Emphasis Preaching Journal

Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
From Parade magazine way back in March of 1990 comes the story of self-made millionaire Eugene Land, who greatly changed the lives of a sixth-grade class in East Harlem. Mr. Lang had been asked to speak to a class of 61 sixth-graders. What could he say to inspire these students, most of whom would drop out of school? He wondered how he could get these predominantly black and Puerto Rican children even to look at him. Scrapping his notes, he decided to speak to them from his heart.

“Stay in school,” he encouraged them, “And I’ll help pay the college tuition for every one of you.” At that moment the lives of these students changed. For the first time they had hope. Said one student, “I had something to look forward to, something waiting for me. It was a golden feeling.” The Los Angeles Times reported on March 25, 1990 that nearly 90 percent of that class went on to graduate from high school and at least half attended a college or university.

What was it that changed the future for these students? How does it happen in a place where usually only one of an entire graduating class went to college, nearly thirty did?  The answer is hope. When people have hope, the remarkable can happen.

That’s at the heart of our text for today. This is a tough section of text, both to interpret and to read. It’s tough to interpret because end times discussions are always hard. It’s tough to read because it says hard times will come for God’s people. It is a terrifying prospect. Hope, though, is found in verse 18. “But the holy ones of the Most High shall receive the kingdom and possess the kingdom forever — forever and ever.”
Bill T.

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Daniel 7:1-3, 15-18
These four beasts are four kingdoms, Daniel is told. What they are is a way of interpreting history. Jeremiah had told God's people in Babylon to seek the welfare of the city in which they found themselves, to plant gardens, build houses, and have kids, and for the most part over the centuries that followed God's people scattered throughout the Western world found they could get along and yet remain a people set apart. They were tolerated and they tolerated their neighbors. But in 167 BC the Selucid emperor Antiochus Epiphanes IV inaugurated a campaign to wipe out Jewish practices and identity. The apocalyptic writings of Daniel, Revelation, and many non-biblical apocalypses are a radical way to view history. After Alexander the Great's death his empire was split into pieces, and these beasts represent different eras. Babylonians, Persians, Greeks, Medes, or whatever. There's some disagreement about exactly what the imagery means. What matters however, is that by not specifically assigning names to these beasts, eras, or kingdoms every generation is able to reinterpret them because the message remains the same in 165 BC or the Twenty-First Century. Tyrants are not a permanent part of the landscape. Whatever monstrosities they claim or proclaim, they are temporary phenomena. That's the real message of apocalyptic — Hold On. This Too Shall Pass.

Ah, but the saints in heaven — the last chapter of Daniel reminds us — they shall shine like the stars forever!
Frank R.

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Ephesians 1:11-23
To claim that all things are under Christ as this Lesson does (vv.22-23), is to teach that Christ “fills all in all.”  Theologians call this the Cosmic Christ, the belief that the Son of God is found in all things in creation.  Famed Process Theologian John Cobb nicely portrays how this is possible:

Creative transformation is the essence of growth, and growth is of the essence of life.  The source of novelty is the Logos, Whose incarnation is Christ.  Where Christ is effectively present, there is creative transformation.  (Process Theology, p.100) 

There is no growth, no life, without the Son of God being in the processes.  French Catholic theologian-scientist Pierre Teilhard de Chardin made a similar point:

Christ is the end-point of the evolution, even the natural evolution of all beings; And therefore evolution is holy.  (Evolution of the Universe, p.133)

What does this have to do with All Saints Day?  It entails that we are united with all that exists, with all that has lived on earth, in the Christ Who drives evolution, Who makes growth possible.  This makes it possible to add an alternative verse to the 3rd stanza of John Lennon’s oldie hit, “Imagine,”  As we sing with him of imagining no possessions, no need for greed or hunger, just a brotherhood of man, we might imagine all the people sharing all the world:

You may say I’m a dreamer.  But I’m not the only one.
Maybe one day you’ll open your eyes and see.
That in Christ the world and its saints have all been made one.
Mark E.

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Ephesians 1:11-23
We, who believe in the teachings and truth Jesus shared, are called to live in that hope and faith. We are blessed. We join with the cloud of witness who have believed before we were even born. Who are the faithful saints of the church that have helped you form and strengthen your faith? Paul offers a prayer of thanksgiving for the faithful of the church in Ephesus. We could, and perhaps should, offer a similar prayer of thanksgiving. I would offer thanks to my Mom and Dad, my grandmother, Paul, Dave, Gail, Stephanie and many others who were a part of my faith formation. These days the list would be even longer for there are many people who help me renew and strengthen my faith. On this All Saints Day, take a moment and offer a prayer of thanksgiving for those whose faith has birthed and strengthened yours.
Bonnie B.

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Ephesians 1:11-23
What can give us greater happiness and peace than to know that were are predestined to salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ.  If we are sealed by his promises, then our future is secure.  How can we stop giving thanks?  How can we ever stop singing his praise every Sunday if not every minute of our life.

Predestination can be puzzling, but we have to trust in God to search in our heart and know what the future will bring. Even I don’t know.

At 90 years of age I don’t need an earthly inheritance. I tell my kids to concentrate on the greater inheritance that can never be lost if the stock market crashes.

No matter which team you want to win, your faith may have little effect on which side wins the game.  If you are on the Lord’s team  you can’t lose.  So put your faith in the right team.  The right team is made up of those who also put their faith in Jesus and love him regardless of denomination.  We should love them all.

Faith is not always easy, so we need the help of God’s spirit to build a permanent faith that can endure all the doubts  We may need the support of brothers and sisters in Christ for a solid faith. That is one important function of our church.
Bob O.

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Luke 6:20-31
Peter Miller was a Baptist minister during the American Revolution who lived in Ephrata, Pennsylvania and was friends with George Washington. Miller, though, had a bitter enemy named Michael Witman, a Tory who did all that he could to frustrate and humiliate Miller. One day Mr. Witman was arrested for treason and sentenced to die. Peter Miller walked seventy miles from Philadelphia to plead for Witman’s life.

General Washington told Miller, that he was sorry, but their friendship was not enough to pardon the life of his friend Michael Whitman. “My friend!” the old preacher said, “He is the bitterest enemy that I have.” When Washington realized that Miller had walked 70 miles to offer practical assistance to an enemy, he granted the pardon.

Miller lived out what Jesus describes in today’s text. “Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you. If anyone strikes you on the cheek, offer the other also; and from anyone who takes away your coat do not withhold even your shirt. Give to everyone who begs from you; and if anyone takes away your goods, do not ask for them again. Do to others as you would have them do to you.” (Luke 6:27-31). If we’d do that, imagine how our world would be?
Bill T.

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Luke 6:20-31
In the final verse of this passage of blessings and woes is the statement we know as the Golden Rule. It is not original with Jesus but there’s no reason to doubt his use of it. It makes perfect sense for him to do so. It is perfect shorthand advice on how to make the Sermon on the Plain work!

One finds Greco-Roman examples of the Golden Rule or the Silver Rule (the flip side of the Golden Rule), Take the fable from Aesop about the fix and the stork.

The fox invited the stork over for dinner and laughed because the stork’s long bill prevented him from eating soup served on a very flat plate. The stork pretended he ate his fill and invited the fix over for dinner the next day. Soup was served from slender necked vases. When the fox protested the stork pointed out he had only done as the fox had done to him.

The great Jewish teacher Hillel, who died in 10 AD at the age of 110, was once challenged by a Roman skeptic to recite the entire Jewish while standing on one leg. He replied, “Don’t do unto others what you don’t want done to you. Everything else in scripture is just commentary.”

More recently Benjamin Franklin is credited with this story that echoes the Golden Rule. A man was carried to heaven by the angels but they stopped at hell so he could see how things worked. There was a huge bowl of delicious and nutritious soup but everyone was given twelve foot spoons. No one could feed themselves. They were all starving. Soup was spilled everywhere and people hit each other with the spoons out of frustration.

When he arrived in heaven the man was surprised not only to see the same huge bowl of soup and the same twelve foot spoons but in heaven everyone looked happy and well-fed.

He discovered that in heaven everyone made sure to feed everyone else!

This is doable.
Frank R.

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Luke 6:20-31
What a contrast.  It can be hard for us to learn patience.  Be happy where you are and what you have known that what follows will be better.  This entire passage should be taken seriously by our politicians.  Part of that beginning is coming from some of the politicians who are telling the poor and hungry not to worry.  Just shup up and pay your taxes and don’t expect more money from the government.

Be careful when you are receiving much praise because that can come from false prophets today as well as it did to those in the Bible.  I often found that when I wore my clerical color I often got praise even from a policeman who told me I was exceeding the speed limit.

It is hard to love our enemy.  I can’t imagine our military doing that before killing them. It was a problem for some civil war vets who hesitated shooting possible family members on the other side.

My Christian friends in Nepal were treating with love and forgiveness those who were beating them in jail.  Many of their enemies were being won to Christ by those who did not fight back but allowed themselves to be beaten more and robbed of their possessions without complaining and even offering more to them. 

I talked to some on both sides of WWII who confessed to dropping their bombs in the ocean instead of on enemy targets.

It is hard to feel blessed with all the tragedies mentioned in the text.  We can only assume that, like Job, it will all turn around and come out even better than it was before.
Bob O.