[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for December 14 - Part 3

[Joe Parrish]

Advent: Time to Listen
Barbara Brown Taylor tells about the day W. H. Auden read some of his poetry at Princeton . The hall was packed with hundreds of students and faculty. They had come to hear "the great one." But when Auden (then an old man) began to read, his voice was so soft that even the microphone couldn't pick him up. So people began whispering to their neighbor: "What did he say?" And those who thought they had heard a part of what he'd said, whispered back the part they'd heard - or what they remembered from a prior reading of Auden, triggered (in that moment) by what they thought they'd heard. While others, not quite hearing - and not quite knowing - guessed at what he was saying. And pretty soon, the whispers drowned out the poet.
Which, if you ask me, is what sometimes happens in our churches, else why would there be so much interest in the word of God, yet so little clarity about the word of God? Unless, of course, we all whisper better than we listen.
Sometimes I wish God would scream. Or shout. At least raise his voice. Getting in my face, as it were. As to why God doesn't, I have no answer. I wish I did.
What I do know is what I just read. That God came to the world (with the barest hint of a whisper) in the form of a child. A speechless child.
William A. Ritter, Collected Sermons, www.Sermons.com
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The Harvest of Love
That blessed saint, Helen Keller once wrote: "Christmas is the harvest time of love. Souls are drawn to other souls. All that we have read and thought and hoped comes to fruition at this happy time. Our spirits are astir. We feel within us a strong desire to serve. A strange, subtle force, a new kindness animates man and child. A new spirit is growing in us. No longer are we content to relieve pain, to sweeten sorrow, to give the crust of charity. We dare to give friendship, service, the equal loaf of bread and love."

Peace, power and purpose. "The light shines in the darkness…" In these very busy days of preparation, may His peace, His power and His purpose dwell in our hearts.

Helen Keller
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Only When I'm Alone
It may be that one of our own challenges is to know who we aren't. There's a story about a woman finding herself alone in an elevator with the famous and very handsome Robert Redford. As the elevator moved up the floors, the woman, like many of us might, found herself uncontrollably staring at the movie star. Finally, in her excitement and nervousness, she blurted out: "Are you the real Robert Redford?" To which Redford responded, "Only when I'm alone."
That story reveals that Robert Redford is not simply another pretty face, but he has grown into a wisdom that must serve him well. For like John the Baptist, he obviously knows who he is not.
Mary Lynn Tobin, Finding Our Voice
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Letting God Bless You
In his book, Letting God Bless You, John Killinger concludes with the challenge:
Permit God to bless you. Don’t look around you and think how hard life is. Look around and see how filled with mystery and goodness it is. See how wonderful the world looks when you know God is at work redeeming it and setting up the anti-structures, so that humility and purity and compassion and longing for justice and peace will all be fulfilled and rewarded in the eternal scheme of things.
Give thanks to God for the richness of existence.
Then look around to see who you can share it with.
That will make you even richer.
If you will learn to live this way every day, you will always have a song in your heart and the path before you will be lined with flowers. Joy will spring up inside you like a fountain, and you will lie down to sleep at night with peace in your soul. And you will say, “Blessed be the name of our God forever and ever, who calls us to a new rule where righteousness will be the order of the day forever!”
This Advent season, my friends, let us make the critical choice of permitting God to bless us and to fill us with a new sense of hope and purposeful living. Let us live in the assurance that the present darkness is not our final destination, that there is indeed much more yet to come. Along the way we will begin to experience joy springing up within us like a fountain. Thanks be to God, who blesses us with love and grace beyond measure.
Joel D. Kline, The Critical Choice


Many additional illustrations, sermons, and commentary for this week, the rest of Advent, Christmas, and the whole church year can be accessed at www.Sermons.com.



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