[Propertalk] Weekly Illustration Mark 4: 26 - 34

[Joe Parrish]

http://www.proclaimsermons.com/illustration.asp 

No Place for NIMBY

  In one community, a social service agency had acquired a home on a
residential street where they planned to house a few mentally impaired
adults, who would be there with caregivers. They had selected people who
could function in society and who were not a threat to anyone. Some of the
neighbors objected, though, claiming fear for safety and loss of property
value. Others, also in the neighborhood, felt that they should support the
project, and not a few cited the Christian value of loving one's neighbor.
The resulting argument was a bit of brouhaha, but the notion of NIMBY ...
Not In My Back Yard ... was challenged by the Christian concept of what it
means to be a neighbor and the realization that we cannot be Christians if
we just look after ourselves. The great Russian Christian and writer,
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, put it this way, "Mankind's sole salvation lies in
everybody making everything his business." And that goes especially for
Christians.

 

http://www.proclaimsermons.com/viewSermon.asp?title=Parables%20for%20Our%20T
imes
 
Proclaim Sermon for this Week


 

Parables for Our Times
June 17, 2012


 

Mark 4: 26 - 34
Proper 6 / Ordinary 11


 

Summary
The kingdom of God is as up to date as the current political scene, but it
is a slow, generally unspectacular miracle, one in which we work with God.


 

Excerpt
More than 19 centuries have gone by since Jesus lived on our planet, but we
still speak of him as one of the greatest, if not the greatest teacher that
ever lived. This title comes not simply from those of us who call ourselves
Christians and who are therefore his followers; it is said just as
frequently by persons who are not necessarily religious, and even by some
who are openly antagonistic to religion.
This is at least partly because what Jesus said 19 centuries ago is just as
true today as it was then. Sometimes it seems even truer today, almost as if
Jesus said it this week instead of centuries ago.


 

The kingdom parables
Jesus taught especially about his kingdom. He began his ministry by
announcing that people should change their ways because the kingdom of God
was at hand. He described what it would be like once his kingdom had come.
And he did this preaching and teaching about the kingdom mostly by telling
parables. But Jesus never said when his kingdom would come; he never set any
dates. Again and again his disciples pressed him for a specific time and he
gave them no answer.
One thing you and I know for sure: Jesus' kingdom hasn't come yet! We're
still waiting for it. The generation that knew Jesus face-to-face and that
heard his parables from his own voice - all of them died without seeing
God's kingdom come. And since then, more than 19 centuries of Jesus'
followers have come and gone, and still his kingdom has not come to pass.
Furthermore, Jesus wrote this kingdom into his prayer, the prayer his
believers call the "Our Father," or "The Lord's Prayer." The first petition
in that prayer is this: "Your kingdom come, / your will be done, / on earth
as it is in heaven." Human beings have offered that prayer to God literally
billions of times, probably trillions. After all, it's likely that it will
be said by individuals and in morning prayers and Masses several million
times this very day, in hundreds of languages around the world - this prayer
for the kingdom of God to come upon the earth.
Today, as we meet for worship, this kingdom is the subject of our scripture
lesson. It comes to us in parables - and I want to talk with you about it.
Why? Well, partly because it is the lectionary reading for today. And
especially because it is timely. The parables in this lesson are parables
for our times....(approximately 1,172 words remaining.)
 
 
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