Sermon Competition #4

Originally posted by Nemesio
Finally.

Too funny.

Originally posted by Mimor
Topic: What are you doing here?

You have until Friday, July 13th to submit your sermon.

Just to re-cap:

1) You must stay on the topic or theme.
2) Limit your sermon to 5 minutes max or approximately 400-500 words.
3) All original and from your heart.
4) You can cite only ONE passage from a book that is spiritually relevant to you.
5) The judges wi ...[text shortened]... e
3) Keeping the integrity of the passage
4) Use of confessional preaching
5) Persuasiveness.

Topic: What are you doing here?

Each of us is just one of roughly six billion give or take some number
upon the planet at this time, we live upon a planet in a universe
whose expanse is beyond measure, and we have no promise of living
tomorrow yet we live as if we will always be. We have a window with
which we do all things, and that is simply in the here and now, and as
our limited time passes so do our opportunities with which we have to
make a difference in all things we deem important.

Moments in time come and go, they do this during very important
events to us such as the birth or deaths of loved ones, these
moments stand out like no others in my life. I also recall other events
as sitting at a table with some friends when we made a decision to go
do something, we left got into a minor car accident and one of us
received a ticket, we came back to the home were in when we decided
to leave, we were again all sitting at the same table doing the same
thing we were doing before we left, but life had changed. Had
someone been filming that room and cut out the part were we left and
came back it wouldn’t have been noticeable that our lives had change
with some more drastically affected than others, to those watching that
modified film all things would have seemed to be the same just as if
nothing had happened.

We make choices all the time, we set in motion events for various
and sundry reasons, be they selfish in nature, which is to say strictly
for our own benefit, or to effectively change the lives of another in
ways we believe to be beneficial affecting others lives, we can even
choose to do harm to another, we can choose to ignore the needs of
others before us, we do choose how we make the most or the
least of our time in all things we both claim to be important, and
closer to reality the things that actually are important to us.

The reality of what is important to us will be plain to us if we just stop
and take a very serious assessment of what we do with our time. The
way we treat others shows us the love, hate, or apathy we truly have
for them. What are we doing here should be an important thought as
we go through life, if viewed from distance 24/7 would we really be the
person we would like to present to those around us, or are we really
something completely different when all our deeds are on display?
Were it possible for us to monitor what we choose to occupy our
thoughts with, what we meditate on daily molds what kind of person
we really are too.

Reality checks are times when we what we think is true faces reality
and truth breaks through to enlighten us to the errors of both our
ways and our beliefs. It is much better to have our reality checks in
this life time when we can repent or change our minds while we can
correct that which is wrong or bad.

God desires us to be real, as Jesus said, “Simply let your 'Yes'
be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; anything beyond this comes from the evil
one.” (Matthew 5:37) God deals with us in reality, not in games we
play while we try to cloud reality by deceptiveness trying to hide what
kind of person we really are from ourselves, from others, and God.
When the judgment of God comes, it will simply reveal that which is
real before all, so what are you doing here, what is real about you?

Kelly

Originally posted by ChronicLeaky
Am I my pirpstick, diamond-encrusted?
Is this what I am?

Very, very nice.

Originally posted by Mimor
Topic: What are you doing here?

You have until Friday, July 13th to submit your sermon.

Just to re-cap:

1) You must stay on the topic or theme.
2) Limit your sermon to 5 minutes max or approximately 400-500 words.
3) All original and from your heart.
4) You can cite only ONE passage from a book that is spiritually relevant to you.
5) The judges wi ...[text shortened]... e
3) Keeping the integrity of the passage
4) Use of confessional preaching
5) Persuasiveness.

The Reverend Billy Bob Blackhand slumps over his pulpit as his faithful flock gathers before him. As we settle into the uncomfortable pews of the humid, and somewhat stuffy, Church of Christ The Redeemer we try to ignore the sweat trickling down our backs and focus on what message of God the Reverend will bring to us this day. The time worn church is dimly lit and the tranquility disturbed only by the gentle buzz of summer flies and the rustling of the congregation. In this light, it's difficult to tell if the Reverend is deep in contemplative prayer, or, trying to shake off a persistent hangover. Suddenly, as if cued by some unheard signal, the Reverend grasps his worn leather bible and straightens up behind his pulpit...

~~~

My Brothers and Sisters, thank you. Thank you for hearing the call of the Lord and joining me here to worship His glory today.

I know that you, as I do, struggle with the meaning of life and struggle to find the path of righteousness through this torturous existence. I, too, turn to prayer to reconcile the co-existence of Good and Evil. I struggle with my desires of the flesh and my weakness for a good bottle of single malt Scotch Whiskey. I, as you do, need to come to terms with the battle between God and Satan that pulls at my very soul.

As I prayed over my bible, I beseached God to lead me to a purpose to my life. I felt God's spirit work within me, closed my eyes and opened my bible. Behold, my friend, The Book of Job. Job, a man after my own heart and, while I lack his wordly wealth, livestock and many servants, Job was a man of great probity, virtue, and piety.

Job was a faithful servant of our Lord and God allowed Satan to put Job to the test. Satan was ruthless in his persecution of Job, stripped him of his wordly wealth, slaughtered his family, demolished his house, wasted his livestock, crushed his servants and laid disaster upon disaster on Job's shoulders.

Job rends his clothes and shaves his head, but, still, he endured these Satanic inspired calamities without reproaching Divine Providence. Satan ups the ante and God allows him free rein to dismantle Job and his few remaining comforts. Satan pulls out all the stops and smites Job with dreadful boils. Job, seated in ashes, scrapes off the corruption with a pot shard. Still Job refuses to curse God, refuses to turn his back on the Lord.

Why would even the most pious of men suffer such trials and still bear no ill will towards the Lord? Surely, we, as humble servants, should expect our Lord to protect us? Does our faith in God earn us nothing? Again, I felt the spirit of God move within me and guide me to Job 19:25 "I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God."

Suddenly and gloriously I came to a spiritual understanding, a moment of clarity that remains unmatched in all my years of serving God's will. My worldy life, my worldly suffering, means nothing. This life is but a heartbeat lost in eternity. Our sole purpose is to serve God and to devote our lives to His will. The trials and tribulations that are inflicted upon us are as Satan putting Job to the test.

We must pass the test my Brothers and Sisters. We must persevere and know, that in doing so, we will have ever lasting life at God's side. Pass the test my friends and find solace in the Word of the Lord.

WHAT AM I UNDOUNG HERE?

____________________________________

The Master doesn’t cling to power,
because he knows his power.
The ordinary person clings to power,
because he never has enough.

The Master strives forcefully at nothing,
yet leaves nothing undone.
The ordinary person is always striving,
and yet there is always more to do.

The benevolent person strives forcefully,
but with no particular end in view.
The righteous person strives forcefully,
with particular ends in view.
The moralist strives forcefully,
and when people don’t respond
he rolls up his sleeves and throws them out.

When the Tao is lost, there is benevolence.
When benevolence is lost, there is righteousness.
When righteousness is lost, there is moralism.

Moralism is the thin husk of true faith,
the beginning of chaos.
Opinion hangs tinsel flowers on the Tao:
the beginning of stupidity.

Therefore the Master abides
in the kernel, not the husk;
in the fruit and not the tinsel flowers.

He lives in reality,
and lets the illusions go.

—TaoTeChing, 38*

____________________________________________

In Taoism, which has been called the “watercourse way,” there is a concept called wuwei: sometimes translated as "not-doing," it is really non-striving, non-forcing.

I have spent most of my life in forceful striving: trying, trying, trying. I lost the relaxed, natural power (Te) that comes from living in harmony with the Tao—the kind of power that comes from simply attending to reality, without conceptualizing or theorizing about it.

Conceptualizing and theorizing can be useful tools; they too are activities that are part of our nature. But they can also produce dogmatic maps overlaid on a reality that we can no longer simply perceive as such. We can start to judge reality according to our concepts—the territory according to the map—rather than the other way around. In fact, we can learn not to look directly at reality at all, keeping our heads in our maps—and maps of maps. Alan Watts once described this as living your life locked in a library in which all the books are about other books.

We also learn to construct maps of ourselves, of who we want to think we are, of how we want others to see us. And again, we can begin to confuse the map with reality, the concept with the thing, our ideas about ourselves with who we truly are—our ego-construct with the simple I am, that I am. (Am I a “good” person? Am I corrupted by “original sin”?)

But underneath all our conceptual maps is a reality that exists before our conceptualizations. The world in its suchness, the Tao, including ourselves. To experience that reality, we must put down our maps. (Do I really love my wife, or just the map that I have made of her?)

The more I failed at fulfilling the dictates of my maps, the harder I tried. I tried to become more powerful, by acquiring better maps. I tried to be benevolent; and when benevolence failed, I expounded righteousness; and when righteousness failed, I hurled moral ultimatums, and threw people out of my life.

And all my maps were tinsel flowers hung on the reality that is Tao.

Now, I am undoing. I am letting go of my maps, and looking at everyday reality without the tinsel flowers. I am letting go of moralism. I am letting go of striving to be righteous, even benevolent. I am letting go of striving. I am allowing the cocoon of conceptual maps that I have wrapped round myself, to tell myself who I am, to simply—unwind.

I sit on the front porch in the morning sun, watching the hummingbirds dart to and fro. I see a kingsnake slither out of the stone wall and through the grass. I listen to the cicadas. I breathe. I allow my conceptualizing, map-making mind to go quiet.

I notice that the ferns need watering, and I simply do it. I notice that our cat is bothering the kingsnake, and I simply and gently remove her from harm’s way—rescuing the snake at the same time. I notice my wife returning from the garden, and I go into the house to bring her a cup of coffee. All without thinking about it—without thinking “I ought,” or “I must.” No “trying” involved.

Am I benevolent? I don’t know. Am I righteous or just? I don’t know. Am I moral? I don’t know. I don’t know whose maps those questions belong to.

Are you living in reality or illusion? There’s only one way to find out: to lay down the maps and spend time just “grooving with reality” (as Alan Watts described meditation)—the reality, of which you are, that is prior to concepts; the territory that is prior to the maps.

That is all that a “master” is: one who “lives in reality, and lets the illusions go.”

____________________________________________

* Adaptation from translations by Stephen Mitchell; Ursula LeGuinn; Stephen Addiss and Stanley Lombardo; and Roger T. Ames and David L. Hall.

LATE EDIT: I see that "undoing" is misspelled in my title. I don't understand it; I spell-checked. I always spell-check! Well, that's reality for you! 🙁

Originally posted by vistesd
LATE EDIT: I see that "undoing" is misspelled in my title. I don't understand it; I spell-checked. I always spell-check! Well, that's reality for you! 🙁

If I didn't spell-check, you wouldn't be able to read my posts. 😛

Originally posted by vistesd
...the concept with the thing, our ideas about ourselves with who we truly are—our ego-construct with the simple I am, that I am.

Extra points for quoting Popeye.

Originally posted by Mimor
Topic: What are you doing here?

You have until Friday, July 13th to submit your sermon.

Just to re-cap:

1) You must stay on the topic or theme.
2) Limit your sermon to 5 minutes max or approximately 400-500 words.
3) All original and from your heart.
4) You can cite only ONE passage from a book that is spiritually relevant to you.
5) The judges wi ...[text shortened]... e
3) Keeping the integrity of the passage
4) Use of confessional preaching
5) Persuasiveness.

Does the sermon have to be in support of a theistic version of existence?

Originally posted by Starrman
Does the sermon have to be in support of a theistic version of existence?

Absolutely not. We have quite a diverse group entered in this round. Just in case you had questions about what "confessional" preaching is, it has to do with revealing some aspect of yourself within the sermon.

Originally posted by Bosse de Nage
Very, very nice.

Why thanks 🙂.

Originally posted by Hand of Hecate
The Reverend Billy Bob Blackhand slumps over his pulpit as his faithful flock gathers before him. As we settle into the uncomfortable pews of the humid, and somewhat stuffy, Church of Christ The Redeemer we try to ignore the sweat trickling down our backs and focus on what message of God the Reverend will bring to us this day. The time worn church i ...[text shortened]... ng life at God's side. Pass the test my friends and find solace in the Word of the Lord.

Beautiful!

Originally posted by Hand of Hecate
Extra points for quoting Popeye.

And funny.

Originally posted by Sunburnt
Beautiful!

Where's your entry? We need some action in this competition, I'm getting tired of having to carry y'all.

Originally posted by Hand of Hecate
Where's your entry? We need some action in this competition, I'm getting tired of having to carry y'all.

Pride goeth before a fall.