6 SERMONS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS
By Jay Jana
©2010 JJANA
This first part is just partial sermons, so you could see part of each one when you viewed a sample on Smashwords. If you search for the word “realbook” in the document, it will take you immediately to the beginning of the real book, where the complete sermons start!
SUMMARIES
A Sermon for Baccalaureate Service
In making their choices for the future, young people need to remember that reality includes more that the things they can hear, see, taste and touch. We live our lives, not just for this world, but with an eye on the world to come. This can and should change the way we live our lives.
How to Grow a Christian- A Sermon for Rally Sunday (the opening of Sunday school)
The purpose of Christian Education is to help us all become like Christ. We don’t do this by imposing rules and regulations on people, but by helping them to see Jesus.
A God Who Cares- Christmas with a gyroscope
(a sermon for the Sunday after Christmas)
God did not just wind up the world, set it spinning and then say, “That was fun! Now, what else can I do?” In the midst of events that we don’t understand, Jesus birth shows us that God was not content just to sit back and watch, but came to join us in our difficulties, that he might eventually bring them to an end.
What to Do During a Dull Sermon
What do you do if the sermon is dull? Some humorous suggestions from the book, “101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon” by Tim Sims and Dan Pegota and two suggestions about what we should do during any sermon that we are present for. Those two things are listening for what God wants to say to us and listening in order to do what we hear.
And a Happy New Year
A sermon for New Year’s Eve, Day or some Sunday in January.
There have been some pretty strange and funny New Year’s resolutions. Nevertheless, resolutions are simply goals and goals are good because they help us get to where we want to go. Some possible resolution/goals for us as Christians include learning the Bible better, praying more consistently and volunteering to help in our churches and community.
Enlightening By Lightning
A sermon for an outdoor service
Roy C. Sullivan holds the world’s record for being struck by lightning, so he may have a somewhat different view on what creation tells us about God. We can tell something about God by seeing his wondrous creation, but we need Jesus to fill out the picture of what God is really like.
PARTIAL SERMONS
A SERMON FOR BACCALAUREATE SERVICE
It was the last day of school.
There was singing in the classrooms, dancing in. the hallways, laughter in the cafeteria.
And the students were happy too.
The last day of school is near.
For some of you, that means that summer vacation is coming.
For others, though, you seniors, it’s a little more than just having the months of June, July, and August off.
Some of you will soon be able to stand tall, throw back your shoulders, lift up your heads and say,
“I are a high School gra-gee-ate."
Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I'm free at last.
And you really will be free.
Not like the kid who came home from his first day of classes.
And his mom says to him, “Did you learn anything in school today?”
And he says, “Yea, but not enough. I gotta go back tomorrow!”
Well, the day is swiftly coming when you don't have to go back. At least you don't have to go back to the high school.
Some of you will be going back to school.
Some of you will go to vocational-technical school, followed later by endless refresher courses and the like.
For others, it will be college, university, graduate school!
You will learn, first of all, some general things about your chosen field.
After that you will specialize!
Your focus will be on a smaller portion of the whole of knowledge, but you will learn more and more about your special field.
You will continue to learn more and more about less and less…
until you know everything about nothing!
But for today anyway, you are free. Well, almost free.
There are a few more days of school left.
A few more days, a few more test, and of course, a few more words of wisdom from people like myself, and whoever happens to be your graduation speaker.
I remember hearing about one particular pastor, who was flattered that he had been chosen by the student body as the speaker for baccalaureate,
Flattered until he was told that the seniors had all gone to visit at all the various churches... with stopwatches,
and his sermons were consistently shorter than anyone else's.
I myself was railroad--- selected, because I was the most recent pastor to arrive in the area. (Give your own reason why you are the baccalaureate speaker).
I am tempted to say to the person who talked me into doing this what Jonah, reportedly, said to the whale while he was residing in its stomach.
“If you had only kept your mouth shut, I won't be in this predicament!”
Or perhaps I was chosen because I am an expert on life.
You know, of course, what an expert is.
From algebra, we learn that “X” is an unknown quantity.
And a spurt is a drip under pressure.
At any rate, you are almost free and I am here, and I am supposed to tell you, in just a few minutes, everything you need to know for a long and happy life.
As I consider that important assignment, I am reminded of a Doonesbury cartoon I once read.
Phil Slackmeyer, businessman, stock broker, (inside trader?) is addressing the graduating classes of his former college.
He says, "It is hard to know exactly how to advise young people just starting out today, but here are a few thoughts.
I'd go mostly into mutual funds, maybe a few Treasury-Bills.
And if you can find the collateral, go long on pork belly futures,
Also, buy Amstar before Tuesday, although you didn't hear that from me, OK?
Thank you and good luck.
Well, he has his ideas of what young people need to know, and I have mine.
I have thought about what I should say to you.
And I've thought about what other people, most notably your graduation speakers, will say to you.
Someone may say maintain your youthful energy and idealism. Sounds good. Someone may say, maintain your moral and ethical compass.
That's good too!
They may says, be loyal, brave, reverent, trustworthy true etc. Can't argue with that time-tested phrase.
And if they haven't already, they will tell you, “Be all that you can be.”
I am however pretty sure that no one is going to tell you to go long on pork belly futures.
Rather than repeat what someone else has said or may say,
I want to talk about a different view of reality. Christians have a different view of reality.
Hopefully, you already have a different view of reality. That's why you’re here tonight. (today)
But, I just want to remind you of our different view of reality.
Remind you and encourage you to let this different view of reality mold and shape and direct your future.
Our society has a very basic view of reality.
If you can taste it, touch it, feel it, smell it, hear it, see it, or feel superior because you own one and your neighbor doesn't, it's real.
Conversely, if you can't taste it, touch it, feel it, smell it, hear it, see it, or get 9 1/4 % interest on it after taxes… it's not real!
You see, it has to be physical, tangible, exploitable, to be real.
And not necessarily in that order.
Our view of reality, the Christian view of reality is very different.
Consider some of these words from the New Testament.
Matt. 6:19-20 "Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust consume and where thieves break in and steal; but store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust consumes and where thieves do not break in and steal.
John 14: 2-3 In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.
Col. 3:1-2 So if you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth,
Or finally,
2Cor. 4:18 because we look not at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen; for what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal.
You get the idea!
Reality, true reality, is not just the things we can perceive with our senses.
Reality also includes the realm of the spiritual, the realm of the eternal, the realm of God.
What we see with our senses like an iceberg. It is only the tip of what is really there.
There is more to reality than meets the eye.
How do we know about true reality?
We know because, to put it simply, God has told us. Through he scriptures, God has told us that
a) He is there
b) He is almighty
c) He loves us or
d) All of the above.
Don't you just love multiple choice tests?
Beats essays any day of the week.
God has told us that his is real, he’s told us what he is like, but most importantly he has told us that he loves us.
Now, we don't know about the rest of reality just because of some hen scratchings on some old, dried out cattail stems and sheep hides.
It’s not just the writings.
We know God because God made himself known to us in the person of Jesus Christ Our Lord.
Through Jesus, through his teaching, through his wisdom, through his humility, through his self sacrifice, through the power of his miracles, through his love, through his death and subsequent resurrection,
Through all these things, Jesus has shown us the reality of God.
Who God is, what he's like and who he loves, namely us.
All of this has been made know through Jesus Christ
When Jesus walked this earth, a portion of that greater unseen reality intersected with our everyday reality.
Lets sum up,
There is more to reality than meets the eye.
Our best glimpse of the rest of reality, the true reality comes to us through Jesus.
How can this different view of reality mould and shape and direct your future?
Well what does your future hold?
HOW TO GROW A CHRISTIAN- RALLY SUNDAY (the opening of Sunday school)
The book, “Lake Wobegon Days,” by Garrison Keillor, describes life in rural, small town Minnesota, from the coming of the first settlers to the authors "present day."
The stories are imaginary, fictional, made up.
But the events that the stories describe, from the small town baseball games, to sledding in the winter, to the statue of the unknown Norwegian, are all very real.
And the people!
We won't find their names in Courthouse records,
Or in the church register, or even carved in stone in the cemeteries.
but most of us know of or have heard of someone who was just exactly like every person that is described in the book!
Two in particular, Roman and Leon Winkler, stand out in my mind.
Brothers, bachelors, both and farmers.
Roman is described as steady. He was a worker. A good worker.
He was good for 12 or 15 hours of work in a day.
Big and strong- He carried his own end of the load, and a little bit of the other end too.
Leon, on the other hand, was slight and thin. He walked around with a far away look in his eyes,
so that eventually, as Garrison Keillor puts it, if you were talking to him, you'd look over your shoulder to see what he was looking at.
He was a reader, a thinker and a dreamer.
And when it came to work, well. Leon could watch work for days at time.
These two are not real, actual people.
Yet who among us has never come across a Roman or a Leon Winkler in real life?
And maybe, just maybe, they were actually brothers. .
What interests me the most this morning, is what Leon had to say about farming. And particularly about Romans approach to farming.
He said, that his brother, Roman, tried to make more of the farm that it was.
“Roman worked,” said Leon, “as if he could, by sheer effort, pull the corn up out of the ground and make it grow.”
He worked as if he could by sheer effort, pull the corn up out of the ground and make it grow.
There is a lesson to be learned here.
We all know that corn cannot be made to grow in this way.
Sometimes it seems like it won't grow any other way either,
But it definitely won't grow this way.
If you pull and tug and stretch all you will do is wreck the leaves and knock off the ears and pull it out of the ground.
Roman couldn't, we cannot, by sheer effort pull the corn up out of the ground and make it grow.
It just won't work.
The same may be said about growing a Christian.
And when you think about it that is what we are trying to do here.
In our Sunday school, in our Adult Classes, in our Worship Service, we are trying to grow Christians.
We are trying to help people to grow into committed, mature, fruitful, Christians.
But it is so important for us to remember,
A GOD WHO CARES- CHRISTMAS WITH A GYROSCOPE
(a sermon for the Sunday after Christmas)
To begin this sermon you need to get a hold of a gyroscope top. These can be purchased in the toy department of many stores. You need to find a way to make a pencil or pointed stick stand straight up. I prefer a pointed stick, because it is less prone to breakage. If the pulpit has a hole in it, great! Just stand the stick securely in the hole. Or else get a portable vice and clamp the stick in it, or a "C" clamp and clamp the stick to the side of the pulpit. The more vertical the stick stands the better.
Have the top wound up and ready to go. (If you are paranoid, like me, you can have a second top all ready to go, if the first one doesn’t work. The most common cause of gyroscope top failure is winding the string too loose or too high on the axle). You can secure the end of the string with a little removable tape so it doesn't unwind, if you like.
Start the top spinning, mount it on the stick and walk away. Maybe, go back to your chair and sit down. Remain seated until the top falls off the stick. Wait a short moment longer for dramatic effect, then proceed with the sermon. PS If you are doing more than one sermon, for sure have more than one top. The fall could break the top, though I have only had one come apart, and it was easily fixed.
(The sermon text begins here.)
There are some people who think that this is what God is like.
They think that God created the world, gave it a spin, put it out in space,
and then sat back and said,
“Well, that was fun, I wonder what I can do now?”
They say God completed the world, set it in motion according to the laws of nature,
And now no longer has anything to do with it.
No matter what may happen to the world from this point on, he doesn't care.
His job is done.
There is a name for this kind of God
He is called the watchmaker God.
He fashioned the stars and planets, put them together like the intricate inner-workings of a Timex watch,
Oops! Make that Rolex watch, quartz of course,
Wound it up and then left it to run on its own accord.
And it will keep running until such time as the spring winds down and then, in the words of Porky pig, th th that's all folks!
Why do some people feel that way?
Why do they feel that God is so disconnected from his own creation?
In some ways, I do not find that feeling surprising in the least.
All we have to do is look at the headlines in the newspaper on most any day of the week.
And we get a glimpse of why it is that some people feel that way.
An earthquake kills thousands of people and we ask, “Where is God?”
The ozone layer is depleting over the poles, the planet is getting hotter and drier, and we ask, “Where is God!
A factory closes in Central Minnesota, (or wherever) the one where we used to work, and we ask,
“Where is God?”
Is He paying any attention to what is going on down here?
Does he know about the things that are happening here on the third rock from the sun? .
Can he see what we are going through? Can he feel what we feel?
Does he care?
It seems also today that there is no shortage of people who are eager to point out that we may be reaching the end of our string.
Metaphorically speaking, the top is beginning to wobble.
We are, they say, running out of time.
We are running out of food, and we're all going to starve.
We are running out of fuel, 'and we're all gong to freeze.
We're running out of ozone, and we're all going to cook.
We're running out of water, and we're all going to dry up and blow away.
At least, that is what's going to happen, if we don't get buried under our own garbage first.
Or blow ourselves up!
And we ask, “Are you watching God! Do you see that time our time is getting short?
Do you care?”
The message of Christmas,
The great, wondrous, miraculous message of Christmas,
Is that God cares!
The message of Christmas is that God was not content to just create the world, sit back and watch.
The message of Christmas is that God
WHAT TO DO DURING A DULL SERMON
A sermon based on the book, “101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon” by Tim Sims and Dan Pegota.
It's bound to happen!
It has to happen, if not sooner then later.
But it is going to happen eventually.
It happens to the best.
Naturally, it happens to the worst.
And of course it happens to everyone in between too.
No matter how good a pastor, teacher, speaker may be, it's going to happen.
Sooner or later, they are going to give a dull sermon.
There are lots of reasons for dull sermons.
It could be your mindset that day.
Maybe the pastor is talking apples and you’re thinking oranges.
Maybe the pastor is talking Old Testament and you are just pumped up to hear about the Gospel lesson for the day.
He's talking evangelism and your thinking building committee.
The results? A dull sermon!
Or it could be external circumstances.
Any sermon could be dull on the first Sunday of February.
Especially if you’re team is playing.
Though we in (fill in your state or town if they have not been to a Super Bowl for a while) have not had to worry about that problem for a while.
Makes it a little bit hard to get into things on Sunday morning.
By comparison, I suppose any sermon could be a little dull.
On the other hand, it could have nothing at all to do with circumstances.
It really could be a dull sermon!
Just a plain, simple, out and out, no other reason dull sermon!
So what do you do? What do you do during a dull sermon?
Well, I have for you today a few things you could do. Emphasis on the word could.
And a few things that you really ought to do during a dull sermon.
The few things you could do comes from a book called "101 Things to Do During a Dull Sermon,” by Tim Sims and Dan Pegota , published by a group called the Wittenburg Door.
I am sorry, I don't know where you can get a copy. And come to think of it, I might not tell you even if I did know.
The few things you really ought to do, well, they come from somewhere or other.
Let’s start with some things you "could do during a dull sermon
The first example is a game called “Methuselah.”
How many words can you make out of letters in the name “Methuselah,” using each letter only once.
If you can make one to ten words, then the sermon probably had some dull spots.
If you can make eleven to twenty words, the sermon had a lot of dull spots!
If you can make twenty-one to forty words, then the sermon must have been totally boring.
And if you can make more than forty words, well, even the minister is bored and has stopped the sermon and come down out of the pulpit to help you.
That’s one thing you could do during a dull sermon.
Another one is called “Marble Roll.”
It's simple!
Sit in the very back pew and roll a handful of marbles under the pews ahead of you, one at a time.
After the service credit go to the front of the sanctuary and count how many marbles made it all the way.
Give yourself with ten points for each marble that made it to the front!
Here’s another.
AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR
The practice of making New Year's resolutions began, as so many things have, in England.
It was the custom in England, to clean the Chimney on the very first day of January.
Doing this, it was said, would bring good luck for the coming year.
And it probably did, in a way.
At the very least it meant that your house probably would not burn down from a chimney fire.
It was a short step from this cleaning-up of the chimney to a more symbolic, cleaning up of the life.
Resolutions began to be made to correct ones faults, to improve ones personal appearance, to end bad habits, and to begin new ones.
Not new bad habits but new good habits.
Instead of having a clean chimney, you would have a clean slate.
Although, no doubt they, continued to clean their chimneys too.
Anyway, we have the English to thank for the concept of the New Years resolution.
Or, I might say, to thank or to blame
Because, through the years, New Year's resolutions have changed just a bit.
I think they have changed mostly because we have trouble keeping them.
How many of you made New Years Resolutions? How many of you kept the ones that you made last year?
I know that I have made them in the past, and also I know that, while I have kept some of them, I have not kept many them.
I think it’s because of our problem in keeping them that we do not take them as seriously as they were once taken.
Thus we have resolutions like:
This year I resolve not to watch more that 8 football games on New Years Day.
I resolve to exercise every morning, first thing when I get up.
Then, as Jackie Gleason once put it, “One, two, one, two, one two.
Now the other eyelid.
Or for kids: I resolve not to eat any more broccoli that is absolutely necessary.
Or finally, I resolve to sleep in only on days that end with a "Y"
But, all in all, I think that New Years resolutions are good things!
They are good things because really, all that a New Years resolution is, is a goal.
A goal that we set for ourselves on a particular day of the year, that is to say, the first day.
But, other than the day on which it is set, a new years resolution is actually no different a goal that any other kind of goal we might set.
And goals are good things to have. Goals help us got where we want to be.
If you took off in your car and headed generally west, with no map and no destination in mind, you might end up say, at Disneyland. (This example of course will vary depending where you start from).
On the other hand, if you sat yourself down and said, “I'm going to go to Disneyland.
And in order to do that I have to have this much money and I have to take this road and this one and that one.”
You get it? You're chances of getting there are a whole lot greater if you do that.
You're chances are better because when you have a specific goal in mind,
And you’ve make plans on how to reach that goal.
And you’ve figured out what you need to do to reach that goal.
That is why goals help us got where we want and need to go.
My favorite saying about goals is this one:
If you aim at nothing, you will hit it every time.
So let's take aim! Let’s set goals!
What would make some good New Year's resolutions/goals for us as Christian people and members (your church name here).
I have thought about this, and I would like to propose some possible New Years resolutions.
Goals that we can set for ourselves in the coming year.
The most important goal that I can think of is this:
BONUS SERMON!
ENLIGHTENING BY LIGHTNING
A sermon for an outdoor service
Most of us, no doubt, would like to have the distinction of holding the world record in something.
Wouldn't it be nice to see your name in the Guiness Book of World Records.
Like lifeguard Leroy Colombo, who holds the world’s record for saving 907 drowning people from 1917-1974.
Or Gary Mandau, Chris Lyons and Danna Dover of Portland Oregon, who rode a merry-go-round for a-record 312 hours and 43 minutes. (That's 13 days, folks)!
Or Paul Ricksecker, world's fastest magician, who performed 91 separate tricks in 2 minutes, 12.5 seconds in February of 1988.
It would be kind of neat to be the best in the world at something.
However, there is one record I can think of, that I am pretty sure none of us would like to break..
Former Park Ranger, Roy C. Sullivan of Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, holds the world’s record for being struck by lightning.
He is the only person in the world who has survived being struck by lightning seven times.
His attraction for lightning began in 1942.
He was struck by lightning again in 1969, 1970, 1972, 1973, 1976, and 1977.
He lost a big toe nail, his eye brows, was seared on his left shoulder, had his hair set-on fire twice, and suffered an injured ankle and chest and stomach burns.
One time, he was driving when it happened.
He was knocked 10 feet out of the car and his shoe was blown completely off.
There is absolutely no explanation for his rather magnetic personality.
One more note: when he finally died, in 1983, it was not from a lightning strike.
So who knows how many more times he might have been struck if he were still alive.
This, I'm fairly certain, is one record that no one else would want.
The focus of our service today is the wonder of God's creation.
Its a natural topic (pardon the expression) for an outdoor service, because we only need to look around us to see the wonder of God's creation.
The trees, the green grass, the sunshine, in just the right amount, I might add, for any less and we would all freeze, any more and we would cook.
The birds, the insects, which we don't really appreciate all that much, though, if we think about it, we know that they too are necessary.
All of theses and many other things make up God’s wonderful creation.
We look around us today and we see the wonder of creation.
And a wonderful creation says something about a wonderful creator.
Th Bible tells us that the heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth shows his handiwork.
Paul, in Romans, re-echoes this sentiment, saying to us that we know something about God, because we can see the wonder of his works all around us.
Wonderful creation therefore equals wonderful creator!
But…
Here endeth the partial sermons!
THE REALBOOK WITH COMPLETE SERMONS STARTS HERE!
6 SERMONS FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS
By Jay Jana
©2010 JJANA
A SERMON FOR BACCALAURIATE SERVICE
It was the last day of school.
There was singing in the classrooms, dancing in. the hallways, laughter in the cafeteria.
And the students were happy too.
The last day of school is near.
For some of you, that means that summer vacation is coming.
For others, though, you seniors, it’s a little more than just having the months of June, July, and August off.
Some of you will soon be able to stand tall, throw back your shoulders, lift up your heads and say,
“I are a high School gra-gee-ate."
Free at last, free at last, thank God almighty, I'm free at last.
And you really will be free.