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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodist News |
September 2001 |
No one asked me, but …
Pithy, but seldom quoted Scripture
By Bill Schwein
Many preachers use the lectionary -- a three-year cycle of suggested Scripture readings which systematically cover the story of the Bible. Granted, it's been a tremendous help in worship planning and sermon preparation for those pastors who work in advance, but the sermons are becoming a bit predictable. Research has become too easy, as well, with so many Internet "shortcuts-to-the-Sunday-sermon" sites. For ministers planning their sermons for the coming year, I'd like to suggest a few of the more unfamiliar texts to explore and explain:
"Then you shall take one of the rams and you shall slaughter the ram, and shall take its blood and dash it against all sides of the altar. Then you shall cut the ram into its parts, and wash its entrails and its legs, and put them with its parts and its head, and turn the whole ram into smoke on the altar." Exodus 29:15-18 (This one probably shouldn't be combined with a Blessing of the Animals service.)
"When Shem was one hundred years old, he became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood; and Shem lived after the birth of Arpachshad five hundred years, and had other sons and daughters." Genesis 10:10-11 (Not even Eugene Peterson could find The Message in that one. You might try using it for Older Americans Sabbath.)
With so much concern about looking good and keeping fit, how about a sermon on either "All fat is the Lord's" (Leviticus 3:16) or "If anyone loses the hair from his head, he is bald but he is clean." (Leviticus 13:40) I like that better than what happened to the prophet Elisha, in II Kings 2:23-24:
"He went up from there to Bethel; and while he was going up on the way, some small boys came out of the city and jeered at him, saying, 'Go away, baldhead! Go away, baldhead!' When he turned around and saw them, he cursed them in the name of the Lord." (Can't say I blame him.)
The more legalistic pastors or biblical literalists among us might consider Numbers 15:32-35:
"When the Israelites were in the wilderness, they found a man gathering sticks on the Sabbath day.. They put him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the Lord said to Moses, 'The man shall be put to death; all the congregation shall stone him outside the camp.'" (All that for just a little Sunday yard work?)
The more innovative preachers among us occasionally attempt "dialogue sermons." Here are texts I'd love to hear sometime: " … they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks." Isaiah 2:4 "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears." Joel 3:10
Which is why I hesitate declaring, "The Bible says."
The Rev. Bill Schwein is superintendent of the Indianapolis East District; his sermons are … legendary.
Last updated on 01/14/2004