Free Illustrations For November 14, 2010 From The Immediate Word
Children's sermon
Illustration
Preaching
Sermon
Worship
Object:
One example of bullying behavior -- and the steep price that is often paid by those whose actions are deemed to "cross the line" -- in the headlines this week. It seems that Andrew Shirvell, who served as an assistant attorney general for the state of Michigan, was greatly offended by one Chris Armstrong, an openly gay University of Michigan student who was president of the university's Student Assembly. Shirvell attempted to demonize Armstrong through a pattern of harassment that involved using his blog to call Armstrong ?ga radical homosexual, a Nazi, and Satan's representative on the assembly," trying to pressure Armstrong's employer to fire him, and engaging in?gborderline stalking behavior."
Shirvell's boss, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, initially resisted calls to discipline Shirvell, maintaining that Shirvell was merely exercising his First Amendment rights to free speech. But after a further investigation revealed the extreme nature of Shirvell's actions, Cox fired Shirvell for "conduct unbecoming of a state employee." In addition, Shirvell faces the prospect of further disciplinary hearings that could potentially lead to his disbarment. It seems a pretty hefty price to pay -- and one has to ask: Was it really worth it just to intimidate a university student who one saw as a political opponent?
*****
Christmas carols do not fit into the liturgical calendar for this time -- but even if you shy away from signing them "out of season," the lyrics can be useful for this week's topic. "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly," "What Child Is This?" and "Away in a Manger" are thought-provoking possibilities, among others.
*****
Christmas shopping, which most of our people are already doing, can be a call to live out the message of imitation vs. intimidation. Are we going to act like Jesus in the mall, or are we going to attack our shopping like a demon? Will we use self-restraint in our spending so that we can also help the poor, or will we build up debt that will bind us for years to come? Will we push and jostle and curse the clerk who is too slow, or will we be a smiling, kind, and helpful presence?
*****
As we try to live like Jesus and not just claim his Name, it might be helpful to remember the words of Mother Teresa:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
*****
Written by Stephen Foster in 1854, the melancholy tune "Hard Times Come Again No More" was famous in its day and popular on both sides during the Civil War. Some excellent performances of it can be found on YouTube for inclusion in the worship service. The lyrics and tune are both in the public domain, and can be copied from the internet free and without penalty.
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh, hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh, hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave,
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
*****
Pfc. Desmond Doss served as a medical corpsman in the Pacific theatre of World War II and was awarded three Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, and the Medal of Honor. More amazingly, he never carried a gun or fired a shot -- for Desmond Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist, was a pacifist and a conscientious objector. Unwilling to take a life, he nevertheless was willing to serve as a medic. In the battle of Okinawa he was wounded three times while rescuing and treating other wounded servicemen, putting his own life at risk literally scores of times. Doss objected to violence and war and the horrors they perpetrated on human souls, but rather than flee from those horrors, he embraced them as an opportunity to witness to his faith. A complete description of his heroics can be found on Wikipedia, and they have been depicted in documentary film about his life titled The Conscientious Objector
.
*****
On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV took ten Amish schoolgirls hostage at the West Nickel Mines School, a one-room schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. While police tried to negotiate with Roberts for their release, he shot all ten of the girls, killing five, and finally himself. Roberts left several suicide notes and people who knew him later suggested motives for the killings, but none was ever definitively established.
But what stunned America even more than the senseless and brutal killings was the response of the Amish community. Even as they grieved the deaths of their children, they were speaking words of forgiveness and love for the family of the assailant, reaching out to Roberts' widow and daughters to include them and uphold them through the painful days and weeks after the attack.
The witness of love and forgiveness is never more powerful than when it is expressed by those who have every reason to hate and revile.
Writing in the Washington Post, Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher, co-authors of the book Amish Grace, said this: "The Amish people didn't go there to express rage or sling blame. They visited the Roberts family because of their compassion for his kin -- victims of the tragedy who were also suffering immense emotional pain. One Amish neighbor consoled Charles Roberts' father with a hand on his shoulder and four simple words: 'We love you, Roberts.' A few days later, at Roberts' burial, parents of some of the Amish girls he had killed showed up and hugged his widow. It was, said one Amish man, 'simply the right thing to do.' "
*****
My Church
(original song lyrics by Dean Feldmeyer)
Well, the service of worship's a train wreck
And the choir, they sing out of key.
And the organ will play if you stay far away
From the chords that require "F" and "G."
And the preacher's so frightfully boring
Our attention will often times roam.
But we love one another like sister and brother
At the church that my family calls home.
Yes, we love one another like sister and brother
At the church that my family calls home.
Oh, the roof leaks whenever it's raining
And the nave's rather drafty and cold.
And the janitor's mean and refuses to clean,
But the poor guy is ninety years old.
We have nary a pew with a cushion
And there's plenty of things that we lack,
But we love one another like sister and brother,
And that's why we keep coming back.
The parking lot's paved with some cinders
And it's all covered over with weeds.
We raised all the money to fix it, but funny
How there's always a family with needs,
Like the guy who's laid off from the factory
And the folks with the autistic son;
When you love one another like sister and brother
There's always more work to be done.
I went to the church house last Sunday
And arrived just a few minutes late.
I made for to move to my favorite pew,
But the usher, he told me to wait.
The chapel was all full of strangers,
There wasn't a place to sit down;
When you love one another like sister and brother
I guess that the word gets around.
*****
It is the heart always that sees before the head can see.
-- Thomas Carlyle
Shirvell's boss, Michigan Attorney General Mike Cox, initially resisted calls to discipline Shirvell, maintaining that Shirvell was merely exercising his First Amendment rights to free speech. But after a further investigation revealed the extreme nature of Shirvell's actions, Cox fired Shirvell for "conduct unbecoming of a state employee." In addition, Shirvell faces the prospect of further disciplinary hearings that could potentially lead to his disbarment. It seems a pretty hefty price to pay -- and one has to ask: Was it really worth it just to intimidate a university student who one saw as a political opponent?
*****
Christmas carols do not fit into the liturgical calendar for this time -- but even if you shy away from signing them "out of season," the lyrics can be useful for this week's topic. "Infant Holy, Infant Lowly," "What Child Is This?" and "Away in a Manger" are thought-provoking possibilities, among others.
*****
Christmas shopping, which most of our people are already doing, can be a call to live out the message of imitation vs. intimidation. Are we going to act like Jesus in the mall, or are we going to attack our shopping like a demon? Will we use self-restraint in our spending so that we can also help the poor, or will we build up debt that will bind us for years to come? Will we push and jostle and curse the clerk who is too slow, or will we be a smiling, kind, and helpful presence?
*****
As we try to live like Jesus and not just claim his Name, it might be helpful to remember the words of Mother Teresa:
People are often unreasonable, irrational, and self-centered. Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives. Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some unfaithful friends and some genuine enemies. Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and sincere, people may deceive you. Be honest and sincere anyway.
What you spend years creating, others could destroy overnight. Create anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, some may be jealous. Be happy anyway.
The good you do today will often be forgotten. Do good anyway.
Give the best you have, and it will never be enough. Give your best anyway.
In the final analysis, it is between you and God. It was never between you and them anyway.
*****
Written by Stephen Foster in 1854, the melancholy tune "Hard Times Come Again No More" was famous in its day and popular on both sides during the Civil War. Some excellent performances of it can be found on YouTube for inclusion in the worship service. The lyrics and tune are both in the public domain, and can be copied from the internet free and without penalty.
Let us pause in life's pleasures and count its many tears,
While we all sup sorrow with the poor;
There's a song that will linger forever in our ears;
Oh, hard times come again no more.
Chorus:
'Tis the song, the sigh of the weary,
Hard times, hard times come again no more.
Many days you have lingered around my cabin door;
Oh, hard times come again no more.
While we seek mirth and beauty and music light and gay,
There are frail forms fainting at the door;
Though their voices are silent, their pleading looks will say
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
There's a pale drooping maiden who toils her life away,
With a worn heart whose better days are o'er:
Though her voice would be merry, 'tis sighing all the day,
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
'Tis a sigh that is wafted across the troubled wave,
'Tis a wail that is heard upon the shore,
'Tis a dirge that is murmured around the lowly grave,
Oh, hard times come again no more.
(Chorus)
*****
Pfc. Desmond Doss served as a medical corpsman in the Pacific theatre of World War II and was awarded three Purple Hearts, two Bronze Stars, and the Medal of Honor. More amazingly, he never carried a gun or fired a shot -- for Desmond Doss, a Seventh Day Adventist, was a pacifist and a conscientious objector. Unwilling to take a life, he nevertheless was willing to serve as a medic. In the battle of Okinawa he was wounded three times while rescuing and treating other wounded servicemen, putting his own life at risk literally scores of times. Doss objected to violence and war and the horrors they perpetrated on human souls, but rather than flee from those horrors, he embraced them as an opportunity to witness to his faith. A complete description of his heroics can be found on Wikipedia, and they have been depicted in documentary film about his life titled The Conscientious Objector
.
*****
On October 2, 2006, Charles Carl Roberts IV took ten Amish schoolgirls hostage at the West Nickel Mines School, a one-room schoolhouse in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. While police tried to negotiate with Roberts for their release, he shot all ten of the girls, killing five, and finally himself. Roberts left several suicide notes and people who knew him later suggested motives for the killings, but none was ever definitively established.
But what stunned America even more than the senseless and brutal killings was the response of the Amish community. Even as they grieved the deaths of their children, they were speaking words of forgiveness and love for the family of the assailant, reaching out to Roberts' widow and daughters to include them and uphold them through the painful days and weeks after the attack.
The witness of love and forgiveness is never more powerful than when it is expressed by those who have every reason to hate and revile.
Writing in the Washington Post, Donald B. Kraybill, Steven M. Nolt, and David L. Weaver-Zercher, co-authors of the book Amish Grace, said this: "The Amish people didn't go there to express rage or sling blame. They visited the Roberts family because of their compassion for his kin -- victims of the tragedy who were also suffering immense emotional pain. One Amish neighbor consoled Charles Roberts' father with a hand on his shoulder and four simple words: 'We love you, Roberts.' A few days later, at Roberts' burial, parents of some of the Amish girls he had killed showed up and hugged his widow. It was, said one Amish man, 'simply the right thing to do.' "
*****
My Church
(original song lyrics by Dean Feldmeyer)
Well, the service of worship's a train wreck
And the choir, they sing out of key.
And the organ will play if you stay far away
From the chords that require "F" and "G."
And the preacher's so frightfully boring
Our attention will often times roam.
But we love one another like sister and brother
At the church that my family calls home.
Yes, we love one another like sister and brother
At the church that my family calls home.
Oh, the roof leaks whenever it's raining
And the nave's rather drafty and cold.
And the janitor's mean and refuses to clean,
But the poor guy is ninety years old.
We have nary a pew with a cushion
And there's plenty of things that we lack,
But we love one another like sister and brother,
And that's why we keep coming back.
The parking lot's paved with some cinders
And it's all covered over with weeds.
We raised all the money to fix it, but funny
How there's always a family with needs,
Like the guy who's laid off from the factory
And the folks with the autistic son;
When you love one another like sister and brother
There's always more work to be done.
I went to the church house last Sunday
And arrived just a few minutes late.
I made for to move to my favorite pew,
But the usher, he told me to wait.
The chapel was all full of strangers,
There wasn't a place to sit down;
When you love one another like sister and brother
I guess that the word gets around.
*****
It is the heart always that sees before the head can see.
-- Thomas Carlyle
