[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for July 1 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermon Resources for July 1



                    
Sermons for Proper 8
Mark 5:21-43 - "The Healing of Jairus' Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman"
Mark 5:21-43 - "Be Healed, Be Held" by Leonard Sweet
 
Mark 5, the sermon title "The Healing of Jairus' Daughter and the Hemorrhaging Woman"  
 
A business executive became depressed. Things were not going well at work, and he was bringing his problems home with him every night. Every evening he would eat his dinner in silence, shutting out his wife and five-year-old daughter. Then he would go into the den and read the paper using the newspaper to wall his family out of his life. 

After several nights of this, one evening his daughter took her little hand and pushed the newspaper down. She then jumped into her father’s lap, wrapped her arms around his neck and hugged him strongly. The father said abruptly, “Honey, you are hugging me to death!” “No, Daddy,” the little girl said, “I’m hugging you to life!” 

This was the greatness of Jesus. He took people where they were and hugged them to life. That is precisely what we see Jesus doing here in this dramatic passage in Mark 5…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
  
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Mark 5, the sermon titled “Be Healed, Be Held" by Leonard Sweet   
 
Every morning all humans do the same thing. We get up, take a shower, brush our teeth, and then decide what we are going to wear. 
 
Generally in western culture it remains true that “Clothes make the man,” or in the name of a popular website, “Clothes make the girl.” Got a teenager? Then you know what I’m talking about. Then you know oh-so-purse-painfully how important it is to have the “right look.” To wear the “right duds” so you can be the “right dudes.” Even if you are not a “fashionista,” it is almost impossible not to be influenced by what the current culture says is “cool” (or “hot”). Who doesn’t want to “look good” and so “feel good” about themselves?
 
Every week the tabloids are filled with planted or paparazzi celebrity photos — either looking their best or revealing their worst. But whatever shape they are in, what those celebrities are sporting influences the fashion choices of thousands. Designers count on it. In fact they literally “bank” on it. If someone fabulous and famous wears something, it will sell. The “knock ‘em dead” designs on red carpet runways are immediately copied into much cheaper “knock-offs” so that those with a bit of disposable income can outfit themselves like royalty. Even countries without “royal families” have their “royalty.” 
 
But while all of us — whether teenager or ladder climbing corporate bureaucrat — think that our clothes lend use power and prestige, the opposite was the case for Jesus in Galilee in the first century…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
 
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Touch in Church
One of my cyberfriends came across this in a church newsletter called "Touch in Church:"

What is all this touching in church? It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the 
pew and not be bothered by all this friendliness and certainly not by touching.

I used to come to church and leave untouched. Now I have to be nervous about what's expected of me. I have to worry about responding to the person sitting next to me.

Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be; I could just ask the person next to me: How are you?
And the person could answer: Oh, just fine, And we'd both go home... strangers who have known each other for twenty years.

But now the minister asks us to look at each other. I'm worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman's eyes.

Now I'm concerned, because when the minister asks us to greet one another, the man next to me held my hand so tightly I wondered if he had been touched in years.

Now I'm upset because the lady next to me cried and then apologized and said it was because I was so kind and that she needed a friend right now.

Now I have to get involved. Now I have to suffer when this community suffers. Now I have to be more than a person coming to observe a service.

That man last week told me I'd never know how much I'd touched his life.

All I did was smile and tell him I understood what it was to be lonely.

Lord, I'm not big enough to touch and be touched! The stretching scares me.

What if I disappoint somebody? What if I'm too pushy? What if I cling too much? What if somebody ignores me?

"Pass the peace." "The peace of Christ be with you." "And also with you." And mean it. Lord, I can't resist meaning it! I'm touched by it, I'm enveloped by it! I find I do care about that person next to me! I find I AM involved! And I'm scared.

O Lord, be here beside me. You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched! So that I can care and be cared for! So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you!

All this touching in church -- Lord, it's changing me!

What was it our audacious friend said so many centuries ago? "If I but touch...I will be healed." 
 
David E. Leininger, ChristianGlobe Illustrations, www.Sermons.com 
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