Christ The King
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle C
Object:
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:1-6 (C, E)
Notice here that the emphasis is on justice and righteousness. The "Righteous Branch," which some may interpret as a prediction of the advent of Jesus, will usher in an era of moral righteousness. Whether such an era has as yet arrived is debatable. What is important here is the emphasis on morality. We'll not try to characterize our current moral landscape here since it's well-known to any sensitive observer. What seems important is the necessity of calling Christians back to the simple moral teachings of our early years. The Bible is never complicated about this. Ordinary, everyday honesty, for instance. Tell the truth. Keep your promises. Keep those Ten Commandments. Be a man or woman of your word. Suffer whatever consequences may attach to such honesty, knowing it will always prove to have been the right thing to do.
Charlotte Waldridge of Lexington, Kentucky, hid her wallet containing 564 dollars in a box used to ship circuit breakers at the Square D Company where she worked, so it would be safe while she took a break. When she returned, she was horrified to discover that the box had been wrapped and shipped, along with dozens of others of similar size. Knowing her loss was unrecoverable, the 53-year-old mother of six who worked seventy hours a week to hold her family together broke down in tears. Later quoted, she said, "I got so sick I would pass out. I didn't think I would ever stop crying."
Several days later Mrs. Waldridge received a call from police in Clarksville, Indiana, informing her that her wallet had been found, the money intact, and she would receive it back. It seems Dwight Anderson of Clarksville had bought a circuit breaker at Home Depot in Clarksville, and when he opened the package he found the wallet with the money. Anderson promptly called the police for help in finding the owner. Waldridge was so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, she jumped in her car and drove to Clarksville to thank Anderson. She offered him a hundred dollar reward. Anderson refused. When interviewed by the local newspaper, he said, "It was the right thing to do." There it is, then, the measure of a man or woman. Jesus once said that "whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much." If there is any hope that the moral righteousness which Jesus came to bring the world will regain a foothold, it will have to be through thinking like that on the part of many people, people who pass up unworthy profit because "it's the right thing to do."
Lesson 1: 2 Samuel 5:1-3 (RC)
David is chosen and anointed king. He was thirty years old at the time, and was destined to serve for forty years.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:11-20 (C, E); Colossians 1:12-20 (RC)
Two sermon possibilities jump out at me from this passage. The first is in verses 11, 12: "May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks ..." Through the working of the Holy Spirit within us, we do find strength to endure our various difficulties. Furthermore, this strength is supposed to teach us patience. I say "supposed," because honesty requires that I confess to a rather serious shortage of patience. I frequently must reiterate my prayer to God for more patience. There is, I suppose, a benefit of a sort, since those of us who lack patience tend to want to get things done quickly. Actually, I'm not impatient with people. I'm impatient with things, like slow drivers, and being put on hold for twenty minutes, and traffic dropping down to one lane, and unreasonably slow restaurant service. Don't misunderstand. I'm nearly always pleasant to the people, but my stomach rumbles a lot. I have decided that patience, if not of the sort which keeps one inwardly calm, at least enables one to keep good control, and not penalize those people who are doing the best they can. And this is all to be done with a joyous address to life, thankful to God for all the blessings which greatly outweigh our troubles.
The other sermon idea is in those familiar verses, 15-20, in which Paul presents his understanding of the nature of Jesus Christ. Christ existed before the beginning of creation. He is the Head of the Church. Right there is where I am inclined to place my emphasis for this sermon. Jesus is the Head of the Church. We preachers do well to keep people reminded that the Church is not merely one of the many institutions of American society. Rather, the Church is commissioned to stand apart from all of society -- not to judge as such -- but to hold before itself the standards revealed through Jesus. I once got in trouble with my student congregation when they wanted to hold a patriotic service sponsored by the American Legion, which would have included men carrying rifles. I refused, requiring that while they might perform the religious portion of the service in the church, the rest must be done outside. Now, I'm a patriotic soul. I had no quarrel with the Legion. I just felt that men parading down our aisle with rifles and the American flag -- which I respect -- was not consistent with the role of the church. In a sermon, I would hold before us the true nature of the Church as the worldly embodiment of Christ.
Gospel: Luke 23:33-43 (C); Luke 23:35-43 (RC, E)
The emphasis here is on the fact that Jesus forgave his tormentors, even as they mocked him. It would be interesting to know more about the two men being crucified alongside Jesus. Since the other Gospel writers didn't mention these two, we have to wonder why. Of course there's no way to know. We'll just accept that Luke had somewhat different sources of information than did the other evangelists. The important point I find here is twofold: Jesus made reference to "Paradise," and Jesus accepted the man's admission of guilt and the fact that the man recognized Jesus as "King" as sufficient qualification to enter Paradise.
What do we make of this? What can we, as preachers, do with that word "Paradise"? Is it another word for life after death? Of one thing we can be sure: Luke himself believed in life after death, and most surely included this report to affirm that, as well as to demonstrate Jesus' forgiving nature. Since the issue of life after death has come before us several times, my inclination is to emphasize the forgiving nature of God as revealed in Jesus. If that man on the cross alongside Jesus was guilty of some wrongdoing, yet in his final hour did recognize Jesus as what he here calls the "King" and did speak out on his behalf, and then to be promised inclusion in Paradise, then we can hope for such treatment from God as well.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Hope For A World In Trouble"
Text: Jeremiah 23:1-6
Theme: The other day, a friend commented to me that she finds so many churches which one leaves, as she put the matter, "beaten to death." She meant that in place of the gospel of hope and love which predominates in the New Testament, one so often hears criticism and pronouncements of doom unless we change our ways. After our conversation, I reflected on her comments. How do we convey such a message as Jeremiah often preached, yet in a positive context? The answer is that the sermon must affirm that morally excellent thinking and acting is God's will, but not in an angry, punitive spirit, but because only thus can we experience peace and love in our world. True, there is no way I can make other people act in a righteous way, but I can try to do so myself. And the first obstacle I must overcome is my own tendency to think and act selfishly. I find myself highly skilled at rationalization, able to interpret so many of my life situations to my own benefit. However, I also find that frequent reading of the Bible, and frequent prayers of the kind which ask for guidance and insight, alert me to some of these tendencies, and my sense of God's love and God's confidence in me to be better than my natural inclinations works a slow but definite change. Thus, it seems to me that the preacher who wishes to cause significant moral improvement in the world does well to emphasize the Bible and prayer. It's like raising a child. If we hammer the poor kid about his mistakes and shortcomings, all we do is rob him of self-esteem and self-confidence. We may also awaken a rebellious spirit which can lead to defiance and seriously bad conduct. On the other hand, if we praise his accomplishments, and show him we trust him and expect the very best from him, nearly always he will rise to that level.
1. God has arranged the world so moral excellence contributes to peace of mind. Moral failure, if persisted in, always results in misery.
2. God loves us and believes in us. He is always ready to encourage and sustain us in our worthy actions.
3. God will forgive us if we desire to do better. The moment we turn a corner in our own hearts to seek a better direction for our lives, we are given a clean slate on which to write the story of those lives.
4. Access to this forgiveness is readily available through the Bible and a sincere prayer life.
Title: "Doing Christ's Work"
Text: Colossians 1:18
Theme: A church is many things: counseling center, gathering place for fellowship, place for youth activities, locus for study, center for meetings relative to the business affairs of the church, and many other things of a worldly sort. But The Church is, first, the worldly embodiment of Jesus Christ.
Cornelius Ryan, in his book about World War II, The Last Battle, told about a tank driver who had emblazoned on his tank this gallant motto: "Fearless Joe." But near the end of the war, when it became obvious the hostilities would soon cease, Joe apparently decided he didn't want to be one of the last casualties. So he painted out the word Fearless and changed the motto to "Just Plain Joe." That reminded me of some of us in the church. Now that things are going so well, we become complacent, and cease running risks. We easily lose sight of the primary mission to which we are called, one which is, indeed, demanding and often painful. And we also easily lose sight of our own individual role in that mission. We need to be called back.
1. The Church will change anyone who takes it seriously, change for the better. A young man from a major city on the eastern seaboard quit attending church as soon as he left his boyhood home. One day, many years later, he was visiting his parents in the small hometown of his birth, and went to church with them "just to please them." A few days later, the young man returned to the big city, and went to church. One of his friends chided him that week, kidding him about getting religion. So the man explained. He said that when he sat in church with his parents, he saw a family group seated near the front. It seems the father of that family had been a terror during this man's growing up years. The town drunk, constantly in trouble, fighting in the pool room. All the children were afraid of him. "Now," the man explained, "I saw that man with his family, bowing his head in prayer, singing the hymns like he knew them by heart, and I saw him put his arm around his wife, and lean over and pat his children's heads." He said, "I realized that if the Church could change a man like that, it has some kind of power I could use in my life, so I decided it's time to go back."
2. The Church is, at best, a loving family who accepts and understands. Some of you older football fans may remember the name Lance Rentzel. He was a star receiver for the Dallas Cowboys in the '70s, married to Joey Heatherton, a glamorous movie star, and described by one author as "rich, talented, handsome." But one day the police arrived at Rentzel's home and arrested him for a sexual offense -- exposing himself to a little girl. It happened following a party to celebrate their victory the day before over the Redskins in which he had caught five passes. The effect was, of course, disastrous. It would cost him his marriage, and would subject him to intolerable public humiliation. Most embarrassing of all, he had to attend a team meeting a few days after the news had broken. Choking with embarrassment and grief, he stood before his teammates and confessed his crime. Making no excuses, he asked only that they try to forgive him, that maybe somehow, some day, he might redeem himself in their eyes. Then, as the coach turned the lights out and started the projector to watch the preceding game films, Rentzel put his head in his hands and cried his heart out. Of this terrible moment, he wrote this in his frank autobiography, All The Laughter Died In Sorrow: "Then, in the dark, (Coach) Landry tried to bring everyone's attention back to the game, to watch the Green Bay kicking team on film, but you could feel how impossible that was. I'd ruined that for the moment at least. Then, this incredible thing happened: a hand grabbed my shoulder, a huge hand, and it held on firmly, supportively, and then from the other side, a tap on the arm, then again. The room was dark and the coach was talking, but there was a shuffling, and a sound of scraping chairs, as one after another, they moved to make contact with me ... They wanted to convey their unspoken message: 'We're with you.' "
Those men did not condone what Rentzel had done. He later went into counseling to overcome a sexual dysfunction. But as I read this, I thought, "That's how a church should be; not judging but caring, sticking with us when we're in trouble." Nor should the church condone wrongdoing. But we are all sinners, and the one place we ought to be able to go for another chance, for forgiveness, for supporting friendship is the church. Better there than any other place.
3. The Church is our moral guide. There is no other source of knowledge of right and wrong. Otherwise, our moral drift will destroy us. John Steinbeck once wrote a story about a town with a factory as the primary source of employment. Each day the factory whistle blew precisely at noon. The local post office always set their clock by that factory whistle. One day someone from the factory called the post office to find out the correct time. He was told that they set the clock by the factory whistle. But, explained the voice on the other end, we always get our time from the post office so we'll know when to blow the whistle. That's what eventually happens, if we take our moral leading from our culture. No matter how well-intended, without some source of absolute ethical certainty, we'll eventually drift into ethical anarchy.
Title: "Paradise Gained"
Text: Luke 25:35-43
Theme: Maybe "Paradise" can be understood in several ways. For example, an inner feeling of being right with the world, of being clean and decent and good. Maybe all of us, possibly excepting sociopaths, have some trouble with guilt. It's inevitable that if one lives long enough, and if one has any sensitivity of conscience at all, we accumulate a growing list of things we've said or done for which we have sincere regret. Of course I realize there are a few people who, though not quite sociopathic, never seem to see themselves as being wrong. I don't make friends with such people, so I don't know any well enough to understand their thinking. I have to guess, though, that people like that are never very happy. You can't form good personal relationships without the ability to be vulnerable, to be able on occasion to say "I'm sorry, I was wrong." So here, I would emphasize that Jesus could have been saying that the man, in the very act of confessing his sin, and of acknowledging Jesus as Lord, was cleansed of the unhappiness caused by his wrongdoing.
I do believe in life after death. However, the word Paradise has some specific implications with which I have some trouble. So I would place my emphasis on the forgiveness which cleanses and heals.
1. The thief confessed. Whether he was sorry, we can't know, but at least he was honest and faced the truth of his conduct. He also accepted the rightness of his punishment. We'd have to think through very carefully what we believe about punishment. I don't personally believe that God punishes a la the book of Job. But I do believe the world is organized in such a way that we are punished in many ways for our wrongs, all the way from the police and the courts, in some cases, through the loss of friends, loss of self-respect, loss of the regard of friends, loss of income, broken family relationships, to the pain of guilt.
2. The thief acknowledged Jesus as "King." He accepted Christ. That enabled Jesus to forgive the poor man. When we accept Christ into our lives, we immediately receive a new chance. The Jesus who counseled Peter to forgive seventy times seven never gives up on us.
3. The thief was promised Paradise. Whether we define that as a worldly sense of freedom from guilt and self-loathing, or as something in another world, we are assured of a kind of joy which we shall never otherwise experience.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
In the classic spiritual journey, Pilgrim's Progress, there's a scene in which Christian finds himself beset by doubt and weariness. He happens to encounter a friend along the way and turns to that friend for help. "Evangelist," he cries, "can you not help me?" Evangelist turns to Christian, then points toward the dark horizon in the direction of the Holy City toward which they journey. "See thou yonder wicket gate?" Evangelist asks. Christian stares for a time. Then, unhappily, he replies "No."
"Then," Evangelist tries again, "do you see yonder light?" This time Christian looks hard and thinks he sees -- if not a light, at least a place not quite so dark as the rest. "Yes," he says, "I do see."
"Keep that light in your eye and go directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate," Evangelist replies.
So all of us must make this journey. Sometimes we cannot see the gate that leads to the Holy City, and yet, we see, even in our darkest moments, that which is not quite so dark as all the rest. And toward that light, however dim at times, if we steadfastly move, we will, indeed, one day see the gate.
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One of the all time great adventure novels is Kenneth Roberts' historical novel Northwest Passage, the story of the great expedition north into Canada. In one major scene, the company of men have slogged their way through hundreds of miles of dangerous forests, rugged mountains, facing intolerable conditions of freezing rains, bitter cold, along with constant hunger and exhaustion. At last they struggle into an abandoned camp where others have preceded them on an earlier expedition. Almost beyond their capacity to go farther, they yet realize they must push on if they are to succeed. But in which direction?
Nailed to a tree, they find a message on a piece of animal hide. It warns them that if they are to succeed, they must continue on a northward route. The temperatures will be even colder, the mountains still defiantly difficult, but if they persevere, they can succeed. However, some of the men want to turn southward where the terrain appears more level and the temperatures more moderate. But the message warns that that route will take them into impenetrable swamps where they will surely die.
So, these explorers must decide. Logic tempts them to take the easier way, but the admonition of one who has preceded them calls them to take the more difficult way. Somehow, they must decide. How much that is a parable of life itself.
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A popular columnist quoted the words of a young mother who realized God's feelings toward us: "Why should God love the person behind this mask I wear? What is there about me which could call forth this great affection? My glance falls on the tousled head at my knee, smelling of sun, sand, and soap. Is it possible that God could love me for the same reason I love my children? My child wears no mask. He is secure in the love of his parents who see in him an extension of themselves; a promise of life's continuity. We love him for his potential to grow in wisdom and stature and loving fellowship with God and man. And, our hearts burst with joy when those grubby little hands wind around our necks and we hear, 'I love you, Daddy. I love you, Mommy!' How God must long for that moment when each of his children can say from a heart free of fear or threat, 'Father, I love you.' "
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To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden,
And a taller town than Rome; wandering
To the end of the way of the star,
To the things that cannot be and are,
To the place where God was homeless,
And all men are at home.
-- G. K. Chesterton, The House Of Christmas
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On May 31, 1980, a young girl who remained anonymous for many years was kidnapped along with her sixteen-year-old boyfriend. She was raped, and the young man was shot. The two men who committed the crime had also murdered a young girl earlier. For some reason, the girl was finally able to convince her captors to let her go. The two guilty men were apprehended. One has since been executed, the other is serving a life sentence. A Catholic sister, Helen Prejean, wrote a story titled Dead Man Walking, about the man on death row, her purpose being to speak against the death penalty.
Recently, the young victim, Debbie Morris, has written her own book, titled Forgiving The Dead Man Walking. She tells of the tragedy of her life, and of her emotional struggles to live with the terrors the crime caused her. She declares that the only way she has been able to deal with the aftermath of those tragic events has been to forgive the two criminals who raped her. She reports that Willie's execution did nothing to heal her. A recent article reporting an interview with this remarkable woman quotes her thus: "(Crime victims) need to look to a higher authority than our legal system for our healing, our sense of justice. I really think that justice and healing of this nature only come from God."
There we have it from someone who has earned the right to speak as an expert. She has found peace, and a form of justice. But it came from God. That word needs to be heard by anyone who lives with a sense of outraged injustice.
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In his novel Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy writes of a man who was sorely hurt by another in childhood. Then he writes: "Our enemies seem always with us. The greater our hatred, the more persistent the memory of them so that a truly terrible enemy becomes deathless. So that the man who has done you great injury or injustice makes himself a guest in your house forever. Perhaps only forgiveness can dislodge him."
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Leslie Weatherhead told of a family in one church whose father became ill and died. Several months went by and the pastor realized that family had not been in church for a long time. He sent someone to find out what had happened. The mother, embarrassed, explained. After her husband's death, a nice lady from her church came to express regrets and a dinner was provided. Then nothing more was heard. But a group of women from a nearby Catholic church had come to her, had visited regularly, had brought an occasional meal so she could have more time to care for her small children. Then they came once a week to sit with the children so the woman could go out shopping, or to a movie, just to get away. The woman then explained that she had since become a Catholic and was attending that church. She said it wasn't their theology. It was that she decided that anyone who cared that much must believe the right things.
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When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet,
And made a Calvary.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns,
Red were his wounds, and deep.
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to our town,
They simply passed him by.
They never hurt a hair of him,
They only let him die.
For men had grown more tender,
And they would not give him pain.
They only just passed down the street,
And left him in the rain.
Still, Jesus cried, "Forgive them,
For they know not what they do."
And still it rained the bitter rain
That drenched him through and through.
The crowds went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against the wall
And cried for Calvary.
"The body of Christ shall continue to exist, of course, but not under the aspect of the Church. The Church is the temporal aspect of the body of Christ and its members. As such she bears every stamp of human imperfection. She lies under the sign of the 'Not Yet!' And there is no reason to be surprised and saddened that this provisional condition shows up at every age in the time of the Church, in a really humiliating and pitiful manner."
-- Karl Barth
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Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 46 -- "God is our refuge and strength."
Prayer Of The Day
God of love: Boundless is our gratitude, that we could, for all the wrongs we have done, all the failures to act in love, still be certain of your forgiveness. Set us free, we pray, from our selfish inclinations. Grant that love may so abound within us that we might yet be found to serve you as you would have us do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
Lesson 1: Jeremiah 23:1-6 (C, E)
Notice here that the emphasis is on justice and righteousness. The "Righteous Branch," which some may interpret as a prediction of the advent of Jesus, will usher in an era of moral righteousness. Whether such an era has as yet arrived is debatable. What is important here is the emphasis on morality. We'll not try to characterize our current moral landscape here since it's well-known to any sensitive observer. What seems important is the necessity of calling Christians back to the simple moral teachings of our early years. The Bible is never complicated about this. Ordinary, everyday honesty, for instance. Tell the truth. Keep your promises. Keep those Ten Commandments. Be a man or woman of your word. Suffer whatever consequences may attach to such honesty, knowing it will always prove to have been the right thing to do.
Charlotte Waldridge of Lexington, Kentucky, hid her wallet containing 564 dollars in a box used to ship circuit breakers at the Square D Company where she worked, so it would be safe while she took a break. When she returned, she was horrified to discover that the box had been wrapped and shipped, along with dozens of others of similar size. Knowing her loss was unrecoverable, the 53-year-old mother of six who worked seventy hours a week to hold her family together broke down in tears. Later quoted, she said, "I got so sick I would pass out. I didn't think I would ever stop crying."
Several days later Mrs. Waldridge received a call from police in Clarksville, Indiana, informing her that her wallet had been found, the money intact, and she would receive it back. It seems Dwight Anderson of Clarksville had bought a circuit breaker at Home Depot in Clarksville, and when he opened the package he found the wallet with the money. Anderson promptly called the police for help in finding the owner. Waldridge was so overwhelmed with joy and gratitude, she jumped in her car and drove to Clarksville to thank Anderson. She offered him a hundred dollar reward. Anderson refused. When interviewed by the local newspaper, he said, "It was the right thing to do." There it is, then, the measure of a man or woman. Jesus once said that "whoever is faithful in little is faithful in much." If there is any hope that the moral righteousness which Jesus came to bring the world will regain a foothold, it will have to be through thinking like that on the part of many people, people who pass up unworthy profit because "it's the right thing to do."
Lesson 1: 2 Samuel 5:1-3 (RC)
David is chosen and anointed king. He was thirty years old at the time, and was destined to serve for forty years.
Lesson 2: Colossians 1:11-20 (C, E); Colossians 1:12-20 (RC)
Two sermon possibilities jump out at me from this passage. The first is in verses 11, 12: "May you be made strong with all the strength which comes from his glorious power, so that you may be able to endure everything with patience. And with joy give thanks ..." Through the working of the Holy Spirit within us, we do find strength to endure our various difficulties. Furthermore, this strength is supposed to teach us patience. I say "supposed," because honesty requires that I confess to a rather serious shortage of patience. I frequently must reiterate my prayer to God for more patience. There is, I suppose, a benefit of a sort, since those of us who lack patience tend to want to get things done quickly. Actually, I'm not impatient with people. I'm impatient with things, like slow drivers, and being put on hold for twenty minutes, and traffic dropping down to one lane, and unreasonably slow restaurant service. Don't misunderstand. I'm nearly always pleasant to the people, but my stomach rumbles a lot. I have decided that patience, if not of the sort which keeps one inwardly calm, at least enables one to keep good control, and not penalize those people who are doing the best they can. And this is all to be done with a joyous address to life, thankful to God for all the blessings which greatly outweigh our troubles.
The other sermon idea is in those familiar verses, 15-20, in which Paul presents his understanding of the nature of Jesus Christ. Christ existed before the beginning of creation. He is the Head of the Church. Right there is where I am inclined to place my emphasis for this sermon. Jesus is the Head of the Church. We preachers do well to keep people reminded that the Church is not merely one of the many institutions of American society. Rather, the Church is commissioned to stand apart from all of society -- not to judge as such -- but to hold before itself the standards revealed through Jesus. I once got in trouble with my student congregation when they wanted to hold a patriotic service sponsored by the American Legion, which would have included men carrying rifles. I refused, requiring that while they might perform the religious portion of the service in the church, the rest must be done outside. Now, I'm a patriotic soul. I had no quarrel with the Legion. I just felt that men parading down our aisle with rifles and the American flag -- which I respect -- was not consistent with the role of the church. In a sermon, I would hold before us the true nature of the Church as the worldly embodiment of Christ.
Gospel: Luke 23:33-43 (C); Luke 23:35-43 (RC, E)
The emphasis here is on the fact that Jesus forgave his tormentors, even as they mocked him. It would be interesting to know more about the two men being crucified alongside Jesus. Since the other Gospel writers didn't mention these two, we have to wonder why. Of course there's no way to know. We'll just accept that Luke had somewhat different sources of information than did the other evangelists. The important point I find here is twofold: Jesus made reference to "Paradise," and Jesus accepted the man's admission of guilt and the fact that the man recognized Jesus as "King" as sufficient qualification to enter Paradise.
What do we make of this? What can we, as preachers, do with that word "Paradise"? Is it another word for life after death? Of one thing we can be sure: Luke himself believed in life after death, and most surely included this report to affirm that, as well as to demonstrate Jesus' forgiving nature. Since the issue of life after death has come before us several times, my inclination is to emphasize the forgiving nature of God as revealed in Jesus. If that man on the cross alongside Jesus was guilty of some wrongdoing, yet in his final hour did recognize Jesus as what he here calls the "King" and did speak out on his behalf, and then to be promised inclusion in Paradise, then we can hope for such treatment from God as well.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Hope For A World In Trouble"
Text: Jeremiah 23:1-6
Theme: The other day, a friend commented to me that she finds so many churches which one leaves, as she put the matter, "beaten to death." She meant that in place of the gospel of hope and love which predominates in the New Testament, one so often hears criticism and pronouncements of doom unless we change our ways. After our conversation, I reflected on her comments. How do we convey such a message as Jeremiah often preached, yet in a positive context? The answer is that the sermon must affirm that morally excellent thinking and acting is God's will, but not in an angry, punitive spirit, but because only thus can we experience peace and love in our world. True, there is no way I can make other people act in a righteous way, but I can try to do so myself. And the first obstacle I must overcome is my own tendency to think and act selfishly. I find myself highly skilled at rationalization, able to interpret so many of my life situations to my own benefit. However, I also find that frequent reading of the Bible, and frequent prayers of the kind which ask for guidance and insight, alert me to some of these tendencies, and my sense of God's love and God's confidence in me to be better than my natural inclinations works a slow but definite change. Thus, it seems to me that the preacher who wishes to cause significant moral improvement in the world does well to emphasize the Bible and prayer. It's like raising a child. If we hammer the poor kid about his mistakes and shortcomings, all we do is rob him of self-esteem and self-confidence. We may also awaken a rebellious spirit which can lead to defiance and seriously bad conduct. On the other hand, if we praise his accomplishments, and show him we trust him and expect the very best from him, nearly always he will rise to that level.
1. God has arranged the world so moral excellence contributes to peace of mind. Moral failure, if persisted in, always results in misery.
2. God loves us and believes in us. He is always ready to encourage and sustain us in our worthy actions.
3. God will forgive us if we desire to do better. The moment we turn a corner in our own hearts to seek a better direction for our lives, we are given a clean slate on which to write the story of those lives.
4. Access to this forgiveness is readily available through the Bible and a sincere prayer life.
Title: "Doing Christ's Work"
Text: Colossians 1:18
Theme: A church is many things: counseling center, gathering place for fellowship, place for youth activities, locus for study, center for meetings relative to the business affairs of the church, and many other things of a worldly sort. But The Church is, first, the worldly embodiment of Jesus Christ.
Cornelius Ryan, in his book about World War II, The Last Battle, told about a tank driver who had emblazoned on his tank this gallant motto: "Fearless Joe." But near the end of the war, when it became obvious the hostilities would soon cease, Joe apparently decided he didn't want to be one of the last casualties. So he painted out the word Fearless and changed the motto to "Just Plain Joe." That reminded me of some of us in the church. Now that things are going so well, we become complacent, and cease running risks. We easily lose sight of the primary mission to which we are called, one which is, indeed, demanding and often painful. And we also easily lose sight of our own individual role in that mission. We need to be called back.
1. The Church will change anyone who takes it seriously, change for the better. A young man from a major city on the eastern seaboard quit attending church as soon as he left his boyhood home. One day, many years later, he was visiting his parents in the small hometown of his birth, and went to church with them "just to please them." A few days later, the young man returned to the big city, and went to church. One of his friends chided him that week, kidding him about getting religion. So the man explained. He said that when he sat in church with his parents, he saw a family group seated near the front. It seems the father of that family had been a terror during this man's growing up years. The town drunk, constantly in trouble, fighting in the pool room. All the children were afraid of him. "Now," the man explained, "I saw that man with his family, bowing his head in prayer, singing the hymns like he knew them by heart, and I saw him put his arm around his wife, and lean over and pat his children's heads." He said, "I realized that if the Church could change a man like that, it has some kind of power I could use in my life, so I decided it's time to go back."
2. The Church is, at best, a loving family who accepts and understands. Some of you older football fans may remember the name Lance Rentzel. He was a star receiver for the Dallas Cowboys in the '70s, married to Joey Heatherton, a glamorous movie star, and described by one author as "rich, talented, handsome." But one day the police arrived at Rentzel's home and arrested him for a sexual offense -- exposing himself to a little girl. It happened following a party to celebrate their victory the day before over the Redskins in which he had caught five passes. The effect was, of course, disastrous. It would cost him his marriage, and would subject him to intolerable public humiliation. Most embarrassing of all, he had to attend a team meeting a few days after the news had broken. Choking with embarrassment and grief, he stood before his teammates and confessed his crime. Making no excuses, he asked only that they try to forgive him, that maybe somehow, some day, he might redeem himself in their eyes. Then, as the coach turned the lights out and started the projector to watch the preceding game films, Rentzel put his head in his hands and cried his heart out. Of this terrible moment, he wrote this in his frank autobiography, All The Laughter Died In Sorrow: "Then, in the dark, (Coach) Landry tried to bring everyone's attention back to the game, to watch the Green Bay kicking team on film, but you could feel how impossible that was. I'd ruined that for the moment at least. Then, this incredible thing happened: a hand grabbed my shoulder, a huge hand, and it held on firmly, supportively, and then from the other side, a tap on the arm, then again. The room was dark and the coach was talking, but there was a shuffling, and a sound of scraping chairs, as one after another, they moved to make contact with me ... They wanted to convey their unspoken message: 'We're with you.' "
Those men did not condone what Rentzel had done. He later went into counseling to overcome a sexual dysfunction. But as I read this, I thought, "That's how a church should be; not judging but caring, sticking with us when we're in trouble." Nor should the church condone wrongdoing. But we are all sinners, and the one place we ought to be able to go for another chance, for forgiveness, for supporting friendship is the church. Better there than any other place.
3. The Church is our moral guide. There is no other source of knowledge of right and wrong. Otherwise, our moral drift will destroy us. John Steinbeck once wrote a story about a town with a factory as the primary source of employment. Each day the factory whistle blew precisely at noon. The local post office always set their clock by that factory whistle. One day someone from the factory called the post office to find out the correct time. He was told that they set the clock by the factory whistle. But, explained the voice on the other end, we always get our time from the post office so we'll know when to blow the whistle. That's what eventually happens, if we take our moral leading from our culture. No matter how well-intended, without some source of absolute ethical certainty, we'll eventually drift into ethical anarchy.
Title: "Paradise Gained"
Text: Luke 25:35-43
Theme: Maybe "Paradise" can be understood in several ways. For example, an inner feeling of being right with the world, of being clean and decent and good. Maybe all of us, possibly excepting sociopaths, have some trouble with guilt. It's inevitable that if one lives long enough, and if one has any sensitivity of conscience at all, we accumulate a growing list of things we've said or done for which we have sincere regret. Of course I realize there are a few people who, though not quite sociopathic, never seem to see themselves as being wrong. I don't make friends with such people, so I don't know any well enough to understand their thinking. I have to guess, though, that people like that are never very happy. You can't form good personal relationships without the ability to be vulnerable, to be able on occasion to say "I'm sorry, I was wrong." So here, I would emphasize that Jesus could have been saying that the man, in the very act of confessing his sin, and of acknowledging Jesus as Lord, was cleansed of the unhappiness caused by his wrongdoing.
I do believe in life after death. However, the word Paradise has some specific implications with which I have some trouble. So I would place my emphasis on the forgiveness which cleanses and heals.
1. The thief confessed. Whether he was sorry, we can't know, but at least he was honest and faced the truth of his conduct. He also accepted the rightness of his punishment. We'd have to think through very carefully what we believe about punishment. I don't personally believe that God punishes a la the book of Job. But I do believe the world is organized in such a way that we are punished in many ways for our wrongs, all the way from the police and the courts, in some cases, through the loss of friends, loss of self-respect, loss of the regard of friends, loss of income, broken family relationships, to the pain of guilt.
2. The thief acknowledged Jesus as "King." He accepted Christ. That enabled Jesus to forgive the poor man. When we accept Christ into our lives, we immediately receive a new chance. The Jesus who counseled Peter to forgive seventy times seven never gives up on us.
3. The thief was promised Paradise. Whether we define that as a worldly sense of freedom from guilt and self-loathing, or as something in another world, we are assured of a kind of joy which we shall never otherwise experience.
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
In the classic spiritual journey, Pilgrim's Progress, there's a scene in which Christian finds himself beset by doubt and weariness. He happens to encounter a friend along the way and turns to that friend for help. "Evangelist," he cries, "can you not help me?" Evangelist turns to Christian, then points toward the dark horizon in the direction of the Holy City toward which they journey. "See thou yonder wicket gate?" Evangelist asks. Christian stares for a time. Then, unhappily, he replies "No."
"Then," Evangelist tries again, "do you see yonder light?" This time Christian looks hard and thinks he sees -- if not a light, at least a place not quite so dark as the rest. "Yes," he says, "I do see."
"Keep that light in your eye and go directly thereto, so shalt thou see the gate," Evangelist replies.
So all of us must make this journey. Sometimes we cannot see the gate that leads to the Holy City, and yet, we see, even in our darkest moments, that which is not quite so dark as all the rest. And toward that light, however dim at times, if we steadfastly move, we will, indeed, one day see the gate.
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One of the all time great adventure novels is Kenneth Roberts' historical novel Northwest Passage, the story of the great expedition north into Canada. In one major scene, the company of men have slogged their way through hundreds of miles of dangerous forests, rugged mountains, facing intolerable conditions of freezing rains, bitter cold, along with constant hunger and exhaustion. At last they struggle into an abandoned camp where others have preceded them on an earlier expedition. Almost beyond their capacity to go farther, they yet realize they must push on if they are to succeed. But in which direction?
Nailed to a tree, they find a message on a piece of animal hide. It warns them that if they are to succeed, they must continue on a northward route. The temperatures will be even colder, the mountains still defiantly difficult, but if they persevere, they can succeed. However, some of the men want to turn southward where the terrain appears more level and the temperatures more moderate. But the message warns that that route will take them into impenetrable swamps where they will surely die.
So, these explorers must decide. Logic tempts them to take the easier way, but the admonition of one who has preceded them calls them to take the more difficult way. Somehow, they must decide. How much that is a parable of life itself.
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A popular columnist quoted the words of a young mother who realized God's feelings toward us: "Why should God love the person behind this mask I wear? What is there about me which could call forth this great affection? My glance falls on the tousled head at my knee, smelling of sun, sand, and soap. Is it possible that God could love me for the same reason I love my children? My child wears no mask. He is secure in the love of his parents who see in him an extension of themselves; a promise of life's continuity. We love him for his potential to grow in wisdom and stature and loving fellowship with God and man. And, our hearts burst with joy when those grubby little hands wind around our necks and we hear, 'I love you, Daddy. I love you, Mommy!' How God must long for that moment when each of his children can say from a heart free of fear or threat, 'Father, I love you.' "
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To an open house in the evening
Home shall men come,
To an older place than Eden,
And a taller town than Rome; wandering
To the end of the way of the star,
To the things that cannot be and are,
To the place where God was homeless,
And all men are at home.
-- G. K. Chesterton, The House Of Christmas
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On May 31, 1980, a young girl who remained anonymous for many years was kidnapped along with her sixteen-year-old boyfriend. She was raped, and the young man was shot. The two men who committed the crime had also murdered a young girl earlier. For some reason, the girl was finally able to convince her captors to let her go. The two guilty men were apprehended. One has since been executed, the other is serving a life sentence. A Catholic sister, Helen Prejean, wrote a story titled Dead Man Walking, about the man on death row, her purpose being to speak against the death penalty.
Recently, the young victim, Debbie Morris, has written her own book, titled Forgiving The Dead Man Walking. She tells of the tragedy of her life, and of her emotional struggles to live with the terrors the crime caused her. She declares that the only way she has been able to deal with the aftermath of those tragic events has been to forgive the two criminals who raped her. She reports that Willie's execution did nothing to heal her. A recent article reporting an interview with this remarkable woman quotes her thus: "(Crime victims) need to look to a higher authority than our legal system for our healing, our sense of justice. I really think that justice and healing of this nature only come from God."
There we have it from someone who has earned the right to speak as an expert. She has found peace, and a form of justice. But it came from God. That word needs to be heard by anyone who lives with a sense of outraged injustice.
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In his novel Cities of the Plain, Cormac McCarthy writes of a man who was sorely hurt by another in childhood. Then he writes: "Our enemies seem always with us. The greater our hatred, the more persistent the memory of them so that a truly terrible enemy becomes deathless. So that the man who has done you great injury or injustice makes himself a guest in your house forever. Perhaps only forgiveness can dislodge him."
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Leslie Weatherhead told of a family in one church whose father became ill and died. Several months went by and the pastor realized that family had not been in church for a long time. He sent someone to find out what had happened. The mother, embarrassed, explained. After her husband's death, a nice lady from her church came to express regrets and a dinner was provided. Then nothing more was heard. But a group of women from a nearby Catholic church had come to her, had visited regularly, had brought an occasional meal so she could have more time to care for her small children. Then they came once a week to sit with the children so the woman could go out shopping, or to a movie, just to get away. The woman then explained that she had since become a Catholic and was attending that church. She said it wasn't their theology. It was that she decided that anyone who cared that much must believe the right things.
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When Jesus came to Golgotha,
They hanged him on a tree,
They drove great nails through hands and feet,
And made a Calvary.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns,
Red were his wounds, and deep.
For those were crude and cruel days,
And human flesh was cheap.
When Jesus came to our town,
They simply passed him by.
They never hurt a hair of him,
They only let him die.
For men had grown more tender,
And they would not give him pain.
They only just passed down the street,
And left him in the rain.
Still, Jesus cried, "Forgive them,
For they know not what they do."
And still it rained the bitter rain
That drenched him through and through.
The crowds went home and left the streets
Without a soul to see,
And Jesus crouched against the wall
And cried for Calvary.
"The body of Christ shall continue to exist, of course, but not under the aspect of the Church. The Church is the temporal aspect of the body of Christ and its members. As such she bears every stamp of human imperfection. She lies under the sign of the 'Not Yet!' And there is no reason to be surprised and saddened that this provisional condition shows up at every age in the time of the Church, in a really humiliating and pitiful manner."
-- Karl Barth
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Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 46 -- "God is our refuge and strength."
Prayer Of The Day
God of love: Boundless is our gratitude, that we could, for all the wrongs we have done, all the failures to act in love, still be certain of your forgiveness. Set us free, we pray, from our selfish inclinations. Grant that love may so abound within us that we might yet be found to serve you as you would have us do. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.
