Sermon Illustrations
DECENT GODLESS
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"Decent, Godless People"
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That’s what T.S. Eliot called people like some new friends I have made: decent, godless people. They are not against God, Jesus, the Bible, the church “and all that.” They are tolerant and politely interested in what Christians have to say. But they are not convinced. They choose to live without any religious commitment. They are godless secular humanists.
But they are decent godless secular humanists (even more decent than those Eliot wrote about). Their personal lives
exhibit all the Calvinist virtues; self-denial, hard work, simplicity, lack of ostentation, moral rectitude.
They are faithful spouses and loving, attentive parents. Their children are disciplined, courteous, sensitive to the feelings
and needs of others and are good students in school.
These people are courageously involved in the peace movement, passionately committed to the cause of compassion and justice for the poor and oppressed. They have their worries and disapointments, their weaknesses and blind spots,
but they are just as happy, moral and concerned about others as most Christians — and more so than some.
What is my Christian responsibility toward these friends? Well, I know what I won’t do. I won’t pretend that since they are such good people “deep down” they must be Christians after all. They don’t want to be Christians.
Nor will I (to paraphrase Bonhoeffer) sniff around to smell the manure under the roses, trying to convince myself that since they are not Christians they couldn’t be as good and caring as they seem. I wouldn’t dare confront them with the sure-to-lose argument that they would be happier, wiser, better people if they were Christians as I am. And I certainly won’t wait around for the chance to say “I told you so” if their non-Christian marriages fail, their non-Christian children go wrong or their non-Christian based business goes out-of-business.
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I will show them the love of Christ, not to try and make them so that they may become as good, kind, loving and just as we Christians, but so that they may come to know the goodness, kindness, love and justice of God. Not so much that they may be saved as that they may have the privilege of freely and gladly observing the God who saves.
Meanwhile, I am grateful for decent, godless people. Because of what they are and what they do. And because they confirm and strengthen my faith in a living God, a risen Lord and a free-blowing Spirit who are at work in and for the world even where they are not recognized, honored, thanked and freely and gladly served.
SHIRLEY C. GUTHRIE, Editor-at-large, 46 Eltisley Ave. Newnham, Cambridge CB3 9JQ United Kingdom
in The Presbyterian Outlook, 4/4/1988
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GOLDEN RULES FOR BRINGING UP KIDS
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• Remember that children are a gift from God, the richest of all blessings. Do not attempt to mold them in the image of your neighbor. Each child is an individual and should be permitted to be themself.
• Don’t crush a child’s spirit when he or she fails. And never compare them with others who have outshone them.
• Remember that anger and hostility are natural emotions. Help your children to find socially acceptable outlets for these normal feelings or they may be turned inward and erupt.
• Discipline your children with firmness and reason. Don’t let your anger throw you off balance. If they knows you are fair, you will not lose their respect or love.
• Remember that when a child has two parents, they should present a united front. Never join with your children against your mate. This can create emotional conflicts in your children and yourself.
• Do not hand your children everything their little heart desires. Permit them to know the thrill of earning and the joy of deserving.
• Teach your children that there is dignity in work whether it is performed with calloused hands that shovel coal or skilled fingers that manipulate surgical instruments. Let them know that a useful life is a blessed one.
• Do not try to protect your children against every small blow and disappointment. Adversity strengthens character and makes us compassionate. Trouble is the great equalizer. Let them learn it.
-Unknown
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GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE IN CHURCHES (1991)
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Church wins landmark case
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The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) has won a landmark decision which prohibits government spies in churches. Gordon Daiger of the Justice Department in Washington, D.C., notified the PC(USA) attorney who contacted Stated Clerk James Andrews, saying that “The Solicitor General’s Office decided not to appeal the case of The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) et al. vs. The United States of America, et al." (United States District Court for the District of Arizona, Civ 86-0072-PHX-RGS).
Andrews stated, “I gather from the attorneys that Daiger had recommended an appeal be taken to the Ninth Circuit Court
of Appeals, but the solicitor general took a different view and decided not to seek a reversal from either the Ninth Circuit or, after that, the United States Supreme Court.” The Presbyterian Church was joined by the Evangelical Lutheran Church
in America in the lawsuit. The published opinion of Judge Roger Strand becomes an unappealed finality and is now solid precedent for the protection of religious worship from governmental intrusion.
It was a long and hard-fought struggle. In early 1984, the Immigration and Naturalization Service initiated an undercover
investigation of the “sanctuary movement,” an effort by a loosely knit group of ministers and lay people to aid undocumented refugees fleeing El Salvador and Guatemala.
From about March 1984 to January 1985, several INS agents wearing body bugs infiltrated four Arizona churches. The investigations were conducted without search warrants and without probable cause to believe that the surveillance of
the churches would uncover evidence of criminal activity.
The agents attended and surreptitiously taped and recorded several services, including an ecumenical worship service
offered by the Camelback and Sunrise churches in Phoenix, regular morning worship services at Southside United
church in Tucson and Bible study classes at Alzona Lutheran Church in Phoenix.
(Marj Carpenter, PNS) September 9, 1991 THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK
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GRACE
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AMAZING GRACE
By David Steele, Contributing Editor
(TUESDAY MORNING COLUMN)
We sing of it with great gusto. We proclaim it weekly. Yet, those moments when it hits us and we realize “I have been
zapped by God’s Grace!” are relatively few. C.S. Lewis said he was surprised; John Wesley reported his heart was
strangely warmed. Brother Lawrence suggested the awareness of God’s presence required practice.
Consider the Friday of Labor Day weekend. I leave the house at 6 a.m., drive two hours to a distant golf course to meet
old, seldom-seen golf buddies. The day is perfect; the course in wonderful shape; the fellowship, marvelous; my game?
Lousy! So now I am driving home trying to focus on the positives — the weather, the course, the friends — and to forget my awful score. Easier said than done.
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Suddenly, all heck breaks out under the hood of my car. Strange knocking noises, steam, my temperature gauge is in
the red. I am in trouble. The next intersection has two big gas stations, but they are both the kind that feature minimarts instead of mechanics. I search for succor and behold! A small garage is in the next block. So, at 1:30 p.m., I coast into Bridge Automotive in Oakley, Calif.
It is a two-mechanic garage. The owner looks up as I stop and says, “Broke your water pump!” Inspection proves he is right. So here I am at the beginning of the Labor Day weekend, 50 miles from home with a broken water pump. Who cares about golf scores!
Jim, the owner, looks at my car, shakes his head and points to the vehicles parked nearby, “Wish I could help you, but I’ve
got these folks on my neck and we’re taking off for the mountains tomorrow at one o’clock. I can’t touch your car till
next Wednesday. But, we’ll help you find a mechanic.”
The “we” turns out to be Jim’s wife, Kathy, the office person. She begins phoning up a storm. At last she shouts, “Joe on the other end of town can work on it today. He’s a good mechanic.” Now to get my car towed to Joe’s. She calls AAA,
but they won’t pay for the tow ’cause I am already at a garage. A few more calls confirms the bad news: it will cost 40
bucks to get the car to Joe.
WELL, WHAT CAN I DO? Call the tow truck! But Kathy is incensed. It is not right for me to pay that extra money. She
gets out her book and starts figuring the job, calling the parts place to make sure they have a water pump on hand. She
hands me an estimate. If I leave the car overnight, Jim will fix it in the morning. I can pick it up Saturday noon.
“But your husband said he can’t do it?”
“He’ll help you out,” she says confidently. “Besides, I’m half owner of this business,” she adds with a wink. And sure
enough, after a brief confab, it is agreed.
Am I relieved! But now, what? How do I get home? My luck holds out. Right next door is the stop for the Bay Area
Rapid Transit express bus that will take me to the Concord station. I can ride the subway to El Cerrito. It will be easy to get
someone to get me home from there.
Kathy checks with the store by the bus stop. A bus is due soon. She leaves me with a smile. I am so grateful. Here I am,
a stranger in a big jam. She and Jim have knocked themselves out to help me.
There is a fellow in his 40s with a backpack at the bus stop. We get into conversation. He says he’s a former wino who has kicked the habit and is now on his way to Seattle where an inheritance awaits him. As we talk he lights up his last
cigarette and checks his change to see if he has enough for the bus. It is obvious he needs more to get to San Francisco, his evening destination. Before I know it, I have whipped out my wallet and peeled off a pretty fair-sized bill. I give it enthusiastically to him.
It is uncharacteristic of me. I am usually one who resists panhandlers and seldom shell out anything more than change. Yet, here I am acting like Lord Bountiful. Why? I wonder.
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As he and I exchange stories, I am aware that I am in this generous mood because I have been helped. Here is someone I can assist. I want to do it. Grace can’t be paid back, it is meant to be passed on.
As I am thinking about this, the bus appears in the distance. My companion looks at me and says, “Fella, I don’t know
your name, and it really doesn’t matter. But I want you to know that someday that bill will be in my wallet and I will run into
someone who needs it. I'll pass it on.”
The guy says exactly what I am thinking! What does one do with grace? Recycle it, of course!
David Steele is pastor of Christ in Terra Linda church, San Rafael, Calif.
THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK October 28, 1991
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GRADUATION
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Op-Ed in the Daily Local News, West Chester, PA
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The truth is, some won’t make the grade. We’ve struggled through our share of graduation speeches, filled with hope for the future, gloss for the past and celebration of possibility. If graduations were held in the dead of winter, would the speeches be so flowery?
The truth of the matter is that statistically a certain number of any graduating class will succeed in college and career, a certain number (less than half) will stay married to their first spouses, others among them will have children at some time
in single-parent homes, a certain number will find work they enjoy and, frankly, a certain number will fail.
But, graduates, all those interminable speeches were telling you that it is your choice. As of the day you graduate your slate is clean. Except for those the police and your God keep, there are no more permanent records. There’s no more in-school detention and no more suspension. There is no one to judge your life except yourselves.
That’s a heavy responsibility. It’s a lot easier to serve out your time in a few hours of in-school detention than it is to live with the consequences of your acts. Someone we think highly of was arguing that traditional education makes unrealistic demands on students because there’s never a chance to do anything over. Well, life’s like that. There aren’t many second chances.
Those who enjoy their lives the most are those who have taken control of the courses they will take. Where you go from the day you graduate is your choice. The numbers say one or two of your class will go to jail, or drop out of college or abandon a child, but it doesn’t have to be you. Decide what you are going to do and give it your best shot.
You’ve accomplished something by graduating from high school, but it probably won’t be enough to get you a job. And, those of you who go on to college will find the same problem two or four years down the road.You’ll worry about working, you’ll worry about finding a partner, you’ll worry about bills and you’ll worry about health.
Even if you find the best life has to offer, you’ll go to work a lot of days you don’t want to, you’ll change a lot of diapers and you’ll be rude to those who mean the most to you. But, by chance or determination, you’ll also find joy in your work, wonder in your family and peace in your life. The choice is yours.
As Wilson Mizner, who managed the Hotel Rand in New York at the turn of the century but earned himself a page in Bartlett’s FamiliarQuotations, said, “Life’s a tough proposition, and the first 100 years are the hardest.”
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June 10, 1985
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GRIEF - DEATH
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My Daddy died!
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Many years later and supposedly moremature, I was whisked back to that day. A 40-year-old 15-year-old felt again that
same combination of numbness and separation from reality and, yes, anger, as bottomless as it was unrealistic. My husband had died, but the world just kept turning.
And so, dear sister, though no one can ever walk in someone else’s shoes, at some level I do understand what’s happening to you on the inside.
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My heart is heavy with your sorrow today as I prepare to say the words, the Word, at his grave. But there are some
other words I want to say to you, words better said this way, I think, than at graveside.
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Those who love you will offer tidbits of advice out of their own experiences with death. And you probably will discover, as
I did, that no one else’s experience is exactly like yours; no one else’s “map” of the grief process will be fully adequate for the road you will have to walk.
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Even the good books won’t describe it exactly, and some of the “sweet, happy-faced Christian” designed-for-devotional-
reading junk that some will feel compelled to give you will make you want to vomit. And, honestly, some people can say the most insensitive things. One person said to me, “Oh, well, after all, you are a minister; your faith will guard you from the kind of sadness the rest of us feel. And besides, you are so strong.”
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Nevertheless, I’m glad I didn’t ignore everything that was offered, because I did receive some profound comfort and wisdom out of the experiences of others and out of my own.
1. Time: Frankly, for a while, I didn’t want to be healed by time; I needed to grieve. But there were some, after a few
months, who seemed to want me to hurry up and put the past to rest and get on with the future. How grateful I was, and am, for those who didn’t try to rush me, who were willing to listen to me talk about Ross.
Now, four years later, there are still times when grief ambushes me, but those moments are brief and endurable because I took the time I needed back then.
2. Friends: Looking back to the days before Ross died, I can see that most of my friendships were pretty superficial.
Strange, but true, how God transforms evil into good: out of the horror and loneliness, in the aftermath of a door slammed shut by death, came the wonder of real and intimate friendship, and it has made all the difference in my life.
3. Painful situations: Whether we like it or not, our culture is couple-oriented. For a while, I forced myself to go to dinner
parties and die like and sometimes, when most of the others were friends, it was OK. But sometimes it was horribly awful, and I would go home and cry. I learned to give myself permission to take care of myself, which sometimes means saying, “Thank you, but no.”
4. Faith: God had always seemed a “hovering” whose presence I could feel. But for weeks after Ross’ death, I couldn’t
feel anything, not even the closeness of God.
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Now I understand that there are two dimensions of faith, connected but distinct. One has to do with what you’ve been taught and have learned about God; the other has to do with what you feel in your heart and soul. The heart part was elusive for a while, but I discovered that I could hang onto the head part until I could feel again.
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Dear sister in grief, my heart is joined to yours today. May God bless you as you put the pieces or your life back together, never quite the same way as before, but in a new way, filled with all the richness of God’s grace to be celebrated.
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ILENE B. DUNN, Editor-at-large, 8001 Mesa Drive Austin, Texas. 78731
in the Presbyterian Outlook
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GRIEF, LOST CHILD
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AUGUST 1985 NEWSLETTER of
Calvary Lutheran Church, West Chester, PA
The Rev. Roy Almquist, Pastor
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Nothing so tests us as Christians as the death of those we know and love. Grief over a loved one’s death is the deepest pain the heart can bear, and, of course, the death of a child is the most devastating of all sorrows. Last Friday morning my secretary, Laurie Swenson, called me at home with an urgent request. A woman at Chester County Hospital had given birth to a stillborn child. While the parents of the child were not members of Calvary, this congregation had touched their lives in the past - they needed some words of hope.
It’s not a long walk from my home on Goshen Road to Chester County Hospital but a part of me wished it could have been longer. What do you say to a woman who has had the greatest of all hopes shattered? How are you supportive to a man who would do anything to restore hope and joy to the life of this woman he loves?
In Mark’s Gospel (5:21-43) we read the story of Jesus’ mighty act of restoration in the life of the daughter of Jairus (the Gospel lesson for Pentecost 6). Boldly Jesus walked into that house and restored to life a child declared dead. How I wished I could somehow stride into the house of John and Karen’s sadness and with the same power and majesty of Jesus simply reach out my hand and transform sorrow into joy, weeping into laughter, death into life.
But I cannot do that. I cannot replicate the miraculous event that was a sign of the power present in Jesus of Nazareth. Or can I? For what is Mark’s story but an account of the power of God which is available through Jesus Christ. As a follower of Jesus Christ, do I not have a duty to be a vehicle for the Savior’s love to enter the lives of others through my sensitivity and my concern? Do we not all have a duty to be with people in their sorrow?
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The story of the healing of Jairus' daughter is a story of compassion - a heart going out to the suffering of another and a spontaneous act of caring. I can speak of that force, that new hope, for I have experienced it. I can do my best to share it.
In my conversation with Karen and John, I was able to speak to them as one who had walked where they must now walk. Many of you are aware that Shannon and I had a son Erik who died of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome at the age of five weeks. Ah, how we would have loved to have summoned Jesus of Nazareth to come to our home and do what he did for Jairus’ daughter, restoring our baby to life.
Well, that did not happen for us, but the living Christ did come to our home. He came in the form of family and friends. He came in the form of a loving, caring congregation who reached out and ministered to us. He came in the form of our love for each other - our decision to not wallow in anger or recrimination over what had happened - but rather to embrace the future with hope and determination.
I am not sure that I said what Karen and John needed to hear. I certainly could not make everything "all right." But I was there with them. And I was there with them when they gathered at Calvary with their family to remember that Christopher John was a person in their lives. For this is what we can do - and sometimes it can work miracles!
And Jesus said: "Don’t be afraid, just believe." The power and grace of God’s Kingdom is not available through human intellect or endeavor, it cannot be conjured up through religious ritual or magical actions. The power and grace of God's Kingdom comes to us in those moments when we can submit ourselves to Him who comes and promises that He will protect us - that nothing will ever separate us from Him - and that "whomsoever believes in Him - though he were dead, yet shall he live - and whomsoever lives and believes in Him shall never die."
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Delivered originally as a sermon on July 7, 1985
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GROWING iN GRACE
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"GROWING IN GRACE IN 1986....A PASTORAL PRAYER"
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I Cor. 13:11 "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. " Whether we like it or not we are growing! Some of us are growing wider, older, poorer. Others of us are growing thinner, wiser, richer than a year ago. Growth is a fact of life. The alternative is death.
Some growth we can't control. We all are growing older. There is nothing we can do to stop the hands of time. Other growth can be encouraged and nourished, discouraged or destroyed. Spiritual growth is one such form of growth. Through a disciplined effort, such as prayer, study and worship, we can become mature Christians. Where such discipline is missing we rust or rot.
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Spiritual growth comes only through proper maintenance. Like the car battery these exercises ignored for too long mean loss of vital power... The church at Laodicea (Rev. 3:14-18) didn’t bother to have regular maintenance done on its Body and it cost them. They became luke-warm and lazy lingering near spiritual death.
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Spiritual growth can, and often is, resisted. In his brilliant book, The Road Less Traveled, (note Frost’s poem) M. Scott Peck notes that there is such a thing in the military called "promotion neurosis" — "promotion neurosis" is when soldiers are successful in resisting a promotion. Many low ranking officers, who are highly qualified, obstruct promotion to first sergeant and sergeant majors. They are resisting the added responsibilities. So, too, in our spiritual growth, notes Peck.
The rest is worth quoting in its entirety. He adds:
"The call to grace is a promotion, a call to a position of higher responsibility and power. To be aware of grace, to
personally experience its constant presence, to know one's nearness to God, is to know and continually experience an
inner tranquility and peace that few possess. On the other hand, this knowledge and awareness brings with it an enormous responsibility for to experience one's closeness to God is also to experience the obligation to be God, to be
the agent of His power and love. The call to grace is a call to a life of effortful caring, to a life of service and whatever and whatever sacrifice seems required. It is a call out of spiritual childhood into adulthood..." The Road Less Traveled
M. Scott Peck, pg 301-302
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The author of Hebrews made a similar observation centuries ago. Hebrews 6:1 "Let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity not laying again the foundation of repentance.. . and God willing we will do so." As we enter a new year let us not resist but release God's grace in others, ourselves, and our Church. "God willing, we will do so!"
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BLESSINGS FOR A HEALTHY, HOLY NEW YEAR
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in The Messenger newsletter, January 1986, Pastoral Perspective, United Methodist Church, West Chester, PA
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GUILT
Quotable Quotes
"If you don’t want anyone to know, don’t do it."
—Chinese proverb, Reader's Digest, March 1986