John 20: 19-23 (links validated 4/25/24a)
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Ask Not
A few years ago, my wife and I watched the movie version of "The Full Monty". For those who haven't seen it, it is about a group of men who have lost their jobs at the steel mills in England and who can't find any other jobs to support their families. They band together and decide to put on a show for the women like the Chippandales, only taken to the next level, if you catch my drift. One of the most touching scenes for me, and there were many, was towards the end of the movie when one of the wives of one of the men finds his thong that they use in their act.The Big Picture
Is it morning already? I rub my eyes and get up to ready myself for just another day. It's just another day...I look out my window to see the sun beaming down, caressing the Earth with its golden rays. Above, white clouds float in the brilliant blue sky. I hear a cardinal singing to his mate as he perches upon my back fence. And a bed of crocus open their purple heads to the heavens in joyful thankfulness. It's just another day. My small daughter bursts into the room, her giggle ringing through the house as she hugs my neck tightly. Her small hand fits into mine as she pulls me to the kitchen to show me the card she has made. A stick figure with curly brown hair waves from the paper and beneath it, written in purple crayon are the words, "I love you, Mommy."The Church, the People of God/Service
There is a story about a field mouse who once asked a wise old owl what was the weight of a single snowflake. "Why nothing more than nothing," the owl answered. Well, the mouse went on to tell the owl about a time when he was resting on a branch in a fir tree, counting each snowflake that came to rest on the branch until the number was 3,471,952. Then with the settling of the very next flake -- crack. The branch suddenly snapped, tumbling the mouse and the snow to the ground. "That was surely a whole lot of nothing," observed the mouse. So the next time that you think your contributions, your acts of charity, your works for justice, your gifts of love, and your talents are nothing, or that they are small in comparison to those of others, remember that when one is added to another, and then to another and so forth, great things can happen from nothing. In the same way, what seems to be ordinary can be transformed into something extraordinary with just a little extra nothing...The Gift of Fortitude
In 1981, Pastor Chen was arrested for his part in delivering more than one million Bibles to Swatow, on the south China coast. Two investigators were flown in from Beijing, but still Pastor Chen refused to release the names of those who met in a secret house church or those who helped deliver Bibles under the code name "Project Pearl." Exasperated, the investigators took Chen into a courtyard in the prison and made him stand on a tall wooden box. A rope was put around his neck and tightened. The rope was fixed on a wooden beam above him. The box he was standing on was about four feet high, and very narrow. Angrily, the first investigator said, "We have given up on you. The moment you sway, or when your legs collapse from exhaustion, you will hang yourself. That is the penalty for your stubbornness!" The two investigators were assigned to watch Chen's last moments. As he looked down on them, he observed that they took hardly any notice of him. Bored, they played games. At that moment, Chen felt a surge of power in his body. "I feel just like Jesus on the cross," he thought. "Jesus must have looked down and felt the same when he saw the soldiers casting lots for his clothes, utterly indifferent to his agonies." Knowing his end was not far away, Chen began to witness to the two policemen...In Fear and Trembling
It was early one Sunday morning and a mother hurries into her son's room. "Come on, son," she says as she rustles the covers on his bed. "Time to get up for church." "But I don't want to go to church!", comes the response from under the covers. "What do you mean, 'You don't want to go to church?' Why that's ridiculous! Now get up, get dressed and let's go to church!" "But I told you that I don't want to go!" "Why not?", his mother asks. "Because they don't like me there." "Well I never heard such nonsense. Now you just have to go, that's all there is to it! After all, you're fifty-one years old. And besides, you're their pastor."
Illustrated Resources (and Other Resources of Merit) from the Archives
Pentecost (A)(2017)
We have a congregant who shapes strong ministries. She stays up late planning for our sister church in Cuba and wakes up early to bake bread to share with strangers. Once, when I detected the resonance of grief from her and inquired, she shared the story of visiting her father as he lay dying. She described the process she invented to find a way to survive his leaving. Day after day, in the same hospital parking space, she sat in her car with her hands on the steering wheel. Each time she inhaled she said “God’s peace”; each time she exhaled, “God’s presence.” She said she waited there until “something in me changed.” She was receiving the presence of the Holy Spirit to guard her breaking heart and to guide her practice of faith.The Dawning of a New Day
("Have you ever awakened to a day that dawned like any other day, only to find it turning into a totally different day from any other day you have ever experienced?...")The Breath of God
In the classic 1939 film, The Wizard of Oz, a powerful wind, God’s ruah if you will – in the form of a tornado – comes into Dorothy Gale’s drab, dull life and it lifts her out of her place, spins her around, disorients her and drops her smack in the middle of a new world, where she has a very important mission to accomplish. In this new world, nothing is the same as it had been before the wind came. There is beauty and wonder the likes of which Dorothy has never seen before, but there is also danger. As Dorothy is faced with these new dangers, she also meets others who have exactly the gifts she needs – wisdom, compassion and courage. And in the end, Dorothy and her new friends accomplish an incredibly unlikely mission...Even Greater Things
(" To illustrate the gift of the Holy Spirit, I would like to use the example of St. Marianne Cope. After the death of St. Damien, she was the one who took charge of the leper colony on Molokai. Born in Germany, her family emigrated to the United States when she was one-year-old. She became a Franciscan Sister and helped found two Catholic hospitals in New York, as well as the College of Medicine at Syracuse University...")Peace Be With You
"Peace be with you" - which in this very short passage of only 4 verses, he repeats... "Peace be with you" before he bestows the Holy Spirit on them. Those words seemed jarring in light of, yet another terrorist attack which occurred less than 24 hours earlier in London. To be honest, as soon as I started to see tweets with the headlines of this atrocity last night - I tuned out. I could feel myself getting tense, and upset, and fearful... I could sense my own anger just seeing the British flag circulating on social media as people in their own way want to express their connection to people who are suffering. Anger that it seems every time we see a flag it means there’s another horrific atrocity that has taken place.Pentecost (A)(2008)
("C.S. Lewis was obviously taken with John 20's presentation of Jesus' breathing the Holy Spirit onto his disciples because he wove just that image into the final scene of his first Narnia chronicle The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe....")Found Forgiven
("Bishop Desmond Tutu was a bishop in South Africa in the darkest days of violent oppression. The violence of keeping a people down almost always results in an explosion of counter-violence eventually. When the walls of racism began to come down in South Africa, there was a real possibility that the tortured would turn on the torturers...")Batteries Not Included
("Dave Dravecky, former pitcher for the San Francisco Giants lost his arm to cancer a few years ago. It was a difficult time for him and his family. Not only did he lose an arm but he lost a promising career as a major league baseball player. He was filled with many questions. During his time of struggle he began receiving letters from other people. Most were letters of encouragement..." and another illustration)When Christ Shows Up
("I am most certain that if you, like me as a child, one of your favorite cartoon series was Popeye the Sailorman. As you recall, Popeye was regularly brutalized by Brutus. Brutus would often seek to wreak havoc in the life of Popeye in all kind of ways. He would try to steal Olive Oyl...")Jesus Gives the Spirit
("When someone loves us, mentors us, walks with us through life, the thought of their leaving us–the thought of them not being with us any more–is heartbreaking. So we can understand that during the Last Supper, Jesus' disciples are distraught. Jesus is saying that he must leave them, and they do not want to lose their dear friend and mentor; they do not want to be without the one who called them; the one who loves them; the one they love. They long for his presence; they fear his absence...")Pentecost (A)(1999)
The family was tired and sleepy as the car drove through the night. Suddenly there was a sputter, and the car came to a stop. The driver groaned, realizing he had run out of gas. The family waited on the lonely stretch of road. A car stopped and a man came over to the anxious family. He was dirty and disheveled and the car he drove looked like it had come from a junkyard. Much to the family's surprise the man produced a can of gasoline and refused any money for it. As he drove off into the dark the mother said, "He was a real character." From the backseat the little girl remarked, "I think he was Jesus."...Sermon Starters (Pentecost)(A)(2020)
C.S. Lewis was obviously taken with John 20’s presentation of Jesus’ breathing the Holy Spirit onto his disciples because he wove just that image into the final scene of his first Narnia chronicle, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” If you have seen the movie of this made a few years back, then you recall this scene when Aslan, after returning from the dead, goes around and breathes on all the creatures that had been turned to stone by the White Witch, bringing them back to life. It’s a moving image but those of us who have focused more on the film of late may forget the lyric description of this act of new creation that Lewis wrote in the book. “I expect you’ve seen someone put a lighted match to a bit of newspaper which is propped up in a grate against an unlit fire. And for a second nothing seems to have happened, and then you notice a tiny streak of flame creeping along the edge of the newspaper. It was like that now. For a second after Aslan had breathed upon him, the stone lion looked just the same. Then a tiny streak of gold began to run along his white marble back—then it spread—then the colour seemed to lick all over him as the flame licks all over a bit of paper—then, while his hind-quarters were still obviously stone, the lion shook his mane and all the heavy, stony folds rippled into living hair. Then he opened a great red mouth, warm and living, and gave a prodigious yawn. And now his hind legs had come to life. He lifted one of them and scratched himself. Then, having caught sight of Aslan, he went bounding after him and frisking round him whimpering with delight and jumping up to lick his face.” It’s a text that really does put one in mind to anticipate those great words: “Behold, I make all things new.”Pentecost (B)(2012)
("C.S. Lewis was obviously taken with John 20's presentation of Jesus' breathing the Holy Spirit onto his disciples because he wove just that image into the final scene of his first Narnia chronicle, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Aslan, after returning from the dead, goes around and breathes on all the creatures that had been turned to stone by the White Witch, bringing them back to life...")Mission Possible
("Some years ago there was a television series called Mission Impossible. It centered on an ultra secret government operations unit that was charged with carrying out missions that were seemingly impossible. These operations involved toppling hostile foreign leaders, rescuing hostages, stopping acts of terrorism, etc....")Blown Away
One of the most fun things to do is see the words for groups of animals. Cattle are, of course, in a herd. Lions, and anyone who has ever seen the movie or play The Lion King knows, are called a pride. A group of flamingoes are called a flamboyant. A group of owls are called a parliament. Actually, owls do a look a little like English politicians... One of my favorites is what we call a group of buzzards. They’re called a committee. Over the years, as a minister, I’ve, on occasion, understood this. Then there is the rhinoceros. Your typical rhino weighs between one to two tons, are between four and five feet tall, and usually ten to twelve feet long. Their forward horn is usually just under two feet long. Rhinos are incredibly fast. They run at the amazing speed of 30 miles per hour. A squirrel, as a point of comparison, runs at 27 miles per hour. The rhino is an incredible combination of speed and power when it runs. There is, however, one thing about rhinos. They have very poor vision and can only see about 30 feet ahead. Thus you have an incredibly large, powerful, fast animal, with a huge horn on its snout, running without having the ability to see very much in front of it. So, now as you’re sitting in drama, wondering what my point is, the point is this. A group of rhinos is called a crash. When you think of a group of blind, two ton beasts running at 30 miles per hour, that sort of brings one word to mind. Crash. In so many ways, the Holy Spirit moves the church to be a lot like the rhino...On Chocolate Chip Cookies and Dirty Water and Being Church in a Shrinking World
("Not too terribly long ago I made my way up to a first church in a rural county seat town in the South to deliver the Sunday morning message. As I drove into town, I nearly ran off the road when I saw a sign just in front of a little brick ranch home that said 'Laotian Buddhist Temple'....")Turning the Great Commission on Its Ear
("Listening is not one of my natural gifts. My 17-year-old son recently said something like this to me - 'Dad, you sure do seem to have picked jobs where you get to do a lot of the talking'....") (You will need free passwords to access this site.)Pentecost (A)(2002)
The evening class had gathered around the large table. Everyone had a cup of coffee or a soft drink. Some of them had a cookie or some form of refreshment. As they began to take their seats the leader called the group to order and offered a prayer for the evening. Then the leader asked everyone a question. Where have you seen the work of God in your life this week? Everyone was still for a moment, and then one of the men cleared his throat. He was a family doctor and he had been quiet most of the evenings. Everyone was a little surprised that he would speak first. He said," I've been a family doctor for a long time now. I've helped people with coughs, infections and such. I have helped bring many of my patients into this world. The other day I was thinking. I have all of this medical knowledge. I help women through their pregnancies. I check on the mother and the unborn child at regular intervals. I can tell if everything is going all right. I can help if there is a problem. I even wait with the mother and father for their child to be born. I take the child and I check them over. I clean out the mouth and the nose. I do everything exactly right. There is one thing I cannot do. I cannot make that baby take its first breath. I might pinch the baby or pop it on its behind to try and shock it a little. No matter what I do I cannot make the baby take the first breath. This week as I delivered a healthy child and that baby took its first breath I realized something. I've always believed in God, but this week God became real. I realized as I held that child that something bigger than me was in control. I realized that baby's first breath and every breath there after was through the grace of God. Breathing, life is a gift. After he spoke the room was silent. Yet, there was something mysterious in the air. The feeling from everyone was that they had unintentionally stumbled into one of the greatest mysteries. The silence was not a pregnant pause as if waiting for someone else in the room to speak. The pause was holy time. The pause was time to ponder the mysteries of God. It was as if everyone expected God would suddenly speak further on the matter...The Spirit of Enniskillen
One thing that many of the political analysts have noticed is that, with the benefit of hindsight, it is possible to look back and see clearly that there was one really critical moment in the recent history of Northern Ireland when everything changed and the level of violence finally started to decline. That moment happened on the 8th of November 1987 when a bomb exploded at a Remembrance Day parade in Enniskillen, a small town of about 10,000 people. Eleven people were killed and many more were injured. Among those who were killed was a young woman named Marie Wilson. That evening, an interview with her father, Gordon Wilson, who was a shopkeeper and Methodist minister in the town and who had also been injured in the bomb, was shown on the news. The interview had been recorded about an hour after the bomb exploded and just a few minutes after he had been told of his daughter’s death. With all the tact and sensitivity one might expect of a professional journalist speaking with a grieving father, the interviewer asked her father what he felt about the people who had just killed his daughter on her 21st birthday. I really cannot imagine what words went through the man’s mind, but without a moment’s hesitation, he described his last conversation with his dying daughter as they both lay buried in the rubble. These were his words. (I have them memorised, but I have written them out to make sure that I get them exactly correct): "She held my hand tightly and gripped me as hard as she could. She said, ‘Daddy, I love you very much.’ Those were her exact words to me, and those were the last words I ever heard her say. But I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge. Dirty sort of talk is not going to bring her back to life. She was great wee lassie. She loved her profession. She was a pet. She’s dead. She’s in heaven and we shall meet again. I will pray for these men tonight and every night." It was a moment which touched the nation. He only spoke softly but his words echoed around the country. There was something in his voice which told you that he meant it just like he said it. What many people admired the most was the use of the words "I bear no ill will. I bear no grudge." As if there was no real alternative. As if turning the other cheek was the only possible response to hatred & violence. Since that moment the momentum towards peace in Northern Ireland has been unstoppable...Passing on the Spirit
("Years ago I walked out of our family home to begin life on my own. Minutes before I left my dad blessed me. It was short and simple. I doubt it took 30 seconds. He made me kneel on the stark and faded tiled floor of our simple living room and, placing his hands on my head, blessed me. My father was a fairly articulate man and might have said a lot. He chose not to...")