LENT 5C
March 25, 2007
SCRIPTURES
-In today's passage, Paul looks back on the person formerly known as Saul and gives his evaluation of it. Paul's whole perception of gains and losses was turned upside down. Suddenly the things that used to be important to him were worthless.
-There will come a time when you believe everything is finished. That will be the beginning. Louis L'Amour, Lonely on the Mountain
-Out of the death of the old the new arises. The new is created not out of the old, not out of the best of the old, but out of the death of the old. It is not the old which creates the new. That which creates the new is that which is beyond old and beyond new, the Eternal. Tillich
-And so I repeat: the first thing about the new is that we cannot force it and cannot calculate it. All we can do is to be ready for it.Tillich
- Why do biblical writers demand and expect the new birth, the new heart, the new man, the new covenant, the New Jerusalem, the new heaven and the new earth? Tillich
-Because of the transforming power of God, Sarah was no longer Sarai, Abraham was no longer Abram, Peter was no longer Simon, and Paul was no longer Saul. I pray that we will no longer be the persons formerly known as us. Mickey Anders
-Paul, in his letter to the Philippians, contributes to our rush to gain the goal of perfection. He rehearses his religious pedigree and highlights his Jewish heritage. Circumcision the eighth day suggests conformity to the Torah and aligns the observance of his parents with that of the proper Jewish family. He has done it all perfectly and so have his parents.
But Paul realizes that with his conversion to Christ, he is still in process. He has experienced the power and the presence of Christ; he has knowledge which contains the sufferings of Christ and he suffers for Christ, but Paul also knows that God is not finished with him–or anyone else–just yet.
-Paul no longer takes pride in any part of his former high status. Now he wants most of all the prize of the upward call, which is righteousness. Then Paul adds, "Don't get me wrong. I haven't gotten that righteousness yet." The King James version says: "I do not count myself to have apprehended..." But he presses on towards the mark.
-Men who live in the past remind me of a toy I'm sure all of you have seen. The toy is a small wooden bird called the "Floogie Bird." Around the Floogie Bird's neck is a label reading, "I fly backwards, I don't care where I'm going. I just want to see where I've been. Harry Truman
-In this text, we might use the word "mature" instead of "perfect." Hear how things change when we move from being self-possessed and perfect and use the word "mature." To be perfect is to have arrived, to be there already. To be moving toward "maturity" is to know that we have not arrived, it is to live in that wonderful, but sometimes uncomfortable land of the "not yet" or the "not now." To "mature" in faith, as Kathleen Norris suggests, is to lose that adolescent self-consciousness which strives to be perfect and move toward making a gift of one's self and one's life, in process. Maturity is ripeness, rather than static perfection. de Jong
-2 Corinthians 5:17, " So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become new.
-It's hard to forget the past (forgetting what lies behind): past successes, past failures, past guilt, past loves, past hurts, past shame,
- I pray that we will no longer be the persons formerly known as us. Mickey Anders-
-Build thee more stately mansions oh my soul. O.W.Holmes
-Not older with years but newer ever day. E. Dickenson
-Within I find unspent youth. Emerson
-“Cannot be just an ordinary egg…you must hatch!” C.S. Lewis
-We are beings in process. God takes us at
what ever point we may be at.
- Past is a vast early warning system Norman Cousins
- The Past is a bucket of ashes Sandburg
-"We don’t know what the future holds, but we do know who holds the future."
-"I have arrived" most dangerous statement.
-our accomplishments are just that OUR accomplishments,
- sermon: "Rear View Mirrors" a. Serve a purpose b. Can be used too much! c. Press on Lindy
-In the end it's not what we have or do that matters...it's what we take from what we have and do...Wealth 101
-Not what is achieved that is important but what is set in motion. H.D. Wells
-What you are becoming is more important than what you are achieving. Malcom X .
-sermon: a. We are a becoming Universe b. We are a becoming people c. We are also a being people (pride in what we are) d. Becoming is superior to being. Lindy
-Serenity prayer: "Give me serenity to accept
what cannot be changed; courage to change
what can be changed and wisdom to know one from the other. "
- While the Gospel for today focuses on a tender and intimate moment between Mary and Jesus, there is also an ominous note sounded: the anointing is in anticipation of Jesus' burial. How did Jesus live forward and faithful in the face of what was coming? How do members of your community live forward and faithful as they anticipate a terminal illness or face some costly act of justice or sacrificial service?
- A good outline of the three other gospel readings similar to this one. At the end of John 12:1-8
- Some times there has to be a holy discontent in a Christian's heart
QUOTES
-Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference." R. Frost
- Christianity should be more like the scent of a rose than the rose itself. Ghandi
- So if anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation; everything old has passed away; see everything has become new. 2 Corinthians 5:17
- Been there done that
-"The past should be a springboard, not a hammock." Ivern Ball
- Behold, I am doing a new thing Isaiah 43:19, Another way of saying what Paul is saying.
- Death removes a person from the present to the past
- Failure is part of the process of success
- Forgiveness is a process
- Things do not change....we change. Thoreau
-Change or chains?
-God hath yet more light to brake forth from His Word.
Pastor Robinson to Pilgrims-He who never changes; never mends
-When we change, our God changes. (Our perception of God)
-We are the choices we have made
-Sin means never reaching your destiny.
-Destiny leads the willing and drags the unwilling
-To have a sense of self you must feel part of something greater than self.
- Man's main task in life is to give birth to himself ... to become what he potentially is. E.Fromm
-Man's divine image never destroyed...only defaced.
-We are all chosen....we forget to RSVP.
- The hope of the present is hidden in the present Emily Dickenson
CHILDREN
- Compare Vicks vapor rub to the oil Mary used.
-wonderful children's book that goes so well with the Gospel reading today is, THE GIVING TREE, by Shel Silverstein / Hardcover / HarperCollins Children's Books / February 1986. Here's a synopsis: This moving parable about the gift of giving and the capacity to love is the perfect valentine for all age groups. A little boy befriends a tree. Loving and generous, the tree provides everything she can for him -- fruit, shade, a place for a swing -- throughout the boy's life. He, in turn, takes from the tree without noticing the sacrifices she makes. It isn't until he's old and infirm and gratefully rests on her stump that he understands all she has done.
- Talk about the term, "Press on". How it's used in track marathons, and how Paul used it.
HUMOR
-"The difference between a rut and a grave is a few feet."
-"You look depressed, my friend. What are you thinking of?" "My future." "What makes it seem so hopeless?" "My past."
- Story about the farmer who had an old car he dearly loved. Went to town one day and came into the store and asked someone to help him. What's the trouble? I don't have a reverse gear...it broke and I never thought I'd need it and now I've got myself in a place where I have to back up to get out. Paul wanted us to get rid of our reverse gear in life.
-I never think about the past or the future but the present is driving me crazy. Peanuts
-We live in a time of transition, Adam and Eve
-God put faces on the front of our face so that we would see where we are going and not where we have been
-Memory…the vain old biddy
ILLUSTRATIONS
Anne LaMott talks about the movement from the quest for perfection to her acceptance of the "not now," "not yet" in her marvelous book, "Travelling Mercies," which our Friday Group is reading presently. She tells us about her friend Nora who once said, "I've been thinking about killing myself, but I want to lose five pounds first." She then goes on to describe the anxiety and despair she feels about a body that is sliding south in her mid-forties. She names her thighs, "The Aunties" and describes them as made of feta cheese. With humor and grace, Anne LaMott reminds us the American dream of perfection–perfect body, perfect age, perfect presentation–is an unrealistic dream of perfection without grace, repression at the expense of passionate living, self-conscious living at the cost of accepting reality.
-Paul must have been a track fan, because he often uses metaphors from the track. When he says "I press," he's talking about running the last miles in a 26 mile marathon
PRAYER PHRASES
REPENTANCE Literally the word means “Turn around!”
-Illustration Sin is like mud on a window. God's love and mercy is like the sun trying to shine through to us to light our way, cheer us and give us life. But the mud keeps the sun from shining through the window. The mud stops the rays from reaching us. It doesn't stop God from trying to shine on us but it stops us from being able to receive the light of the world. With the tears of repentance we ask forgiveness and the mud is washed away. So the reason repenting is so important is because without it we have obstacles between us and God's grace. Rev. Elizabeth Lee Sel
-It isn't our job to judge others. But it is our responsibility to call others to repent, the judgment is between them and God
-The ground for repentance must include soil for acting out the new identity.
-We shall have to repent, not so much for the evil deeds of the wicked people, but for the appalling silence of the good
people. M. L. King Jr.
-If we put off repentance another day, we have a day more to repent of, and a day less to repent in.
- It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed than to repent of those we intend to commit. Josh Billings
- Does repentance precede grace or vs.vs.?
-Not expressing or repressing but confessing.
-You’ve got to get them lost before you can get them saved.
- Wow! it's now already. Buechner
- Repentance is not about the past but about the future!!
- The best we can become is redeemed sinners
-Repent brings the past into the present.
- Repent equals opportunity.
- Christians are like manure....they tend to stink when all piled together. They fertilize when spread around properly
LENT
- If something is worth giving up, it should be for more than just the few weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.
- Lent and Advent are both preparation times before a big event
- Lent = "Lencten" meaning spring time (Old English)
- If sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. (Buechner)
- Buechner suggests that during lent we ask these questions:
a. When you look in the mirror what do you see you most like...you most want to deplore
b. What last message would you give to a handful of people most dear to you. (25 words or less)
c. Which thing you have done would you most like to undo?
d. What person, or cause would you die for?
e. If this were the last day of your life, what would you do?
Ansering these help us to see who we are and what we are becoming.
- Fill communion cups with water so we can so we can taste the “almost nothing” that is living.
- Illustration Pretzel -- an ancient bakery item. Used to be eaten only during lent. Goes back to 5th century. Shape is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer.
- Ash Wednesday is a kind of baptismal branding.
- Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed for its purpose is not to confirm us but to bring home to us our need for salvation.
"Let's Eliminate Negative Thinking." Robert Schuller's acronym for lent. L.E.N.T.
LENT
-. If something is worth giving up, it should be for more than just the few weeks between Ash Wednesday and Easter.
- Lent and Advent are both preparation times before a big event
- Think of Lent as an Outward Bound for the soul. No one has to sign up for it, but if you do then you give up the illusion that you are in control of your life. B.B.Taylor
-. Lent = "Lencten" meaning spring time (Old English)
-. If sackcloth and ashes are at the start of it, something like Easter may be at the end. (Buechner)
-. Buechner suggests that during lent we ask these questions:
a. When you look in the mirror what do you see you most like...you most want to deplore
b. What last message would you give to a handful of people most dear to you. (25 words or less)
c. Which thing you have done would you most like to undo?
d. What person, or cause would you die for?
e. If this were the last day of your life, what would you do?
Ansering these help us to see who we are and what we are becoming.
-Fill communiion cups with water so we can so we can taste the “almost nothing” that is living.
- Illustration Pretzel -- an ancient bakery item. Used to be eaten only during lent. Goes back to 5th century. Shape is made in the form of two arms crossed in prayer.
- Ash Wednesday is a kind of baptismal branding.
-. Lenten penance may be more effective if we fail in our resolutions than if we succeed for its purpose is not to confirm us but to bring home to us our need for salvation.
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Luke 9:28-36 (37-43) Luke tells of the Transfiguration when Jesus appears in dazzling white on the mountain with Moses and Elijah and the voice from heaven says, "This is my Son! My chosen. Listen
See Sermon Nuggets B, Transfiguration (year 2003) NUGGETSB.htm