5th Sunday after Epiphany

Mark 1:29-39

Illustrations


 
They knew that no matter how much difficulty we are in, Jesus can handle it in His own way as illustrated by the following:

"A small boy was in a boat with his father. As he looked over the side, the water appeared dangerously deep. He asked his father, "Daddy, is the water over my head?" "Yes son, it is over your head, " his father said. Then after a pause, "Daddy, is the water over your head?" And the father replied,"Yes, son it is even over my head." After some thought, the boy then asked,"Daddy, is the water over God's head?" Now it was the father's turn to pause in thought. After a few moments he said reflectively, "No, my son, the water is not over God's head."

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Doing Your Best

This point of allowing Jesus to act in our lives can be illustrated in the following:

"In a textile factory where threads are woven into fabrics there is a sign above the machines:"If the treads become tangled, call the foreman." A new employee found the threads on her machine badly tangled. Frantically she tried to untangle them. The foreman came by and said, "Why didn't you call for me?" she replied, "I was just trying to do my best." Then, very pointedly, the foreman told her, "Doing your best includes calling the foreman."

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Healing, in the spirit of Christ, assumes many forms.

 

Roland Hayes, celebrated American tenor, was born in Curryville, Georgia, in 1887. He performed before thousands in America and Europe, giving command performances before George V of England and Queen Mother Maria Christina of Spain. In 1925 he was awarded the Spingarn medal for "most outstanding achievement among colored people." Accolades did not always come easy, however.

As a little boy, he heard an old Negro minister preach about Christ On trial before Pilate The preacher elaborated on Pilate's anger because of Christ's silence. "Why don't you say something . . . answer me . . . don't you know I have power?" The old preacher painted the picture vividly, adding, "Jesus never said a mumberlin'' word, not a mumberlin' word." The scene was riveted in Roland's mind.

Years later, at the peak of his fame, Roland Hayes was to perform before a Nazi audience in Berlin's Beethoven Hall. The audience resented the sight of a 'colored' intruding the Aryan culture. They hissed, stomped, and shouted insults. Resentments swelled within Hayes breast. Then he remembered the sermon of his boyhood: "He never said a mumberlin' word." He prayed for the spirit of Christ, took a deep breath, and proceeded to sing a song of Schubert's. The noise ceased and Hayes finished the concert to applause.

Healing, In the spirit of Christ, assumes many forms.

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More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.

 

Alfred Lord Tennyson

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Not in Control

In a newspaper interview, actress Diahann Carroll described what happened to her after her husband died in a tragic automobile accident. She said she was absolutely inconsolable. She screamed. She threw things. She cried. She wouldn't eat. She couldn't sleep She had to be given strong sedatives. But she told about how she came out of the experience in the weeks and months that followed, during which her life became completely transformed. The terrible frustration over her inability to control what had happened in her life began to disappear. And everything changed. the way she felt about herself and about others. When the reporter asked her to explain more fully how this change had come about, she replied, "The change in my life has all come about because I realize now that nothing in life is in your control. Nothing! When you accept that, you gain new strength." Then she added this telling sentence: "You pretend that you are in control but your heart knows better. "

"You pretend you are in control but your heart knows better." Listen to your heart and trust God. Let his power and love flow through you.

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Quiet Time

Being too busy for a "quiet time" with God will result in running out of spiritual stamina. Jesus' followers knew where to find him when he wasn't preaching and healing. They knew he was communing with his Father.

Henri Nouwen speaks of practicing a discipline of solitude without which it is impossible to live a spiritual life. "The discipline of solitude . . . is one of the most powerful disciplines in developing a prayer life. It is a simple, though not easy, way to free us from the slavery of our occupations and preoccupations and to begin to hear the voice that makes all things new." (Essay "An Invitation to the Spiritual Life," Leadership, Summer, 1981.)

Benjamin Franklin accredited his successful life to the discipline which he followed: He arose at 5 a.m. and spent the three hours until 8 a.m. praying, planning, personal grooming, and eating breakfast. Inspired by this quiet, meditative time he executed the remainder of the day in the same disciplined manner until he retired at 10 p.m. Among the virtues he mastered were three that the Bible would corroborate: Speaking only that which might benefit others, exercise sincerity in all dealing with others, and exercise humility by imitating Jesus.

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During World War II when London was being so devastatingly bombed by the Germans, many children were evacuated to safer locations in the British countryside, One of these children was Rosemary, a child about five. On her first evening in the country, Rosemary's hostess asked, "Do you say your prayers before going to bed, darling?" Rosemary said she did. "Well, then, kneel down and I'll listen as your mother does," the hostess said.

Rosemary knelt and repeated the usual "Now I lay me down to sleep,'' and then improvised a postscript of her own: "And, God, please protect Daddy and Mommy from those German bombs.

And, do, dear God, take good care o yourself - ; because if anything happens to you. we're sunk."

Yes, indeed, without him we'd be sunk But leave it to a child in simple faith to lay hold of this truth and make it clear to us.