmas pageants” are getting their driver’s permits! 
 
Right now the space suit design weighs about one hundred pounds and completely encases whoever wears the suit within a separate, sealed environment. The environment on Mars is so hostile that for any human to survive on its surface for even a moment, they must be completely cut off from everything the red planet has to offer. Those first voyagers to Mars will also be completely cut off from each other. If their communication equipment works they will be able to speak to each other. But there will be no other form of connection between them. Every Mars astronaut will be physically isolated in their own private environment. They will each walk alone on the surface of Mars. 
 
Of course, there are plenty of people who don’t believe we will ever get there. In fact there are plenty of people, and lots of news coverage, suggesting that we won’t make it to next Friday. If you are putting off paying your VISA bill just in case the Mayan calendar is right and the end of time will occur on 21-12-2012, then you need to find your checkbook and a stamp. 
 
Thank God Christians are on the road to Bethlehem, not on a road to nowhere…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
  



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You Must Get Past John
 
William Willimon, Chaplain at Duke University, says that John the Baptist reminds us of boundaries we must respect and gates we must pass through. At Duke, Willimon reminds the students, "If you are going to graduate, you must first get past the English Department. If you are going to practice law, you must pass the bar. If you want to get to medical school you must survive Organic Chemistry." Likewise, "If you want to get to the joy of Bethlehem in the presence of Jesus, you must get past John the Baptist in the desert." The word from John is "repent," which means "about-face" or turning 180 degrees.
 
Richard A. Wing, Deep Joy for a Shallow World, CSS Publishing Company
 
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Seeing God 
 
There is a story going around about a man who wanted to see and hear God. So he went out to a hilltop and yelled and pleaded with God. "Speak to me!" And a bird sang. And disappointed he again begged God to speak to him and all he heard was the sound of children playing in the distance. "Please God, touch me!" he cried and the wind blew across his cheek. And discouraged at not having his plea answered the man prayed, "God, show yourself to me!" And a butterfly flew across his path. And when he got home, convinced that God had forsaken him, his daughter ran out to greet him, but he felt abandoned by God. 
 
Now hearing a story like this, it is easy to see God. But in this story this man was as certain about what it means to see and hear God as we are about the end of the stories we heard today. 

Sally Sedgwick 
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Time to Act
 
Once the eminent philosopher John Dewey found his son in the bathroom. The floor was flooded and he was mopping furiously trying to contain the water in that room, keeping the damage to a minimum. The professor began thinking, trying to understand the deeper ramifications of the situation. After a few moments, the son said, "Dad, this is not the time to philosophize. It is time to mop!" 

Baptism is our statement that we are ready to stop philosophizing and ready to start mopping. Zig Ziglar reminds us that the largest locomotive in the world can be held in its tracks while standing still simply by placing a single one-inch block of wood in front of each of the eight drive wheels. The same locomotive moving at 100 miles per hour can crash through a wall of steel reinforced concrete five feet thick, but it must be moving first. 
 
King Duncan, Collected Sermons, www.sermons.com
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