Interviewing A Woman Who Observes These Events Asker: You have been observing these events. Woman: I have been watching John. He is an unusual person. I am not sure if I am more drawn to his message or to his fascinating manner. He does stand out, you know. Asker: Stands out? Woman: Yes, I trust him. However, we must watch out for persons with intense charisma. They might be drawing you to them for the wrong reasons. You know that we are oppressed people. We are vulnerable to salvation. Among us has grown ...
Philosophers and anthropologists have long debated over what makes human beings different from other creatures. It isn't our ability to build houses: birds and beavers build houses. It isn't our use of tools, either. Many animals use tools. Even a simple gull can employ a rock to open a shell. We aren't different because we organize into societies. Ants have an elaborate social structure, including "hospitals" for their sick and "nurseries" for their young. Nor is it the use of language that sets us apart ...
... we are addressing a generation accustomed to acting primarily on visual stimuli ... In our modern age the preacher must therefore translate the biblical message into one that awakens all the senses, into words that cause a congregation also to see and feel and smell and taste. Otherwise the people listening may never hear the words in which the gospel is framed.15 -- Elizabeth Achtemeier The printed word communicates by a line of thought. Television communicates by images. Clearly we must use language ...
Lent In its historical development, Lent was an outgrowth of the fasting prior to the annual observance of the crucifixion and resurrection of Christ. In addition, those who were to be baptized into the Christian faith on Easter Sunday underwent a period of disciplined training before their baptism. With the ascendancy of the Christian Church in major areas of the Roman Empire during the fourth century, a new problem was encountered. Discipline was no longer imposed upon the church from the outside in the ...
I don’t know how it is with you, but occasionally I have flashbacks. Sometimes these are connected with a task at hand, or a decision with which I am struggling, or when I am wrestling with what I perceive as a call of God upon my life. Occasionally these flashbacks are connected with my preaching. It happened a couple of months ago. I was struggling with personal direction issues, but had also begun to think of the assignment of preaching on this occasion. The words of a young man named Nicholas in The ...
Do we need to remind ourselves of what the work of an evangelist is? An evangelist is one who shares in word, deed and sign the good news of Jesus Christ – the good news that redeems us from sin, makes us whole, and transforms us into participants in God’s Kingdom enterprise. I like the way Paul expresses the work of God in our lives – Col. 1:13-14: “God has rescued us from the power of darkness, and transferred us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the ...
There are some experiences or encounters that are so solidly lodged in our memory they continue to invade our consciousness – to haunt us – to help us or to hinder our Christian walk, to call and challenge us to be more than we are. John Birkbeck is a person around whom for me a whole cluster of memories is gathered – memories that invade my immediate awareness now and then. John was a Scot Presbyterian preacher. During a part of my tenure as the World Editor of The Upper Room, he was the editor of the ...
I was driving down Poplar Avenue, one of the main thoroughfares in Memphis, when I noticed a bumper sticker on the car in front of me. In large letters, it said, “I AM A GENERIC CHRISTIAN.” Well, that got my attention. I never thought about anyone being a generic Christian. I saw that something else was written on the bumper sticker and I wanted to know what it was. I’m afraid I got dangerously close to the rear end of the fellow, so that I would be close enough to read what was there. It said, “Ask me ...
Some years ago, many of us, like others before and after, went through basic training or boot camp. It was a time to get thoroughly acquainted, usually with either the army or navy. It was also a time of endurance. The hardened and veteran men of years' experience sought to teach us the elementary principles of living in the military. The "old salts" in the navy used to delight in bringing us down several notches. This was their method of clearing away obstructions to the teaching they were providing. Was ...
See introduction to the previous section. 16:16–17 The missionaries appear to have gone week by week to the place of prayer for a number of weeks, and as they did so, they were followed on several occasions by a demented slave girl whose shouting made them the center of public attention. The force of the Greek of verse 17 is that she “kept on following” and “kept on shouting” about them. Luke describes her in a curious way (not apparent in NIV): She had “a spirit,” he says, “a python” (v. 16). The word “ ...
Isaiah’s Commission--To Stop People Hearing: The fact that this testimony comes here rather than as chapter 1 further reflects the fact that the book called Isaiah is arranged logically rather than chronologically. Chapter 6 takes up many of the motifs in chapters 1–5. It also opens a section of the book in which narrative is more dominant (6:1–9:7) and that stands at the center of chapters 1–12 as a whole. Yahweh’s holiness and the implications of that holiness are of key importance to the chapter. 6:1–4 ...
But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.…Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. (James 14-15; 21) “The eternal God is your dwelling place, and underneath are the everlasting arms. And he thrust out the enemy before you and said, Destroy.” (Deuteronomy ...
Genesis 1:1-2:3, Luke 5:33-39, Luke 6:1-11, Luke 7:18-35, Mark 2:18-22, Mark 2:23-3:6, Mark 3:7-12
Sermon
Lori Wagner
Props: Visuals of Hubbel Space Photos and/or eclipse photos [Begin running about 30 or more Hubbel photos as you begin your sermon. If you want to take an especially creative field trip, deliver your sermon inside of a conservatory or planetarium with stars above and the Creation story displayed.] Part of the “human” in human being is to be fascinated with space. We lie back and imagine images in the sky we call constellations. We count stars. We contemplate life on other planets. We attach astrological ...
Homes built particularly in rural areas and on farms in the early part of the 20th century often had within them, usually coming in from the back or side door of the house, a special room called a “mud room.” Has anyone here seen a mud room? Perhaps some of you had one in your homes at some point? A mud room had pretty much one single purpose: it was a place for “messiness.” Farmers coming in out of the fields, work-folk coming in from a hard day’s labor in mines, rivers, farms, or creeks, would shed their ...
BACKGROUND MATERIAL Jesus' performance of miracles was now assuming a rapid pace. Great crowds now came to meet him wherever he went, and they brought with them their sick and lame to have the Master apply his healing powers. Here Jesus sets out, in response to a plea from one of the rulers of the synagogue, who asks him to come to his home to heal a sick daughter; on the way, still another miracle comes to pass. The interruption was unusual. A miracle was performed without a request. A woman who had ...
The lives of the rich and famous hold a strange fascination for those of us who do not find ourselves in that category. From a very surface view it is easy to envy their glamorous and opulent lifestyles. How we’d like to be like them. We could really enjoy having their money, or their influence, or the adulation of the people who crowd around them. How nice it would be to have the athletic prowess of Michael Jordan, or the good looks and acting talent of a Tom Cruise or Geena Davis, the voice of Luciano ...
For most of the ten years I was with The Upper Room, we lived in Mt. Juliet. Mt. Juliet is a small rural town about 20 miles east of Nashville, which was fast becoming a densely developed suburb. When we moved there from California, I was looking for space. I’d lived ten feet from my neighbors too long. I wanted at least the “country feeling.” Mt. Juliet had it. At least two “famous” people lived in Mt. Juliet. Charlie Daniels of country music fame, who is the best fiddler and whose band continues to be a ...
What does success look like to you? Winning the championship over all the other teams in your sports league? Checking off every item on your to-do list? Getting that new job or promotion you were hoping for? Putting the kitchen in order after making a homemade meal from scratch? To James and John, success looked like sitting next to Jesus, each on one side of their Lord, basking in his reflected glory. Perhaps they imagined him as a king seated on a great throne with themselves as his trusted advisors on ...
WHAT'S HAPPENING The Gospel called Mark wants to set a tone of direct action and quick response in this story. Mark shows an absence of dragging feet and suggests a sense of urgency. Jesus gets things done. From Mark's perspective, whatever happens around Jesus, the response is always immediate. "Immediately" is a favorite action word in the first chapter of Mark. After the baptism of Jesus, the Spirit immediately drives him out into the wilderness (Mark 1:12). When Jesus calls Simon and Andrew to be ...
In her book Responding to God, Martha Graybeal Rowlett tells about a column in The San Francisco Chronicle called the "Question Man." People write to the Question Man with various questions they'd like to have answered. However, years ago the Question Man turned the tables. He asked children for their answers to a question. The question was, "What does God look like?"One child wrote, "Jesus and God both have a circle over their heads. They try to walk careful and stay right underneath it because it lights ...
It is said that a good secretary is one who often “covers” for the boss, and makes the boss look good when the boss does something stupid. Hence, St. Mark, the secretary to St. Peter, tells us that Peter’s dumb remarks on the occasion of Jesus’ transfiguration were caused by fear. But Mark’s report of this incident reinforces Peter’s reputation for only opening his mouth to change feet. As Halford Luccock says in the Interpreter’s Bible: “This was not a particularly bright remark of Peter’s and Mark ...
For several years, I had the privilege of serving a congregation in upstate New York. There were many wonderful, faithful people who were part of that congregation. Before I arrived, the membership had decided to build a columbarium. Unlike many churches that create niches inside the church for burial, this group decided to create a rather elaborate and visually attractive outdoor columbarium. The church was blessed with land. It was a fairly narrow plot that extended a great distance from Main Street down ...
Some have called it "The Worship Wars," In the past the church has always been involved in its share of conflicts. Some might even call them wars. There have been battles over slavery, over the role of women, and even over the Bible. Today many congregations and even denominations find themselves caught up in a war over styles of worship. Many criticize the church for being out of touch with modern society. Its strange language, customs, and traditions make it seem foreign and alien. In order to relate to ...
COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Jeremiah 1:4-10 The call of Jeremiah. Jeremiah's ministry covered 40 years, 626 to 586 B.C. He served at a time of international turmoil and the dissolution of his country, Judah, in 586 B.C. Assyria fell to the Babylonians and in due time the surrounding countries including Judah were conquered. Jeremiah received his call five years before the reforms of King Josiah of Judah in 621 B.C. Because of his critical preaching he was the most hated man by most of the people in Judah. The ...
Genesis 24:1-67, Romans 8:1-17, Romans 7:7-25, Zechariah 9:9-13, Matthew 11:25-30, Matthew 11:1-19
Sermon Aid
Russell F. Anderson
Theme: Freedom from oppression. In the First Lesson (Zechariah 9:9-12), it is freedom from political oppression. In the Second Lesson, it is freedom from our sinful human nature and in the Gospel, we are offered freedom from the oppression of the law and of man-made religious regulations. COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67 (C) In his old age, Abraham sends his trusted servant back from the land of his origin to secure a wife for his son, Isaac, from his own people. He discovers Rebekah, ...