Sermon Illustrations for New Year's Day (2012)
Illustration
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
I have several different authors whose works I enjoy. One of them is James Michener, who wrote several great historical sagas, including Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, and The Covenant. After I finished The Covenant, an epic tale of the history of South Africa, I noticed something in the author bio. James Michener, this Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this man whose bibliography includes more than four dozen books, did not write his first book until he was almost forty years old. For some, and especially in the early twentieth century, forty was an age in which one's prime years were more in the past. However, for Michener, forty was just the beginning of what would become his life's greatest achievement.
As this new year dawns, it brings with it many possibilities, all of which are dependent on God's good timing: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (v. 1).
C. Kelly
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
There is a time and season for everything. Katharine Lee Bates learned that when she made a trip with other Wellesley College professors on a vacation out west in 1893. They visited the World's Fair in Chicago and then traveled to summer school in Colorado. At the close of summer school the vacationers decided to visit Pike's Peak. In her own words, Katharine described her feelings: "We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired but when we saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."
Inspired, she copied a few verses of a poem and later in 1893 she added more verses and submitted them to The Congregationalist magazine. This was the introduction of one of our most beloved national hymns, "America the Beautiful." It all came about unexpectedly at the proper time and season on a summer vacation trip.
R. Hasler
Revelation 21:1-6a
At the end of the Third Punic War, with Carthage defeated, Rome razed the city, such that no stone was said to be left on top of another and the earth salted. About a century later Rome rebuilt the city as its own. To read the destruction in Revelation, one might think of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in these terms, a wiping clean and starting fresh. Yet this is not the intent of the New Jerusalem. While it comes through trial and tribulation, the new earth is very much the same earth -- only renewed, made to be the earth of creation in a new and fuller way. The image of the new earth, then, is not that of Carthage razed and rebuilt, which is built by humans and destructible. It is the passing of the earth through winter into the newness of spring.
B. Hohmeier
Revelation 21:1-6a
Friday, July 22, 2011, made it one year. A year that is a testimony of love. A year in which the marriage vow "in sickness and in health" can be seen as sacred.
Rachelle Friedman, a professional dancer, was to be married the year prior. But an unfortunate accident at her bridal party left her paralyzed from the waist down. One of her bridesmaids, during poolside horseplay, pushed her into the shallow end of the pool. The 25-year-old knew immediately that she could not move. A year of therapy ensued, during which time her fiancé, 28-year-old middle-school science teacher Chris Chapman never left her side. Chapman articulated that he never thought, "What am I going to do?" but it was always, "What are we going to do?"
Rachelle is a magnanimous individual. The bridesmaid responsible for the accident attended the wedding and her name will never be revealed to the public. According to Rachelle, "She was tragically hurt, mentally and emotionally. And I was tragically hurt, physically."
John says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth." Perhaps we do not have to wait for the second coming to see a new heaven and a new earth; perhaps, it is seen in the loving, committed, and forgiving attitudes of Rachelle Friedman and Chris Chapman.
R. Love
Matthew 25:31-46
A few years ago I attended lectures at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York. Among the speakers was a Catholic priest named Raymond Carey. He taught psychology at a Portland, Oregon college. I remember one story he told about a fellow missionary priest who had recently returned from serving in Peru. Not content to simply "retire," he followed Jesus' example in serving among the "least of these my brethren" in spending his time in making sandwiches for the poor in Portland. Carey admired his friend's sacrificial work and decided one day to send him a generous check in support of his work. Shortly afterward his friend died, and Carey had his funeral. Among the few possessions that his friend had, Carey came across a letter addressed to him from his friend. He opened the letter and his check (never cashed) fluttered to the ground. He read the note inside which said, "Make your own damn sandwiches."
R. Hasler
Matthew 25:31-46
The first time I ever heard the term curriculum vitae, I was a youth delegate at our Anglican diocesan synod helping to choose our next bishop. We looked at the CV's of many different candidates, each one describing in detail their experience, their education, their skills, as well as their other qualifications. There were many factors that needed to be considered when choosing the next head pastor of an entire diocese.
In today's lesson, God is considering the CV's of the entire human race, as it were, at the final judgment. There were not many factors that went into his decision, however. His main concern was this: How did you treat the destitute among you? "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (v. 40).
C. Kelly
I have several different authors whose works I enjoy. One of them is James Michener, who wrote several great historical sagas, including Tales of the South Pacific, Hawaii, and The Covenant. After I finished The Covenant, an epic tale of the history of South Africa, I noticed something in the author bio. James Michener, this Pulitzer Prize-winning author, this man whose bibliography includes more than four dozen books, did not write his first book until he was almost forty years old. For some, and especially in the early twentieth century, forty was an age in which one's prime years were more in the past. However, for Michener, forty was just the beginning of what would become his life's greatest achievement.
As this new year dawns, it brings with it many possibilities, all of which are dependent on God's good timing: "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven" (v. 1).
C. Kelly
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13
There is a time and season for everything. Katharine Lee Bates learned that when she made a trip with other Wellesley College professors on a vacation out west in 1893. They visited the World's Fair in Chicago and then traveled to summer school in Colorado. At the close of summer school the vacationers decided to visit Pike's Peak. In her own words, Katharine described her feelings: "We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired but when we saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse."
Inspired, she copied a few verses of a poem and later in 1893 she added more verses and submitted them to The Congregationalist magazine. This was the introduction of one of our most beloved national hymns, "America the Beautiful." It all came about unexpectedly at the proper time and season on a summer vacation trip.
R. Hasler
Revelation 21:1-6a
At the end of the Third Punic War, with Carthage defeated, Rome razed the city, such that no stone was said to be left on top of another and the earth salted. About a century later Rome rebuilt the city as its own. To read the destruction in Revelation, one might think of the creation of a new heaven and a new earth in these terms, a wiping clean and starting fresh. Yet this is not the intent of the New Jerusalem. While it comes through trial and tribulation, the new earth is very much the same earth -- only renewed, made to be the earth of creation in a new and fuller way. The image of the new earth, then, is not that of Carthage razed and rebuilt, which is built by humans and destructible. It is the passing of the earth through winter into the newness of spring.
B. Hohmeier
Revelation 21:1-6a
Friday, July 22, 2011, made it one year. A year that is a testimony of love. A year in which the marriage vow "in sickness and in health" can be seen as sacred.
Rachelle Friedman, a professional dancer, was to be married the year prior. But an unfortunate accident at her bridal party left her paralyzed from the waist down. One of her bridesmaids, during poolside horseplay, pushed her into the shallow end of the pool. The 25-year-old knew immediately that she could not move. A year of therapy ensued, during which time her fiancé, 28-year-old middle-school science teacher Chris Chapman never left her side. Chapman articulated that he never thought, "What am I going to do?" but it was always, "What are we going to do?"
Rachelle is a magnanimous individual. The bridesmaid responsible for the accident attended the wedding and her name will never be revealed to the public. According to Rachelle, "She was tragically hurt, mentally and emotionally. And I was tragically hurt, physically."
John says, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth." Perhaps we do not have to wait for the second coming to see a new heaven and a new earth; perhaps, it is seen in the loving, committed, and forgiving attitudes of Rachelle Friedman and Chris Chapman.
R. Love
Matthew 25:31-46
A few years ago I attended lectures at the Chautauqua Institute in western New York. Among the speakers was a Catholic priest named Raymond Carey. He taught psychology at a Portland, Oregon college. I remember one story he told about a fellow missionary priest who had recently returned from serving in Peru. Not content to simply "retire," he followed Jesus' example in serving among the "least of these my brethren" in spending his time in making sandwiches for the poor in Portland. Carey admired his friend's sacrificial work and decided one day to send him a generous check in support of his work. Shortly afterward his friend died, and Carey had his funeral. Among the few possessions that his friend had, Carey came across a letter addressed to him from his friend. He opened the letter and his check (never cashed) fluttered to the ground. He read the note inside which said, "Make your own damn sandwiches."
R. Hasler
Matthew 25:31-46
The first time I ever heard the term curriculum vitae, I was a youth delegate at our Anglican diocesan synod helping to choose our next bishop. We looked at the CV's of many different candidates, each one describing in detail their experience, their education, their skills, as well as their other qualifications. There were many factors that needed to be considered when choosing the next head pastor of an entire diocese.
In today's lesson, God is considering the CV's of the entire human race, as it were, at the final judgment. There were not many factors that went into his decision, however. His main concern was this: How did you treat the destitute among you? "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me" (v. 40).
C. Kelly
