[Propertalk] Sermon tidbits for Pentecost Sunday - John 15:26-27; 16:4b-15

Sat May 26 17:16:37 EDT 2012

There are other places in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit comes with
the gift of teaching. Peter and Apollos and Phillip and many others receive
the Spirit and begin to teach -- they speak clearly and understandably so
that other people may know the gospel. This is a gift of the Holy Spirit.

There are places in the New Testament where the Holy Spirit means patience
and strength through trial and suffering. There are places where the Holy
Spirit means simply that someone has a solid faith which is an inspiration
to others. In some places in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit comes before
baptism, and in other places, after baptism. There is simply no way anyone
can put rules and boundaries around the Holy Spirit, who is free because She
is part of a sovereign God.

http://www.sermonsuite.com/free.php?i=788014432
<http://www.sermonsuite.com/free.php?i=788014432&key=hjh4nmdhwKqgKv6a>
&key=hjh4nmdhwKqgKv6a

Erskine White

_____________

St. Augustine, that consummate theologian of the West, used what we would
now call psychological categories to explain the Trinity in terms of memory,
understanding, and will.

.what we see in the Trinity is a dance of Persons who are mutually
affirming, mutually caring. For the very essence of God is relationship,
community, unconditional love.

http://day1.org/1947-the_dance

C.K. "Chuck" Robertson, 2010

______________

Theologian Richard J. Hauser asks, "Do [we] adequately acknowledge the
Spirit's role in the good actions [we] perform every day, or do [we]
attribute them only to [our] own initiative and hard work?" It's a good
question! Hauser continues, "The scripture model insists that if the action
was good, the Spirit was present from the beginning."

(Richard J. Hauser, In His Spirit, quoted in A Guide to Prayer for All Who
Seek God, Norman Shawchuck and Rueben P. Job, editors, (Nashville, TN: Upper
Room Books, 2003), p. 221.)

http://day1.org/1257-the_churchs_hope

Fred R. Anderson, 2009

."Prove or disprove the existence of God" in ten pages.  One clever answer
used less than a page, and got top marks for the effort.  The student wrote
to the effect that the assignment was not possible using the rules of
logical proof.  For in using the available conventional starting point, we
would only be able to use the things that can be observed and verified by
human senses within the known created world.  All one could do, the argument
supposed, in that instance is prove that something in the created world was
God.  In other words, you could prove that something was God that could not
possibly be God.  The second part of the argument suggested that in order
for such a "proof" to be valid, a student would have to be objective, from
the start, about that answer.  A student would need not to care if there was
or was not a "God".  Since everyone has a stake in the answer, one way or
another, it was reasoned that such a proof was impossible to attempt.

http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/predigt.php?id=262
<http://www.predigten.uni-goettingen.de/predigt.php?id=262&kennung=20070603e
n> &kennung=20070603en

Luke Bouman, 2007

Jesus' words make it clear that spiritual growth is an ongoing process. He
told his followers that there was no way they could comprehend everything he
wanted to teach them -- but, as time went on the Spirit would lead them into
full understanding. Notice the 13th verse. Jesus does not say, "...he will
zap you into all the truth!" The Spirit will guide, not zap. Not only that
-- the language here can rightfully be translated, "...he will guide and
keep on guiding you..." In other words, there is no magic bullet and no
short cut to authentic living that delivers meaning, direction and purpose.
St Paul himself said, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already
reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own..."

http://www.lectionarysermons.com/SL67.html

John Jewell, 1998

_______________

The first statement about the Spirit of truth is in the text for today in
John 16. The Apostle John writes, "When the Spirit of truth comes, he will
guide you into all the truth." In this passage, we are reminded that God is
Spirit, and that God is the source of our drive for truth. This drive for
truth in all aspects of life comes from God.  Focus on the word, guide. The
Holy Spirit is none other than the Spirit of truth and this Spirit will
guide us, lead us, show us, reveal to us the truth. Focus on the phrase,
'into all the truth." We know that the Holy Spirit will lead us into the
full truth about Jesus, but at this moment in the sermon, let us remember
that the Holy Spirit guides us into "all the truth." God is truth and wants
us to know the truth in every aspect of life such as science, history, math,
music, medicine, psychology, sociology and everything that is here in our
universe.  The Spirit of truth leads us into all the truth. That is what the
history of human civilization is about: the search for truth.

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/series_c_the_spirit_of_truth.htm

Edward F. Markquart

_______________

Dr. Anderson is the chief administrator of Presbyterian Counseling Services,
the largest counseling organization here in the Northwest; and he supervises
some thirty to forty professional counselors; therefore Dr. Anderson knows
as much as anyone about what makes for a good counselor.  So I asked him,
"Doug, what are the characteristics of a good counselor?" 

Doug said:  A good counselor?  First, a good counselor has a personal
concern for others; the counselor is personally concerned and compassionate
for the needs of others.  He or she is not a detached individual who listens
for fifty minutes and then asks you to pay the fee. Rather, the mark of a
good counselor is that they are truly concerned about your welfare. Second,
a mark of a good counselor is empathy; he or she has an intuitive
understanding and feeling of the person before them. Just as an electrician
has an intuitive grasp of the problem before him; as does someone in
electronics, mechanics or accounting, so a good counselor has an intuitive
understanding of the dynamics of the person he/she is dealing with.  Third,
a good counselor is congruent; that is, basically, he/she is a healthy
person, a wholesome person.  This does not mean that a counselor is problem
free, but has their head and heart pretty well put together.  A fourth and
final quality of a good counselor is that they are a non-judgmental person.
When we go into a counselor, we unload all kinds of personal information and
feelings about stuff we would share with no other; and it is important that
the counselor does not condemn us for our feelings or actions.  Condemnation
and judgment inhibit communication of further feelings. 

So I asked Doug, "What is the purpose of a good counselor?"  He answered:  A
counselor tries to facilitate growth.  He/she tries to enable a person to
grow.  We all have blocks in our paths to maturity.  We all have blocks to
growth such as painful, early childhood trauma with parents or persistent
personality problems or addictions or embarrassing personal habits that
prevent us from growing into God's fullness for us. A counselor helps remove
those blocks.  Like when a person has a blood clot in the leg, medication
may be given to dissolve that block.  So a counselor works with the client
to help dissolved those blocks that prevent them from growing.  .  A
counselor does not solve problems for people, but helps them grow stronger
so they can solve their own problems.  A counselor does not make hard
decisions for people but helps them become strong so they can make their own
choices. 

So I asked a final question of Doug, "Does a counselor have an ideal image,
a goal that he/she is working towards?"  Yes, a counselor has a vision of
maturity, wholeness and congruence that he/she is working towards.

http://www.sermonsfromseattle.com/pentecost_counselor.htm

Edward F. Markquart

__________________

The soaring, mystical liturgy of Pentecost abounds in themes. Perhaps the
most important is the idea that in Jesus and the Spirit the diversities in
humankind become unimportant. The Spirit is the source of unity amid
diversity. She does not eliminate diversity, but she makes it possible to
rejoice in it instead of fighting over it.

http://www.agreeley.com/homilies00/jun11.htm

Andrew M. Greeley, 2000

___________________

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