Proper 6
Preaching
Lectionary Preaching Workbook
Series VI, Cycle A
COMMENTARY ON THE LESSONS
Lesson 1: Genesis 18:1-15 (C)
What a wonderful story. Surely those fellows who wrote all this must have had great humor themselves. Here are Abraham and Sarah who Paul later described as almost a hundred years old, and "as good as dead," and Abraham's visitors inform the two of them that Sarah is to have a baby. Sarah, eavesdropping and hearing this, bursts out laughing. What a wonderful, witty bit of Old Testament history. But the visitors were serious. Since Abraham called one of them "Lord," we have to assume that one of these was an emissary of God, though God seems to have more recently found more subtle ways to communicate. This would be a delightful passage to use in a nursing home. Seriously, though, this is a tough one on which to base a sermon, unless we make the point that for a lady pushing a hundred who has long since ceased to be "after the manner of women," then to have a baby (though we recently heard of a 64-year-old woman who had one) would certainly be a miracle. Not one that many elderly ladies would welcome, however.
The reader must forgive a bit of levity about a serious story However, you and I read these reports from the vantage of a knowledge of New Testament theology and of life itself, and only the most thoroughgoing literalist could see this report as other than a myth, a way of saying that God can do great marvels for which there are no natural explanations. That is serious.
Lesson 1: Exodus 19:2-6 (RC); Exodus 19:2-8a (E)
Moses, having led his Israelite followers out of Egypt into the Sinai Wilderness, goes up on a mountain for a conversation with God. There he is informed that his people will be God's treasures PROVIDED they keep faithfully to the covenant. There it is again: the IF of our relationship with God, we might say. God will do great things, but they hinge on a faithful effort on the part of the people to obey God. Surely that idea might help to explain to us today why things often seem to go wrong in life despite our sterling church attendance record. In Moses' case, his people were to be a holy, priestly nation. That's a tall order, of course, and they would thereafter struggle with its meaning and its fulfillment for the rest of history. Since this calling is passed along to the rest of us through Jesus, it has become our struggle as well.
Lesson 2: Romans 5:1-8 (C), Romans 5:6-11 (RC, E)
This has been one of my favorite passages since the first time I read it many years ago. It is loaded with preaching possibilities, starting with its opening phrase: "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace ..." Also, since not a single one of us is going to make it through life without occasional suffering, few words can be more encouraging than these: "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us ..." Or there's the reminder that while we were yet "weak ... at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly." That's us. "While we still were sinners, Christ died for us." Or, there's Paul's reference to "the wrath of God," a concept rarely dealt with publicly by mainline preachers. Maybe we would do well to couple our ideas about the God of long-suffering love with a reminder of the potential for "wrath" on God's part as well. I myself have never liked preaching series because one inevitably runs out of steam toward the end. But this passage could very well be the basis of four or five highly relevant sermons.
Gospel: Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-23) (C); Matthew 9:36--10:8 (RC); Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-15) (E)
Problems here. Matthew reports that Jesus sent his apostles out to cast out evil spirits (read "heal mental illnesses"?), and to heal physical ailments. But, and here's the problem, according to Matthew, Jesus told them to stay away from Gentile cities and from Samaritan villages (ghettos?), and restrict their activities to the Jews. One explanation may lie in the fact that Jesus was momentarily overwhelmed to see how great the need was, even among the Jews, and how limited the capability for healing with only twelve men to send forth. Perhaps he felt that he must necessarily limit his outreach for the time being. We clergy have seen churches (not our own, of course) which tried to become all things to all people, with so many mission projects that nothing was done well. We have also realized that if our churches are to be relevant, to do something genuinely helpful to some crucial need, we must necessarily say "No!" to other requests. I recall many times when genuinely needful people have come to me, asking if our church could support this or that project. And I have said "No," not because I didn't care or was too lazy, but because we had already committed our resources where we felt we should. Of course, it's also possible that Matthew, who was probably writing for a Jewish audience, was being politically correct in his report.
I see at least three preaching possibilities here. One is the need for the local church to focus its ministry and realize we're only human and can just do so much. A second would be to deal with that idea of "unclean spirits," whether we are to believe in such entities, or whether that was a metaphor for mental illness. Third, the larger issue of healing still perplexes us Christians and makes for a strong sermon opportunity.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Wonders Of God"
Text: Genesis 18:14a
Theme: What a great question: "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" My answer is "no." However, I'm convinced God works within the framework of his natural laws.
1. God is active among us, but within natural laws. The professor of New Testament from whom I learned much in seminary was raised in the Free Methodist Church, an ultra-conservative group. He explained that after careful study of Bible history and all that entailed, he could no longer subscribe to the Fundamentalist view of the Bible. Possessing a Ph.D. from a fine graduate school, he still held some of his conservative leanings. One day a student asked if he believed Jesus was born to a virgin. As he studied the question for a moment, it was clear that the man was torn between his beloved tradition and his knowledge of the Bible. Finally, his response was this: "I don't know for sure. What I do know is that if God wanted to, he could have done it that way." Great answer. That's how I feel about such things as miracles. However, if someone were suddenly to uncover indisputable evidence that all the miracle stories were untrue, it would not affect my faith one bit. In Matthew's Gospel we read that Jesus refused to perform a miracle in order to convince people of his powers (Matthew 12:38). I'm satisfied with my daughter's dear face at birth, the love which binds my wife and me together, the sunrise over Lake Maxinkuckee, my discovery that God was calling me to the ministry -- and so much more. Those are wonders of God.
2. There are probably many natural laws about which we do not know. I doubt that God will break them. My mother used to read me the story of Topsy-Turvey Land where on alternate days, cold was hot, hot was cold, up was down, and down was up. The folks who lived there were crazy from lack of anything predictable. Obviously, God isn't going to send rain because Carver has grass turning brown in his yard, nor a sunny day so Carver can play golf. Prayers of that sort are a clear waste of time. But I find that, as Archbishop Temple used to say, "when I pray, coincidences begin to happen." Something is going on.
3. God has a direction for my life. It includes moral responsibility, contributions to my world, use of my talents and my limitations for my own sake, but also to help others. There's more, and the same is true for you. God is not, I'm convinced, going to assist me to violate those objectives, or in any way empower me to go the wrong way with my life. But I am as sure as anything that if I stay on course, my prayers will be answered according to God's wisdom, and wonders beyond my dreaming will be mine through the splendid grace of God. Yours too, under the same conditions.
Title: "Why Is There Suffering?"
Text: Romans 5:1-11
Theme: Suffering is the common human bond. We must all endure its pain. It may come in the form of physical or emotional illness or injury, rejection and broken love, yearnings unrequited, losses, grief, or it may come in a thousand other forms. Paul knew this (so, of course, did all the biblical writers). Strangely, the world is arranged so that we apparently cannot grow without suffering. So Paul gave us this important equation which makes suffering bearable.
1. Suffering produces endurance. I used to know a man who, as he approached middle age, boasted that nothing painful had ever happened to him. Frankly, I saw him as a man without character. Predictably, however, something terrible happened to him a few years later (not predictably in the sense that it was ordained, but in the sense already indicated, we must all deal with it in some form). Today he is a man of character and would admit that, in retrospect, what happened has been a blessing of a sort. I also recall preaching on this subject years ago. A young, mid- twenties woman smilingly scolded me and said, "Carver, this is a young congregation. I don't think talk about suffering is relevant to us." About two months later, her father died quite suddenly and she was absolutely devastated.
2. Endurance produces character. Many of you are runners, or bikers, or hikers. No one has to tell you that if you plan to set off on any very demanding trips, you must get in shape first. I have led seven bike trips through several foreign countries. Riding all day, often through mountains, into cold winds, soaked by blinding rains, we all quickly learned that just because someone thought such a trip sounded fun was no qualification to go. We required that everyone would have done a lot of riding to develop endurance, since we would be held back by the weakest rider. So with life. In the long run, it's the difficult experiences which equip us for the long haul.
3. Character produces hope. I define "hope" as the belief that something good is about to happen. People with character have learned to make good things happen. There's an old expression: "When life comes up lemons, make lemonade." That's what character teaches. No self-pity, no moaning and groaning, no asking someone else to do our job for us Character prepares us to face life the way it really is -- and to triumph. Why? Because God's love had been poured into our hearts.
Title: "Too Much To Do"
Text: Matthew 9:35--10:8
Theme: We know that Jesus wanted his teaching imparted to everyone. His salvation promise was for the Jews of course, but no more so than for the rest of us. Yet here we find Jesus sending his apostles out with instructions to preach and teach only to the Jews. The explanation which makes sense is Jesus' fidelity to the Jewish tradition that the Jews would, first of all, receive the gift of God's salvation, then they would pass it along to everyone. This hope, of course, was not to be, but it was probably only fair that they have their chance. As it turned out, Paul would come along to carry the word to the Gentile world, and Peter would try to remain faithful to his understanding of this instruction from Jesus. Paul, of course, was right and did prevail.
As suggested, we can see that there was a great deal to accomplish and there were only twelve apostles (eleven, if I'm right that Jesus already had Judas' number). Likewise, in our individual lives, there can be too much to do and too little time.
1. Each of us is called to do something for others. It may be a vocational choice: counselor, teacher, medical missionary, someone who passes up wealth for service. Most of us will be asked to find ways to use our vocations to help others (the attorney who does free legal work, the physician who treats patients for no fee, the business executive who sees that his or her company contributes to important causes, the teacher who risks holding high values before her students, the salesman who coaches a children's team and does so not with winning as the highest value, but with sportsmanship and ethical competition his main goal, the retired executive who used to come to our office every Saturday to fold 2,000 bulletins, and so forth). In one way or another, each of us is to give something of ourselves for the good of others, doing so with no intent to gain financially.
2. Sometimes we reach our limit. The most devout among you readers will have times when you can do no more, even when the latest demand is eminently deserving. Not long ago, I attended two luncheons sponsored by separate seminaries, asking for major contributions for their multi-million dollar fund-raising efforts. The evening of the second day, I attended a meeting of a counseling clinic's board which is raising a large sum, then went home to open a letter from a university which pleaded for a contribution to a matching grant. Meanwhile, my own congregation was starting a major building program to which I was expected to "make a leadership pledge." And as I sat in my office, musing over all of this, a young friend called to tell me his service agency had just lost their government funding and, since he thought of my congregation as being quite upscale, with lots of money, could we perhaps undertake part of their funding? Throw in a pledge to my church for operating expenses, I was tapped out and, in kindly tones, said, "Not a dime." I never heard from my "friend" again, who, I suppose, decided I wasn't a very generous man.
Time-wise, the same thing happens. Of course this is no more true of us clergy than everyone else. My point is that the thinner we spread our resources, whether money, time, or talent, the less effective we are at anything. Better to select one or a few worthy undertakings, then support them with heartfelt enthusiasm.
3. This could be a splendid opportunity to do something I did too seldom: ask the congregation if there is someone or more who is privately considering the ministry. Put bluntly, there is a drastic shortage of talented clergy in America today. One of this nation's foremost experts on church effectiveness (I almost said "church growth," but that implies mere numerical growth -- he emphasizes quality too) recently said in a speech that there are plenty of people, but a shortage of genuinely talented people. We need to appeal to those fine, bright people who are considering other professions to consider the ministry. There's no reason God can't issue such a call through the pastor's words. Our nation has never stood in greater need of a hearing of the saving word than today. The faithful preacher should issue a frequent call for "laborers for the harvest."
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Dr. Weatherhead told of the time a church group from Methodist Temple in London took a group of underprivileged children to the seashore, which they had never seen. As the bus pulled away, loaded with excited children, it began to rain. All day it poured as the forlorn kids stared through steamy bus windows. They all prayed for God to send sunshine for this special day. The rain never let up. They finally found an unused schoolroom where they played games to fill the disappointing day, then went home in the cold. The next morning, as the children filed back to school, a cheery sun greeted the new day.
____________
If this one goes against your theology, I can only say it did mine too at the time. A man in my congregation was taken to a Boston hospital for heart surgery. His distraught wife went too, of course, leaving their two children, a boy and a girl about twelve and thirteen, with friends. Late that night, I received a call from the wife. Her husband had died in surgery. She asked me please to hurry to the home of the friends with the news that Dad had died. As their pastor she felt I could help the kids, and her fear was that someone else would call with the news and the kids would be devastated.
I drove as quickly as the law allows to the neighborhood where the children were staying. I was soon hopelessly lost in a maze of winding streets, frustrating cul-de-sacs, missing street signs not yet posted. It was too late to stop and ask, as most of the houses were dark now. It felt hopeless. I could not find the house. So, I pulled to the curb and prayed. It went something like this: "Lord, please help. I'm totally lost, and two young children must learn tragic news, but from someone they know and trust. Their mother has asked me to do this, and I don't know what to do now. Please help." I then started the car and drove directly to the correct street, the correct court, the correct house. I was there in time. I don't wish to press the point. I can only report what happened to me. But I believe God led me that night.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (C) -- I will call on Him as long as I live.
Psalm 100 (RC, E) -- Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Prayer Of The Day
Like children, lost, knowing though that mother searches for us, father cares, we wait with certainty of being found. Forgive our wanderings, we pray. Hear the cries of our lonely voices, the aching of our lonely hearts. Save us, we plead, knowing as we pray that we are already saved. In Christ's name we thank you. Amen.
Lesson 1: Genesis 18:1-15 (C)
What a wonderful story. Surely those fellows who wrote all this must have had great humor themselves. Here are Abraham and Sarah who Paul later described as almost a hundred years old, and "as good as dead," and Abraham's visitors inform the two of them that Sarah is to have a baby. Sarah, eavesdropping and hearing this, bursts out laughing. What a wonderful, witty bit of Old Testament history. But the visitors were serious. Since Abraham called one of them "Lord," we have to assume that one of these was an emissary of God, though God seems to have more recently found more subtle ways to communicate. This would be a delightful passage to use in a nursing home. Seriously, though, this is a tough one on which to base a sermon, unless we make the point that for a lady pushing a hundred who has long since ceased to be "after the manner of women," then to have a baby (though we recently heard of a 64-year-old woman who had one) would certainly be a miracle. Not one that many elderly ladies would welcome, however.
The reader must forgive a bit of levity about a serious story However, you and I read these reports from the vantage of a knowledge of New Testament theology and of life itself, and only the most thoroughgoing literalist could see this report as other than a myth, a way of saying that God can do great marvels for which there are no natural explanations. That is serious.
Lesson 1: Exodus 19:2-6 (RC); Exodus 19:2-8a (E)
Moses, having led his Israelite followers out of Egypt into the Sinai Wilderness, goes up on a mountain for a conversation with God. There he is informed that his people will be God's treasures PROVIDED they keep faithfully to the covenant. There it is again: the IF of our relationship with God, we might say. God will do great things, but they hinge on a faithful effort on the part of the people to obey God. Surely that idea might help to explain to us today why things often seem to go wrong in life despite our sterling church attendance record. In Moses' case, his people were to be a holy, priestly nation. That's a tall order, of course, and they would thereafter struggle with its meaning and its fulfillment for the rest of history. Since this calling is passed along to the rest of us through Jesus, it has become our struggle as well.
Lesson 2: Romans 5:1-8 (C), Romans 5:6-11 (RC, E)
This has been one of my favorite passages since the first time I read it many years ago. It is loaded with preaching possibilities, starting with its opening phrase: "Since we are justified by faith, we have peace ..." Also, since not a single one of us is going to make it through life without occasional suffering, few words can be more encouraging than these: "Suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not disappoint us ..." Or there's the reminder that while we were yet "weak ... at the right time, Christ died for the ungodly." That's us. "While we still were sinners, Christ died for us." Or, there's Paul's reference to "the wrath of God," a concept rarely dealt with publicly by mainline preachers. Maybe we would do well to couple our ideas about the God of long-suffering love with a reminder of the potential for "wrath" on God's part as well. I myself have never liked preaching series because one inevitably runs out of steam toward the end. But this passage could very well be the basis of four or five highly relevant sermons.
Gospel: Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-23) (C); Matthew 9:36--10:8 (RC); Matthew 9:35--10:8 (9-15) (E)
Problems here. Matthew reports that Jesus sent his apostles out to cast out evil spirits (read "heal mental illnesses"?), and to heal physical ailments. But, and here's the problem, according to Matthew, Jesus told them to stay away from Gentile cities and from Samaritan villages (ghettos?), and restrict their activities to the Jews. One explanation may lie in the fact that Jesus was momentarily overwhelmed to see how great the need was, even among the Jews, and how limited the capability for healing with only twelve men to send forth. Perhaps he felt that he must necessarily limit his outreach for the time being. We clergy have seen churches (not our own, of course) which tried to become all things to all people, with so many mission projects that nothing was done well. We have also realized that if our churches are to be relevant, to do something genuinely helpful to some crucial need, we must necessarily say "No!" to other requests. I recall many times when genuinely needful people have come to me, asking if our church could support this or that project. And I have said "No," not because I didn't care or was too lazy, but because we had already committed our resources where we felt we should. Of course, it's also possible that Matthew, who was probably writing for a Jewish audience, was being politically correct in his report.
I see at least three preaching possibilities here. One is the need for the local church to focus its ministry and realize we're only human and can just do so much. A second would be to deal with that idea of "unclean spirits," whether we are to believe in such entities, or whether that was a metaphor for mental illness. Third, the larger issue of healing still perplexes us Christians and makes for a strong sermon opportunity.
SERMON SUGGESTIONS
Title: "Wonders Of God"
Text: Genesis 18:14a
Theme: What a great question: "Is anything too wonderful for the Lord?" My answer is "no." However, I'm convinced God works within the framework of his natural laws.
1. God is active among us, but within natural laws. The professor of New Testament from whom I learned much in seminary was raised in the Free Methodist Church, an ultra-conservative group. He explained that after careful study of Bible history and all that entailed, he could no longer subscribe to the Fundamentalist view of the Bible. Possessing a Ph.D. from a fine graduate school, he still held some of his conservative leanings. One day a student asked if he believed Jesus was born to a virgin. As he studied the question for a moment, it was clear that the man was torn between his beloved tradition and his knowledge of the Bible. Finally, his response was this: "I don't know for sure. What I do know is that if God wanted to, he could have done it that way." Great answer. That's how I feel about such things as miracles. However, if someone were suddenly to uncover indisputable evidence that all the miracle stories were untrue, it would not affect my faith one bit. In Matthew's Gospel we read that Jesus refused to perform a miracle in order to convince people of his powers (Matthew 12:38). I'm satisfied with my daughter's dear face at birth, the love which binds my wife and me together, the sunrise over Lake Maxinkuckee, my discovery that God was calling me to the ministry -- and so much more. Those are wonders of God.
2. There are probably many natural laws about which we do not know. I doubt that God will break them. My mother used to read me the story of Topsy-Turvey Land where on alternate days, cold was hot, hot was cold, up was down, and down was up. The folks who lived there were crazy from lack of anything predictable. Obviously, God isn't going to send rain because Carver has grass turning brown in his yard, nor a sunny day so Carver can play golf. Prayers of that sort are a clear waste of time. But I find that, as Archbishop Temple used to say, "when I pray, coincidences begin to happen." Something is going on.
3. God has a direction for my life. It includes moral responsibility, contributions to my world, use of my talents and my limitations for my own sake, but also to help others. There's more, and the same is true for you. God is not, I'm convinced, going to assist me to violate those objectives, or in any way empower me to go the wrong way with my life. But I am as sure as anything that if I stay on course, my prayers will be answered according to God's wisdom, and wonders beyond my dreaming will be mine through the splendid grace of God. Yours too, under the same conditions.
Title: "Why Is There Suffering?"
Text: Romans 5:1-11
Theme: Suffering is the common human bond. We must all endure its pain. It may come in the form of physical or emotional illness or injury, rejection and broken love, yearnings unrequited, losses, grief, or it may come in a thousand other forms. Paul knew this (so, of course, did all the biblical writers). Strangely, the world is arranged so that we apparently cannot grow without suffering. So Paul gave us this important equation which makes suffering bearable.
1. Suffering produces endurance. I used to know a man who, as he approached middle age, boasted that nothing painful had ever happened to him. Frankly, I saw him as a man without character. Predictably, however, something terrible happened to him a few years later (not predictably in the sense that it was ordained, but in the sense already indicated, we must all deal with it in some form). Today he is a man of character and would admit that, in retrospect, what happened has been a blessing of a sort. I also recall preaching on this subject years ago. A young, mid- twenties woman smilingly scolded me and said, "Carver, this is a young congregation. I don't think talk about suffering is relevant to us." About two months later, her father died quite suddenly and she was absolutely devastated.
2. Endurance produces character. Many of you are runners, or bikers, or hikers. No one has to tell you that if you plan to set off on any very demanding trips, you must get in shape first. I have led seven bike trips through several foreign countries. Riding all day, often through mountains, into cold winds, soaked by blinding rains, we all quickly learned that just because someone thought such a trip sounded fun was no qualification to go. We required that everyone would have done a lot of riding to develop endurance, since we would be held back by the weakest rider. So with life. In the long run, it's the difficult experiences which equip us for the long haul.
3. Character produces hope. I define "hope" as the belief that something good is about to happen. People with character have learned to make good things happen. There's an old expression: "When life comes up lemons, make lemonade." That's what character teaches. No self-pity, no moaning and groaning, no asking someone else to do our job for us Character prepares us to face life the way it really is -- and to triumph. Why? Because God's love had been poured into our hearts.
Title: "Too Much To Do"
Text: Matthew 9:35--10:8
Theme: We know that Jesus wanted his teaching imparted to everyone. His salvation promise was for the Jews of course, but no more so than for the rest of us. Yet here we find Jesus sending his apostles out with instructions to preach and teach only to the Jews. The explanation which makes sense is Jesus' fidelity to the Jewish tradition that the Jews would, first of all, receive the gift of God's salvation, then they would pass it along to everyone. This hope, of course, was not to be, but it was probably only fair that they have their chance. As it turned out, Paul would come along to carry the word to the Gentile world, and Peter would try to remain faithful to his understanding of this instruction from Jesus. Paul, of course, was right and did prevail.
As suggested, we can see that there was a great deal to accomplish and there were only twelve apostles (eleven, if I'm right that Jesus already had Judas' number). Likewise, in our individual lives, there can be too much to do and too little time.
1. Each of us is called to do something for others. It may be a vocational choice: counselor, teacher, medical missionary, someone who passes up wealth for service. Most of us will be asked to find ways to use our vocations to help others (the attorney who does free legal work, the physician who treats patients for no fee, the business executive who sees that his or her company contributes to important causes, the teacher who risks holding high values before her students, the salesman who coaches a children's team and does so not with winning as the highest value, but with sportsmanship and ethical competition his main goal, the retired executive who used to come to our office every Saturday to fold 2,000 bulletins, and so forth). In one way or another, each of us is to give something of ourselves for the good of others, doing so with no intent to gain financially.
2. Sometimes we reach our limit. The most devout among you readers will have times when you can do no more, even when the latest demand is eminently deserving. Not long ago, I attended two luncheons sponsored by separate seminaries, asking for major contributions for their multi-million dollar fund-raising efforts. The evening of the second day, I attended a meeting of a counseling clinic's board which is raising a large sum, then went home to open a letter from a university which pleaded for a contribution to a matching grant. Meanwhile, my own congregation was starting a major building program to which I was expected to "make a leadership pledge." And as I sat in my office, musing over all of this, a young friend called to tell me his service agency had just lost their government funding and, since he thought of my congregation as being quite upscale, with lots of money, could we perhaps undertake part of their funding? Throw in a pledge to my church for operating expenses, I was tapped out and, in kindly tones, said, "Not a dime." I never heard from my "friend" again, who, I suppose, decided I wasn't a very generous man.
Time-wise, the same thing happens. Of course this is no more true of us clergy than everyone else. My point is that the thinner we spread our resources, whether money, time, or talent, the less effective we are at anything. Better to select one or a few worthy undertakings, then support them with heartfelt enthusiasm.
3. This could be a splendid opportunity to do something I did too seldom: ask the congregation if there is someone or more who is privately considering the ministry. Put bluntly, there is a drastic shortage of talented clergy in America today. One of this nation's foremost experts on church effectiveness (I almost said "church growth," but that implies mere numerical growth -- he emphasizes quality too) recently said in a speech that there are plenty of people, but a shortage of genuinely talented people. We need to appeal to those fine, bright people who are considering other professions to consider the ministry. There's no reason God can't issue such a call through the pastor's words. Our nation has never stood in greater need of a hearing of the saving word than today. The faithful preacher should issue a frequent call for "laborers for the harvest."
ADDITIONAL ILLUSTRATIONS
Dr. Weatherhead told of the time a church group from Methodist Temple in London took a group of underprivileged children to the seashore, which they had never seen. As the bus pulled away, loaded with excited children, it began to rain. All day it poured as the forlorn kids stared through steamy bus windows. They all prayed for God to send sunshine for this special day. The rain never let up. They finally found an unused schoolroom where they played games to fill the disappointing day, then went home in the cold. The next morning, as the children filed back to school, a cheery sun greeted the new day.
____________
If this one goes against your theology, I can only say it did mine too at the time. A man in my congregation was taken to a Boston hospital for heart surgery. His distraught wife went too, of course, leaving their two children, a boy and a girl about twelve and thirteen, with friends. Late that night, I received a call from the wife. Her husband had died in surgery. She asked me please to hurry to the home of the friends with the news that Dad had died. As their pastor she felt I could help the kids, and her fear was that someone else would call with the news and the kids would be devastated.
I drove as quickly as the law allows to the neighborhood where the children were staying. I was soon hopelessly lost in a maze of winding streets, frustrating cul-de-sacs, missing street signs not yet posted. It was too late to stop and ask, as most of the houses were dark now. It felt hopeless. I could not find the house. So, I pulled to the curb and prayed. It went something like this: "Lord, please help. I'm totally lost, and two young children must learn tragic news, but from someone they know and trust. Their mother has asked me to do this, and I don't know what to do now. Please help." I then started the car and drove directly to the correct street, the correct court, the correct house. I was there in time. I don't wish to press the point. I can only report what happened to me. But I believe God led me that night.
____________
Psalm Of The Day
Psalm 116:1-2, 12-19 (C) -- I will call on Him as long as I live.
Psalm 100 (RC, E) -- Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth.
Prayer Of The Day
Like children, lost, knowing though that mother searches for us, father cares, we wait with certainty of being found. Forgive our wanderings, we pray. Hear the cries of our lonely voices, the aching of our lonely hearts. Save us, we plead, knowing as we pray that we are already saved. In Christ's name we thank you. Amen.
