[Propertalk] Fwd: Sermon Resources for July 22 - Part 1

[Joe Parrish]

Sermons for Proper 7
 
Matthew 10:24-39 – “Stop Being Afraid”
Romans 6:1-11 –  “Hemlock and Hyssop”
 
Matthew 10, the sermon title “Stop Being Afraid”   
 
 Jesus' instructions to his disciples prior to their first mission continue in today's gospel reading. He has been telling them about all the dangers and hardships they may have to put up with and ends by saying (in effect), "What do you expect? A disciple is not greater than his teacher. If the world gives me a bad time, it will give you one too" (Matthew 10:24-25).
 
So what does Jesus do? Sell them life insurance? Give them bullet-proof vests? Teach them how to diffuse conflict? Hardly. Instead he says, "Don't ever be afraid of your enemies and critics. Even though it's not obvious now, the truth will come out finally. So, speak up; shout it out; stand and deliver" (10:26-27). Oh, my. We don't want to be heroes, especially not religious ones. It's all we can do to get to church on Sundays and we're supposed to be shouting the word of God from the housetops? No way. We're afraid.
 
But Jesus doesn't quit. "Stop being afraid" (that's the force of the verb); "stop being afraid" -- not just once but always. "Stop being afraid of people who can kill the body but not the soul." The point is that people can hurt us only temporarily because life comes from God. Even if they kill us, God the author of life will raise us. "Don't fear people; fear God" (the one who can kill both body and soul) (10:28).
 
Contrary to popular opinion, Jesus is saying that the voice of the people is not the voice of God. We worry way too much about what other people say or think of us and far too little about what God thinks of us. We know this is true. We've heard it before. But, it's easier said than done…
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining Sermons.com athttp://www.sermons.com/signup 
___________________________
 
Romans 6, the sermon titled “Hemlock and Hyssop” 
 
Of all the things Christians do, baptism might be the weirdest –– at least from an outsider perspective. For those born into the Christian tradition, baptism is a wonderful, beautiful moment, a joyful celebration. For those outside the Christian faith, it can seem completely strange, even macabre.
 
Baptism is a “ritual drowning,” a symbolic death that ushers the baptized into a spiritually reborn, renewed life. However we dress this ritual up — whether with lacy baptismal gowns for infants or with lemonade and cookies for older children and adults — it is still a truly strange ceremony.
 
One eight year old, upon being told that baptism meant she was being “buried with Jesus” responded, quite reasonably, “Well! That’s not very nice.” (As told by theologian Claire Watkins in her book Living Baptism [2004] 58)
 
That eight-year old child was absolutely right. That does NOT sound very nice. It sounds nuts. It sounds “weird.” Maybe that’s part of our problem -- Christians aren’t “weird” enough.
 
Baptism is not just a momentary ritual. It is a seemingly strange and yet absolutely life-changing event. In this week’s Romans text Paul proclaims this weirdness as a proud Christian conviction: “all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death.”
 
But that is only half of the baptismal equation. The rest of this peculiar journey is revealed by Paul’s conclusion: “so that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.” Do you get it? For Christians, what appears to be a “death” ritual is actually a life affirming action. Baptism is the symbol of our transition from frailty to fullness, from cease and desist to live and let live, from burial to birth...
 
The rest of this sermon can be obtained by joining Sermons.com athttp://www.sermons.com/signup 
___________________________ 
 
Humor: What God Can’t Do
 
A Sunday school teacher was examining her pupils after a series of lessons on God's omnipotence. She asked: "Is there anything God can't do?"

There was silence. Finally, one lad held up his hand. The teacher, disappointed that the lesson's point had been missed, asked: "Well, just what is it that God can't do?" "Well," replied the boy: "He can't please everybody."
 
Gary W. Houston, Cowherding Christians, CSS Publishing Company
 
____________________________
 
Religion: A 500 Pound Word
 
When you talk about religion, it's a 500-pound word. Religion has become something heavy, but I don't believe religion is heavy. I believe that it's joy. Religion is not the sandbags, it's the gas balloons that raise us up. 
 
It's not the sandbags that hold us down. To me, religion gets in the way of God many times with ritual. God wants relationship, not ritual. And he wants love, not laws. He wants righteousness. He wants it to be in our lives, a part of our lives, and not just something we go through. I think joy has a big part in religion. In the Bible it says, "Raise your voices in a joyful noise." You know, dance, dance before me.
 
Mike Thaler, "Bible Stories to Tickle Your Soul," The Door, January-February 2001, 5.
_____________________________
 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://stsams.org/pipermail/propertalk_stsams.org/attachments/20140617/e5fb8c6b/attachment.htm>