Sermons With Insight , livre ebook

First Edition Design Publishing - Roland Zimany

Découvre YouScribe en t'inscrivant gratuitement

Je m'inscris

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

135 pages

English

Vous pourrez modifier la taille du texte de cet ouvrage

Obtenez un accès à la bibliothèque pour le consulter en ligne
En savoir plus

A propos
Informations
Extrait

Description

"Roland Zimany is a theologically well-informed, biblically adept, gifted communicator of the Christian faith. The sermons and lectures in this book are not only substantial but also engaging. How refreshing it is to be encountered by a preacher who loves a congregation enough to tell them the truth about God in all its richness and demanding depth!" ~ William H. Willimon"There are excellent sermons in this collection. Many that need to be heard and read time and again." ~ M. Jolley

Sujets

Christianity

Philosophie et théologie

Informations

Publié par	First Edition Design Publishing
Date de parution	25 août 2015
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781622879113
Langue	English

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0600€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

Sermons With
Insight

ROLAND ZIMANY, Ph.D.
Sermons With Insight
Copyright ©2015 Roland Zimany

ISBN 978-1622-879-10-6 PRINT
ISBN 978-1622-879-11-3 EBOOK

LCCN 2015940513

August 2015

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No part of this book publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means ─ electronic, mechanical, photo-copy, recording, or any other ─ except brief quotation in reviews, without the prior permission of the author or publisher.

Cover by – Deborah E Gordon

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Zimany, Roland
Sermons with insight / written by Roland Zimany.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1622-879-10-6 pbk, 978-1622-879-11-3 digital

1. Christian Ministry / Pastoral Resources. 2. Sermons / Christian. 3. Christian Life / Prayer.

S4864
Table of Contents
The Church Year

"Preparing for Christmas" 1
"Magnificat" 3
"Why the Fuss about Jesus?" 8
"Themes of Epiphany" 12
"Jesus' Baptism and Ours" 18
"Transfiguration and Transformation" 22
"Beyond Law and Prophets" 26
"The Bondage of the Will" 32
"Thriving or Not?" 38
"A Communion Meditation" 42
"Jesus Before Pilate and Herod" 46
"An Appropriate Death on Good Friday" 48
"Now We Are Free!" 51
"Easter with St. John Chrysostom" 58
"What Are We Celebrating on Easter?" 63
"Open to God's Newness" 66
"Another Consideration of Easter" 73
"Life in His Name" 77
" Pentecost” 81
"The Divine Trinity" 87
"The Triune God" 93
"Political and Spiritual Freedom" 97
"Faith for the Best Kind of Life" 100
"When You Really Believe in God" 104
"Christians Can Create Their Own Ten Commandments" 108
“Down with 'Thou Shalt Not'!" 113
"Christians Are Free Servants" 117
"'And the Shepherds Returned:' Scientific Fact and Christian Vision" 121

Other Important Topics

"Starting Again" 127
"Inclusiveness" 131
"Why Did the Disciples Follow Jesus?" 136
"Tolerance Toward Outsiders and Insiders" 143
“Evangelize!” 146
"God Isn't Fair" 150
"God and the Value of People" 154
"The Cost of Discipleship" 159
"Transformative Prayer" 163
"Possessions, Power, Relationships, and the Kingdom of God" 166
"Being Born Again" 172
"Where Should We Bear Fruit?" 175
"Without God or with God" 182
"When Did Jesus Become the Son of God?" 187
"Transformed Sacrifices" 192
"The Strange Wisdom of God" 197
" Repeatable Salvation" 201
"Whom Do We Think We're Fooling?” 206
"Sacrifice" 210
"Judgment Day" 215
"Can Faith Save You?" 219
"I Am Making All Things New" 222
"A Last Sermon" 228

APPENDIX I “WHO WROTE THE BIBLE?” 233
APPENDIX II “GODSPELL” 250
Sermons by Church Year Categories
Advent ( Adv) 1
4 Adv (C) 3
Christmas Eve 8
Epiphany (Epiph) 12
Baptism of our Lord ( Bapt of Ld (A)) 18
Transfiguration ( Transfig. (A)) 22
Transfig. (B) 26
2 Lent (B) 32
5 Lent (A) 38
Maundy Thursday ( Maund Thur) 42
Good Friday (Good Fri.) 46
Good Fri. 48
E aster Vigil 51
E aster 58
Easter 63
Easter 73
2 Easter 77
Pentecost (C) 81
Pentecost 81
Trinity 87
Trinity ( Trin (A)) 93
July 4 th /6 Pent (A) 97
Reformation (Ref) 100
Ref 104
Ref 108
Ref 113
Ref 117
Ref 121
17 Pentecost (Pent (B)) 127
4 Pent (A) 131
24 Pent (C) 136
16 Pent (B) 143
8 Pent (A) 146
18 Pent (A) 150
Christ the King (A) 154
14 Pent (B) 159
10 Pent (C) 163
10 Pent (C) 166
Trinity ( Trin (B)) 172
5 Easter (B) 175
6 Easter (A) 182
4 Adv (A) 187
13 Pent (A) 192
4 Epiph (A) 197
4 Epiph (A) 201
4 Epiph (C) 206
12 Pent (B) 210
22 Pent (B) 215
14 Pent (B) 219
5 Easter (C) 222
Epiph (A) 228
Sermons With
Insight

ROLAND ZIMANY, Ph. D.
THE CHURCH YEAR
(Adv)
"Preparing for Christmas"
(John 12:24-26; Philippians 2:4-11)

In this vast universe is a tiny planet in parts of which, during this time of year, men and women prepare to commemorate the invasion of that planet by God. We call that event "Christmas."
What we want to consider here, for the next few minutes, is what kind of preparation for the celebration of Christmas on our part will be most meaningful.
Is it sufficient to prepare for the coming of Christ by developing the spirit of giving, feeling more friendly towards others, being more cheerful, being more pious, reaffirming our belief in the Incarnation, or developing a feeling of awe, or appreciation, or humility?
All of these have some value, but our Scripture readings suggest that they fall short of what is needed in order for Christ to come into our lives at Christmas -- or at any other time, for that matter.
Do you want Christ to come into your life? If so, listen to what Jesus said: "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single grain."
Jesus wasn't giving us a lesson in horticulture. What he was saying was that we must die. Not the kind of death where we end up in a coffin. Well, what kind of death?
Consider that grain of wheat. As long as it remained as it had been, as a grain-seed, it was alone and bore no fruit. It was only when it gave up being what it was in the past, when it stopped holding onto its former, unproductive qualities, that it became possible for it to be changed into an abundance of wheat. Or, in the words of our Gospel, it became possible for it to "bear much fruit."
The same principle is described in Paul's comments in the Epistle Lesson. Christ stopped being merely spiritual. He let go of his past condition. He emptied himself and, as a result, became something different, a human being. In that form, he bore the fruits which Christians still enjoy today. That is, he lived the kind of life that showed what humanity at its best is like: a life characterized by a flexible willingness and commitment to doing God's will, in whatever way circumstances required; a givingness and generosity of spirit; love for the unlovely (in whatever form that unloveliness might take); acceptance of all kinds of people; concern for people in need and on the fringes of society; a no-nonsense attitude toward institutions and practices in society that needed to be changed; trust in God's power and goodness, and so: personal freedom, based on that faith and trust, and openness to the possibility of the unexpectedly good occurring.
Why is it that we, too, must die and empty ourselves? If Christ is to be reborn in our hearts -- and presumably that's what we want (we sing "O Holy Child… descend to us… Cast out our sin and enter in, be born in us… ") -- we have to ask, What keeps him out?
The answer is our self-centered wills; our rebellious nature, which causes us to insist on doing things our way instead of God's way; our extreme egocentricity, which makes us think we are as good as God, and which results in our refusing really to trust God, but instead, holding onto our lives and trying to save them and give them their fullest meaning and vitality, even though we know that, ultimately, we can't. It is this opposition of our will to God's which must be banished, before God can have His way with us and come into us; and it is to this preoccupation with self that we must die.
If we do so, then there becomes room for something or Someone else. Then if we commit ourselves to Christ, we are no longer alone. He does come in; and he can come in, even at Christmas time.
Having entrusted our life into God's Hands, we are freed to be concerned for others, to act without asking what we will get out of it, and to do what is needed, without asking whether we will get hurt. In short, by dying to self we are freed, for the first time, to bear much fruit.
4 Adv (C)
"Magnificat"
(Luke 1:39-55)

Before considering the important part of the sermon, let's take a look at today's Gospel lesson and ask, What's wrong with this picture? What takes place in our Gospel story that does not reflect the way things usually happen in the world?
If I were teaching a class, I would now stop talking, and there would be a long period of silence, while you look through the biblical text on your bulletin insert, to try to find something unusual. But to ensure that this sermon ends before it's time for Sunday School to begin, I'll save some time by pointing out that it is highly unusual for two pregnant women to meet and for one to say to the other, "You're going to be the mother of someone whom I'll be calling 'Lord.'" Normally, Elizabeth--or anyone else--would not know such a thing in advance. Right? The reference is to Jesus, of course. Elizabeth calls him "Lord," and that fact provides a clue to what is going on here that you, as an average person-in-the-pew, would not even begin to imagine. At least, I didn't, until I went to seminary.
You see, among the Jews of Jesus' day, Jesus was called "Master," or "Rabbi," or "Rabboni." He wasn't called "Lord." "Lord" was a title used by Greeks, and it was a popular title applied to Jesus when Christianity spread out of Palestine into Greek-speaking areas. But it wasn't a title that people who actually knew Jesus called him. So when you see Jesus being called "Lord" in the Gospels, that is a clue that that passage reflects the practices of the early Christian Church and does not come from Jesus's own time. (In case you didn't realize it, the Gospels were not written by people who took notes while the events of Jesus' life were taking place. For better or worse, the Bible was developed through a much more complicated process).
A second piece of the puzzle: Elizabeth was to be the mother of John the Baptist. After Jesus was baptized, he went on a mission baptizing people himself; and John's disciples got very jealous, because more people were following Jesus than John. How do we know? It says so right in the Bible. In John 3:26, John the Bapti