Sermon 11-09-03
Commitment Sunday
Since 1970, James L. Kidd has been senior minister of Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Under his leadership, “Asylum Hill” has become one of the flagship churches and success stories of the UCC denomination. When people say to him, “Asylum Hill - that’s a funny name,” he informs them it’s called “Asylum” because “we have a lot of ‘committed’ members.”—James L. Kidd,
I love the story of the young man who walked into a card shop looking for an appropriate card for his girlfriend. He asked the store clerk to pick out something for him that would express his very deep sentiment .... She picked out the best-selling card and gave it to the young man .... It said simply, “To the only girl I have ever loved.” The young man said, “Terrific! Wonderful! I’ll take six of those!”
God’s commitment to us
The hounds of heaven
Hjow many names doyou know….20-30 percent
I know a name, one name, Jesus Christ
Grace
Prevenient grace
Scott was sick
King david
Moses
Children of Israel
In Ancient Greece, to prevent idiotic statesmen from passing idiotic laws upon the people, lawmakers—legend has it—were asked to introduce all new laws while standing on a platform with a rope around their neck. If the law passed, the rope was removed. If it failed, the platform was removed.
Quality Press, August, 1992.
April 7, 1865, 11 a.m.
Lieut. Gen Grant, General Sheridan says, “If the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender.”
Let the thing be pressed. ……..A. Lincoln
A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone and asked, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.” Livingstone wrote back, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
Good News Broadcaster, April, 1985, p. 12.
Susan Guise Sheridan, a biological anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, has been studying the bones of a large monastic community that lived in fifth-century Jerusalem. After examining more than 6,000 skeletal elements pulled from the crypt complex beneath Saint Stephen’s Monastery, she found that the Byzantine monks shared several traits: they were robust, well-nourished men; they lived on average into their 40s; and they had bad knees.In almost every monk over 20, there was damage to kneecaps, leg bones and heel bones. “If you consider prayer an occupation,” concludes Sheridan, “then we have a case of occupational stress.”—Ellen Walterscheid, “Divine Inflammation,” The Sciences, July/August 1997, 11.
Address every action that you perform to God; offer it to God and beg it to be to God’s honor and glory.—Teresa of AvilaAccustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.—Teresa of Avila
Those who choose to live with God at the center of their world will reap the benefits of that choice. Those who choose to live otherwise will reap as well.
“If half a million white guys commit each year to work for racial harmony, to spend more time with their kids, to pray instead of striking out, to work on an imperfect marriage rather than seeking solace on Sunset Boulevard, who’s worse off? Maybe I’m missing something, but this sounds like progress to me.”—Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parkeron the Promise Keepers phenomenon,
C. T. Studd was handed the world on a silver platter. He inherited a fortune from his father, one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the latter 19th century. He himself was a world-class athlete, and captained what some say even to this day was the greatest cricket team in the history of Britain. But Studd gave it all up to become a missionary to China, India and Africa. Which is why these words have all the more power:”Christ’s call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devil’s clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus and make them into an Almighty Army of God. But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion, where neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions are worshiped or preached, but only Christ and him crucified. Not to confess Christ by fancy collars, clothes, silver croziers or gold watch-chain crosses, church steeples or richly embroidered altar cloths, but by reckless sacrifice and heroism in the foremost trenches.”—C. T. Studd, quoted in Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (London: Religious Tract Society, 1937), 163.
Here is the marriage proposal of C. T. Studd to his girlfriend and future wife Priscilla Stewart, dated 25 July 1887: “It will be no easy life, no life of ease which I could offer you, but one of toil and hardship; in fact, if I did not know you to be a woman of God, I would not dream of asking you. It is to be a fellow soldier in his army. It is to live a life of faith in God, a fighting life, remembering that here we have no abiding city, no certain dwelling place, but only a home eternal in the Father’s House above. Such would be the life: May the Lord alone guide you.”She eventually said yes, and the first thing they did before their marriage was give away to the ministries of Dwight L. Moody, William Booth and others the entire fortune Studd inherited from his father—some 30,000 pounds.—Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (London: Religious Tract Society, 1937), 84-85.
The word “leader” was completely understood as “servant” by Archbishop William Temple. On the last night of the Archbishop’s mission to Oxford University during World War II, a crowded congregation of students swelled St. Mary’s Church with the sound of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” Dr. Temple stopped the singing before the last verse and said, “I want you to read over this verse before you sing it. They are tremendous words. If you don’t mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little, and want them to mean more, sing them very softly.””Were the whole realm of nature mineThat were an Offering far too small,Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
Commitment Sunday
Since 1970, James L. Kidd has been senior minister of Asylum Hill Congregational Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Under his leadership, “Asylum Hill” has become one of the flagship churches and success stories of the UCC denomination. When people say to him, “Asylum Hill - that’s a funny name,” he informs them it’s called “Asylum” because “we have a lot of ‘committed’ members.”—James L. Kidd,
I love the story of the young man who walked into a card shop looking for an appropriate card for his girlfriend. He asked the store clerk to pick out something for him that would express his very deep sentiment .... She picked out the best-selling card and gave it to the young man .... It said simply, “To the only girl I have ever loved.” The young man said, “Terrific! Wonderful! I’ll take six of those!”
God’s commitment to us
The hounds of heaven
Hjow many names doyou know….20-30 percent
I know a name, one name, Jesus Christ
Grace
Prevenient grace
Scott was sick
King david
Moses
Children of Israel
In Ancient Greece, to prevent idiotic statesmen from passing idiotic laws upon the people, lawmakers—legend has it—were asked to introduce all new laws while standing on a platform with a rope around their neck. If the law passed, the rope was removed. If it failed, the platform was removed.
Quality Press, August, 1992.
April 7, 1865, 11 a.m.
Lieut. Gen Grant, General Sheridan says, “If the thing is pressed, I think that Lee will surrender.”
Let the thing be pressed. ……..A. Lincoln
A missionary society wrote to David Livingstone and asked, “Have you found a good road to where you are? If so, we want to know how to send other men to join you.” Livingstone wrote back, “If you have men who will come only if they know there is a good road, I don’t want them. I want men who will come if there is no road at all.”
Good News Broadcaster, April, 1985, p. 12.
Susan Guise Sheridan, a biological anthropologist at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, has been studying the bones of a large monastic community that lived in fifth-century Jerusalem. After examining more than 6,000 skeletal elements pulled from the crypt complex beneath Saint Stephen’s Monastery, she found that the Byzantine monks shared several traits: they were robust, well-nourished men; they lived on average into their 40s; and they had bad knees.In almost every monk over 20, there was damage to kneecaps, leg bones and heel bones. “If you consider prayer an occupation,” concludes Sheridan, “then we have a case of occupational stress.”—Ellen Walterscheid, “Divine Inflammation,” The Sciences, July/August 1997, 11.
Address every action that you perform to God; offer it to God and beg it to be to God’s honor and glory.—Teresa of AvilaAccustom yourself continually to make many acts of love, for they enkindle and melt the soul.—Teresa of Avila
Those who choose to live with God at the center of their world will reap the benefits of that choice. Those who choose to live otherwise will reap as well.
“If half a million white guys commit each year to work for racial harmony, to spend more time with their kids, to pray instead of striking out, to work on an imperfect marriage rather than seeking solace on Sunset Boulevard, who’s worse off? Maybe I’m missing something, but this sounds like progress to me.”—Syndicated columnist Kathleen Parkeron the Promise Keepers phenomenon,
C. T. Studd was handed the world on a silver platter. He inherited a fortune from his father, one of the wealthiest Englishmen of the latter 19th century. He himself was a world-class athlete, and captained what some say even to this day was the greatest cricket team in the history of Britain. But Studd gave it all up to become a missionary to China, India and Africa. Which is why these words have all the more power:”Christ’s call is to feed the hungry, not the full; to save the lost, not the stiff-necked; not to call the scoffers, but sinners to repentance; not to build and furnish comfortable chapels, churches and cathedrals at home in which to rock Christian professors to sleep by means of clever essays, stereotyped prayers and artistic musical performances, but to raise living churches of souls among the destitute, to capture men from the devil’s clutches and snatch them from the very jaws of hell, to enlist and train them for Jesus and make them into an Almighty Army of God. But this can only be accomplished by a red-hot, unconventional, unfettered Holy Ghost religion, where neither church nor state, neither man nor traditions are worshiped or preached, but only Christ and him crucified. Not to confess Christ by fancy collars, clothes, silver croziers or gold watch-chain crosses, church steeples or richly embroidered altar cloths, but by reckless sacrifice and heroism in the foremost trenches.”—C. T. Studd, quoted in Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (London: Religious Tract Society, 1937), 163.
Here is the marriage proposal of C. T. Studd to his girlfriend and future wife Priscilla Stewart, dated 25 July 1887: “It will be no easy life, no life of ease which I could offer you, but one of toil and hardship; in fact, if I did not know you to be a woman of God, I would not dream of asking you. It is to be a fellow soldier in his army. It is to live a life of faith in God, a fighting life, remembering that here we have no abiding city, no certain dwelling place, but only a home eternal in the Father’s House above. Such would be the life: May the Lord alone guide you.”She eventually said yes, and the first thing they did before their marriage was give away to the ministries of Dwight L. Moody, William Booth and others the entire fortune Studd inherited from his father—some 30,000 pounds.—Norman P. Grubb, C. T. Studd: Cricketer & Pioneer (London: Religious Tract Society, 1937), 84-85.
The word “leader” was completely understood as “servant” by Archbishop William Temple. On the last night of the Archbishop’s mission to Oxford University during World War II, a crowded congregation of students swelled St. Mary’s Church with the sound of Isaac Watts’ hymn, “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.” Dr. Temple stopped the singing before the last verse and said, “I want you to read over this verse before you sing it. They are tremendous words. If you don’t mean them at all, keep silent. If you mean them even a little, and want them to mean more, sing them very softly.””Were the whole realm of nature mineThat were an Offering far too small,Love so amazing, so divine,Demands my soul, my life, my all.”
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