[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for October 21 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Proper 24 
Mark 10:35-45 - "The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power"
Mark 10:35-45 - "Not So With You” by Leonard Sweet
 
Mark 10, the sermon title “The Three Poison Pills of Position, Prestige, and Power” 
 
During the American Revolution a man in civilian clothes rode past a group of soldiers repairing a small defensive barrier. Their leader was shouting instructions, but making no attempt to help them. Asked why by the rider, he retorted with great dignity, "Sir, I am a corporal!" The stranger apologized, dismounted, and proceeded to help the exhausted soldiers. The job done, he turned to the corporal and said, "Corporal, next time you have a job like this and not enough men to do it, go to your commander-in-chief, and I will come and help you again." With that George Washington got back on horse and rode off.
 
Where did Washington learn such leadership skills? I have no doubt he learned them here. In these words of Jesus: Whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant. The young corporal had these words modeled to him from the man at the top. The disciples, likewise, receive from their leader a picture of servant hood.
 
And it is high time they start imitating their leader…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
 
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Mark 10, the sermon titled “Not So With You” by Leonard Sweet   
 
How many of us here this morning were born BC? By “BC” I mean “Before Cell-phones?” The first cell phone was invented in 1973 by Martin Cooper. My kids were born AC, but I was born BC. In a world of 7 billion people, there are now 5 billion cell phone subscriptions. Pretty amazing for something under 40 years old. 
 
In the last forty years the cyber-cellular age has changed the way we do business, the way we get our education, the way we socialize. The world has never been so closely connected, and there has never been this much immediately accessible information as there is with our new online universe. Each cell phone is almost the equivalent of having the Library of Congress in our hands. 
 
Unfortunately all that easily accessed info has also led to an epidemic of a new kind of crime — identity theft. With just a few bits of our personal information, an online burglar can electronically hijack anyone’s identity and drain bank accounts, take out huge loans, run up mountains of credit card debt. Once your identity is stolen your name is no longer your own. No matter your name, your name is mud…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining http://www.sermons.com/signup 
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Everybody Wants to Be Somebody
 
Everybody wants to be somebody. Since the dawn of history, human beings have been trying to move up the scale of importance. The clincher used by the serpent to tempt Adam and Eve was "when you eat of , your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil" (Gen. 3:5). Henri Nouwen says that ever since then, we have been tempted to replace love with power. "The long painful history of the church is the history of people ever and again tempted to choose power over love, control over the cross, being a leader over being led." This is a theme running through the Bible, through human history and through our own psyche.
 
Kenneth L. Carder, The Call to Downward Mobility, The Christian Century, Oct. 8, 1997, p. 869
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One Positive Thing
 
"There are many negative things that can be said about James and John," writes William Barclay. "They were nakedly ambitious and proud: they wanted, and believed they deserved, places of honor in Jesus' kingdom. They were ignorant and insensitive: their request for places of honor came right after Jesus had told of His coming suffering and death. But there's one positive thing you can say about James and John: they believed in Jesus. Here was a poor, homeless, persecuted carpenter and yet James and John believed Jesus was a king. They believed that He would conquer the power structure of Rome." Even their crude ambition reflected their faith in Christ. 
 
William Barclay, The Gospel of Mark, pp. 254, 255.
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