This is a poetic relfection on the ascension of Christ. "While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God."
This is a poetic relfection on the ascension of Christ. "While He was blessing them, He parted from them and was carried up into heaven. And they, after worshiping Him, returned to Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in the temple praising God."
Forty years ago, in 1948, two of our nation's outstanding educators entered into a debate which was printed. These outstanding educators were Robert Hutchins, then Chancellor of the University of Chicago, and James B. Connant, then President of Harvard. The discussion dealt with the structure of a university curriculum. The basis for the debate was the recognition that persons in leadership must determine what ideals they would like for their country to adhere to. Human values must be ordered so that some ...
There is an old story about Noah Webster, who wrote the famous dictionary that bears his name. As you can imagine, he was a stickler for the precise use of language. He was also something of a womanizer. One day he was in the pantry kissing the maid when Mrs. Webster walked in on them. Mrs. Webster said, "Why, Noah, I'm surprised." Noah said, "No, my dear. We're surprised. You're amazed." (Mark Trotter, "Do You Amaze Anybody?", May 22, 1988) Noah was trying to divert attention from himself with an esoteric ...
Our scripture lesson is from the first epistle of Peter, the 1st chapter, beginning at the 13th and reading through the 21st verses. This is the word of the Lord. Therefore, gird up your minds, be sober, set your hope fully upon the grace that is coming to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, but as he who called you is Holy, be Holy yourselves in all your conduct. Since it is written, you shall be Holy for I am Holy. And ...
It is from the Old Testament. It is that classic passage from II Chronicles, the 7th chapter. I’m going to read the first four verses and then the 8th through the 14th verses of that particular passage. “When Solomon had ended his prayer, fire came down from heaven and consumed the burnt offering of sacrifice, and the glory of the Lord filled the temple. And the priest could not enter the house of the Lord because the glory of the Lord filled the Lord’s house. When all the children of Israel saw the fire ...
This is the second Sunday of Advent. The season of anticipation. Waiting, waiting and hoping. The question is, who is this God for whom we wait? Who is this Emmanuel, this God with us, for whom we long? Return to the words of the prophet Isaiah, sang so beautifully by the choir. “Comfort, comfort my people says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem and cry to her that her warfare has ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the Lord’s hand double for her sin. A voice cries, in the ...
A Burden and An Ache is the title of a beautiful, heart-stirring book written by Clarence McConkey. It’s a series of word portraits of persons in the inner city, living around the church McConkey served as pastor, persons whose lives are down-beaten and ravaged even as the buildings around them. People who are as torn apart as the shattered economic and social structures that have sustained them. One of those persons is Ruby. Let me introduce you to her in the first person as McConkey did: “Ruby is a child ...
Carl Joseph is a young black athlete who comes from a little one-horse town down in Florida. It’s a very poor town. There’s one road in and one road out, one old hotel, one fairly decent restaurant, one high school, one dilapidated theatre that shows ten year old movies, one grocery store, just one of everything. From that town, Carl Joseph entered the University of Pittsburgh on a four-year football scholarship. Strangely enough, he will never play in a single game for the Panthers. But then Jackie ...
Dick Sheppard was one of the great preachers of England in another generation. He was really one of the British church, a great preacher prophet. His preaching often set all of Britain aflame. The morning after he died, almost all of England mourned his passing, and a London newspaper proclaimed a great truth. The paper carried a picture of the pulpit of the church where Dick Sheppard preached, St. Martin’s in the Field. A soft light shone down on the reading desk where there was an open Bible, and in the ...
As I grow older, and hopefully wiser, I’m more convinced that despite the limitations of my early life, the soil in which my roots originally grew was rich and fertile. The richness of love in our home was more powerful than material poverty. The warm concern, the gentle care, the self-sacrificing for their five children gave us a heritage dollars can’t buy. Though glaringly limited, the faith we shared in the little country church had an expansive simplicity to which I return often. On a visit to that ...
The power of the purpose. Paul had laid down the flail of the persecutor and took up the torch of the evangel on the Damascus Road. There he began the course of a great adventure, an adventure that sent him trudging through the then-known world – through the deserts and over the mountains, through blinding blizzard and blistering sun, traveling in peril of his own life, shipwrecked, beaten by the Romans, stoned by the Jew. Yet, throwing back his great cloak to show the scars of his beatings there saying, ‘ ...
I hope you know by now that I believe that all preaching should have about it a note of Paul, an invitation to become a part of that great fellowship, which is the fellowship of the church. But more than that, that intimate call to be related to Jesus Christ. While I hope that that’s a part of all my preaching, my preaching today is specifically to that end. A great text like this one we’ve read helps us to really come to grips with it, to rehearse it in our own life and get the scene in which it is set ...
Now I’m aware of the fact that it is Mother’s day. But I’m not going to preach a traditional Mother’s Day sermon. In the early days of the Methodist Church, as a part of worship, the preacher not only preached a sermon, he usually exhorted the congregation. An exhortation is different from preaching, so just to let you know I know it is Mother’s Day before I preach I want to exhort you for a moment. There’s a marvelous verse of scripture in II Timothy, the 1st chapter, the 5th verse. Paul is writing to ...
There is an old story about Noah Webster, who wrote the famous dictionary that bears his name. As you can imagine, he was a stickler for the precise use of language. He was also something of a womanizer. One day he was in the pantry kissing the maid when Mrs. Webster walked in on them. Mrs. Webster said, "Why, Noah, I'm surprised." Noah said, "No, my dear. We're surprised. You're amazed." (Mark Trotter, "Do You Amaze Anybody?", May 22, 1988) Noah was trying to divert attention from himself with an esoteric ...
This section of scripture is Paul's instructions about how we are to live together. He first gives us instructions about relationships within the family. Then he talks about the relationship between slave and master and master of slave. Then he moves on to talk about our relationship to what he calls "outsiders". In all of this, Paul is giving us instructions for a Christian way of being and doing -- especially a Christian way of relating to others. Instead of simply "trusting the Lord" -- or using that as ...
Clarence Forsberg tells a story about what it means to be a part of a team. It is a story of Al McGuire and Butch Lee. McGuire was a great basketball coach, who retired from Marquette after winning the NCAA tournament in 1976. Butch Lee was a kind of prima donna player on that team. The story is about McGuire trying to teach Butch Lee about team basketball. This was the coach's word. "Now, Butch, the game is forty minutes long, and if you divide that between the two teams that means there is twenty minutes ...
Almost without fail, when Jerry and I go to visit my parents down in Mississippi, we will come around to talking about the Bible. Mutt, my father, has his Bible by the recliner. He spends at least 15 hours a day in that recliner, and he reads a lot. Other than watching all the game shows on TV, some of the soaps, and a lot of sports, that's about all Mutt does. He reads. Co-Bell, my mother, doesn't read much. She says her eyes are not too good, and she's right – but I hunch she just doesn't like to read, ...
Pete Rose has been one of the big names in the news over the past few years. He's an interesting study in human nature. The way the press is dealing with him, and the public response adds immeasurably to that study. A few weeks ago, his daughter got caught up in the fracas. Newsweek Magazine reported the story. The daughter has not lived with Rose since he and his wife got a divorce some years ago. And one of the reasons is because she says her dad was a crummy father. But did you hear what Pete said about ...
There is an old Rabbinic story about a poor man who left the village of his birth, and set out to find the city of his dreams, where all was bright and perfect. After a day's walk he lay down to rest the night in a forest. Before going to sleep he removed his shoes and placed them carefully in the path, pointing them in the direction of his journey toward the magical city. While he slept, a practical joker came along and turned his shoes around so that they pointed in the direction of the village he had ...
Forty years ago, in 1948, two of our nation's outstanding educators entered into a debate which was printed. These outstanding educators were Robert Hutchins, then Chancellor of the University of Chicago, and James B. Connant, then President of Harvard. The discussion dealt with the structure of a university curriculum. The basis for the debate was the recognition that persons in leadership must determine what ideals they would like for their country to adhere to. Human values must be ordered so that some ...
Joe E. Trull tells of a primitive tribe located deep in the South American jungles. Anthropologists learned the most important role within the tribe was the "keeper" of the flame. Since fire is so precious -- and takes such effort to recreate -- one member is entrusted with the responsibility of keeping the flame alive. During the night the flame keeper adds wood to the fire. He keeps the fire alive whenever the tribe moves to another location -- carrying it in some vessel in order that the very difficult ...
If you have memorized much scripture, our text is probably in your repertoire: "They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint." This is one of those favorite texts that I've quoted a lot, referred to often, but never preached a sermon on it. So, as I close this series of sermons on the random texts that I have been tucking aside, I come to this favorite one. Newell Dwight Hillis, one of the ...
Four women were playing bridge together in the Recreation Room of a certain retirement center out in California. As they were playing -- but chatting, more than they were paying attention to their game, they noticed an elderly gentlemen wander into the room. They had never seen him before. He was obviously a newcomer to the Retirement Center. Quickly, the four ladies perked up. One of them said, "Well, hello there. You're new here, aren't you?" The old man smiled and said that he was. "Just moved in this ...
In John Gardiner's book on leadership, he uses a marvelous phrase: "The trance of non- renewal." He uses it in relation to institutions and organizations. He says that members of these institutions can get into what he calls "the trance of non-renewal," which means they get so accustomed to a flaw in the organization that they just stare right past it. They don't even see it. They get accustomed to living with it. That's called "the trance of non-renewal." You see it everywhere, and I've seen it in the ...