2014
Sermons
Dez 28 - Outsiders
Dez 28 - The Costly Gift
Dez 24 - In the Flesh in Particular
Dez 21 - More "Rejoice" than "Hello"
Dez 14 - Word in the Darkness
Dez 7 - Life in a Construction Zone
Dez 2 - Accountability
Nov 30 - Rend the Heavens
Nov 23 - The Shepherd-King
Nov 16 - Everything he had
Nov 9 - Preparations
Nov 2 - Is Now and Ever Will Be
Okt 25 - Free?
Okt 19 - It is about faith and love
Okt 12 - Trouble at the Banquet
Okt 5 - Trouble in the Vineyard
Sep 28 - At the edge
Sep 21 - At the Right Time
Sep 14 - We Proclaim Christ Crucified
Sep 7 - Responsibility
Aug 31 - Extreme Living
Aug 27 - One Who Cares
Aug 24 - A Nobody, but God's Somebody
Aug 17 - Faithful God
Aug 8 - With singing
Aug 3 - Extravagant Gifts of God
Aug 2 - Yes and No
Jul 27 - A treasure indeed
Jul 27 - God's Love and Care
Jul 20 - Life in a Messy Garden
Jul 13 - Waste and Grace
Jun 8 - The Conversation
Jun 1 - For the Times In-between
Mai 25 - Joining the Conversation
Mai 18 - Living Stones
Mai 11 - Become the Gospel!
Mai 6 - Wilderness Food
Mai 4 - Freedom
Apr 27 - Faith despite our self-made handicaps
Apr 20 - New
Apr 19 - Blessed be God
Apr 18 - Jesus and the Soldiers
Apr 18 - Who is in charge?
Apr 17 - For You!
Apr 13 - Kenosis
Apr 9 - Mark 6: Opposition Mounts
Apr 6 - Dry Bones?
Apr 2 - Mark 5: Trading Fear for Faith
Mrz 30 - Choosing the Little One
Mrz 26 - The Life of Following Jesus
Mrz 23 - Surprise!
Mrz 19 - Mark 3: The Life of Following Jesus
Mrz 16 - Darkness and Light
Mrz 12 - Mark 2: Calling All Sinners
Mrz 10 - Where are the demons?
Mrz 9 - Sin or not sin
Mrz 8 - Remembering
Mrz 5 - Mark 1: Good News in a Troubled World
Mrz 3 - For the Love of God
Feb 28 - Fresh Every Morning
Feb 27 - Using Time Well
Feb 23 - Worrying
Feb 16 - Even more offensive
Feb 9 - Salt and Light
Feb 2 - Presenting Samuel, Jesus, and Ourselves
Jan 26 - Catching or being caught
Jan 19 - Strengthened by the Word
Jan 12 - Who are you?
Jan 9 - Because God....
Jan 5 - By another way
It is about faith and love
Read: Luke 21:1-19
Consecration Sunday - October 19, 2014
The Rev. W. Stevens Shipman
Both Mark and Luke pair the story of the widow ’s offering with the disciples gawking at the Temple
First Jesus sees a number of large donations made by rich people in the Temple
but the one he calls the disciples’ attention to is a poor widow who put in two small coins
because he knew this was all she had to live on
Then the disciples come on the scene, commenting about the magnificent Temple dedicated to God
I remember my first trip to New York City as a child
My mother saying, “Now don’t go staring at the tall buildings and look like a country hick ”
but of course I did.
The country bumpkins from Galilee were awed by this Temple that people built
Jesus was impressed by the faith and love of an impoverished woman
So Jesus launched into a prophecy that seems to have led to the one charge that stuck in his trial
And in less than a generation that magnificent Temple would be demolished, never to be rebuilt
But the faith and love of the poor widow live on as she continues to inspire us
Stewardship is about faith and love, it’s not about money
The woman Jesus noticed trusted God to take care of her even if she gave all she had
And she was so filled with love for God that she probably didn’t even worry about her future
Love is that way
Not the selfish infatuations celebrated by the media and our sex-saturated culture
Genuine love looks outside itself and thinks only of the one it loves
Jesus goes on to speak about the cost of discipleship
His words about how Christians will be hated are very true even today
At this moment Christians are being slaughtered in places where they have lived for millennia
Yet most of them refuse to convert even if that refusal means brutal death — as it does
A Christian pastor is in a cruel prison in Iran, beaten and tortured and denied medical care
30,000 Christians are in prison camps in North Korea, horribly tortured, and most will die there
A little girl was beheaded on her way home from a Coptic church service in Egypt
And the list goes on and on — our situation of relative religious freedom is the exception not the rule
It was said that more Christian martyrs were created in the 20th Century than in all previous ones
The stewardship question is, how much do we love Jesus?
Related to that is a second: How much do we trust Jesus?
What would we do if a mob stormed into St. Mark’s and started shooting or beheading all of us?
Do we believe that by our endurance we will gain our souls?
Or would we rather concentrate on providing for ourselves just in case God doesn’t come through?
When my father was leaving home, his father called him in and said to him:
Bill, as you go through life remember one thing: You can never outgive God
Stewardship is not just about giving to St. Mark’s but learning to be a generous person, as generous as God
Stewardship is how we live because Jesus is our Lord and Savior
I once had a member challenge me: why do you talk so much about faith? God won’t pay our bills
I replied: How do you know? Have you ever asked him?
There is something foolish about a poor widow putting her last two coins in the Temple treasury
As foolish as a man dying on a cross and expecting to rise three days later
If our vision only includes things we can accomplish on our own, what do we need God for?
Do we believe in a God who is vitally active in the world today through the Holy Spirit?
or is our God more like Bette Midler’s clueless deity who watches from a distance
and doesn’t realize how terrible things are down here
Being a disciple means being all-in for Jesus
As all-in as those Coptic Christians who still worship in the face of angry mobs
As all-in as North Koreans who cherish a Bible even though they can be executed for owning it
As all-in as the Mekane Yesus Church in Ethiopia that has grown in less than my lifetime
from 20,000 members to more than 6 million and plans to witness to 30 million more in 5 years
Your financial stewardship to St. Mark’s should not be a business transaction
Do not give to keep a building open for yourselves or to put Ken on retainer to serve you
In faith and love you are called to maintain a mission center here for the sake of the world
And I hope you are more interested in helping Ken equip you to minister to your unchurched neighbors
than to have him rushing to you when you think you need him
Bp. Eaton: We are Church, Lutheran, Church together, and Church for the sake of the world
Are we impressed by the things that impressed the disciples, or by the things that impressed Jesus?
Buildings come and go; faith and love last forever
Stewardship is not about money; it is about faith and love — Are you all-in for Jesus?
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Please note: The preceding sermon is provided as a resource for the thought, prayer, and meditation of the members and friends of St. Mark's. It is the residue of a verbal event, and thus it does not have academic footnotes and other details that would be expected in a written document. The writer gladly acknowledges the prior thought and work of many Christians before him. |