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"Of People Pleasing, Expectations, and True Healing"
Mark 1: 40-45
Psalm 30
How many of us sitting in the sanctuary this morning tend to be what are called “people pleasers”
In a nutshell, those who are people pleasers just want folks to be happy with them. And how do they
do that? Most people pleasers will bend themselves into pretzels in order to meet the desires, the
wishes, and the expectations of others. While people pleasers generally avoid conflict by giving in to
others, they usually exhaust themselves in the process, leading to inner-conflict and self-doubt.
The more familiar we become with the gospel accounts of Jesus’ life, the more we realize that Jesus
was no people pleaser. That’s not to say that Jesus didn’t care about other’s wishes, desires and
expectations. He did. He simply didn’t allow Himself to be controlled by them. Jesus didn’t make the
agendas of others His own. So it was that time and again, Jesus fell short of meeting people’s expectations.
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"Advice on Dealing with Anger"
Ephesians 4:26-27, 31-32
Mark 11:11-12, 15-19
“How could you do that!?!” Cindy screeched at her husband Al. “You make me furious!” With that, Cindy slammed the kitchen cabinet door with such force that all the spice jars jumped out of the rack on the side of the cabinet and crashed into the sink. Without so much as a word, Al did one of those quiet storm things out of the kitchen. He went straightaway to his shed where he began working on his lawn tractor. Like most guys, Al often released his anger through physical exertion. That made him a standout linebacker in high school, and a very productive mechanic in his adult life. Meanwhile, Cindy remained in the kitchen simmering her beef stew, and simmering her feelings. Al’s anger dissipated. Feeling guilty, and being the Christian woman she was, Cindy changed the label for her emotions from anger to hurt.
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"The Bread of Life"
John 6: 35-37, 48-60,66
Isaiah 55: 1-5
In the Gospel according to John, we find what are commonly called the seven “I am” sayings;
in the Greek language, “ego emi.” According to John’s witness, Jesus often used metaphors to
clarify His identity and the nature of His mission. For example, Jesus once made this claim about
Himself: “Ego emi (I am) ha poimen ha kalos (the good shepherd).” Metaphorically, we are like
lost sheep. One element of Jesus’ mission – as He understood it – was to find us and lead us back
into God’s fold. Centuries earlier, a king named David recognized – and perhaps even had some
divine foresight -- that “The Lord is my shepherd….. he leads me in right paths for his name’s
sake.” Jesus said, “I am.”
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"The Joseph Blessing"
Genesis 39: 1-6a
Psalm 105: 16-22
There are two famous Joseph’s in the Bible. The Joseph folks are most familiar with is the New
Testament Joseph; carpenter in Nazareth; husband of Mary and earthly father of Jesus. The other
famous if less familiar Joseph is a character we meet in the very first book of the Old Testament.
Before we read our lead text from Genesis, let’s spend a few minutes getting to know this Joseph.
He was born the eleventh son of Jacob, and the first born son to Jacob’s second wife Rachel,
whom Jacob deeply loved. The boy Joseph was the apple of Jacob’s eye, and was surely raised as
such. His ten older brothers were born to Jacob’s first wife Leah, to Leah’s maiden Zilpah, and to
Rachel’s maiden Bilhah. Needless to say, men of that era were not monogamous. In a manner of
speaking, they liked to spread their seed around.
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"Of Dukie, Stillwagon, and Restoration"
Romans 12:14-21
Matthew 18:15-22
The few verses we’re going to focus our attention on this morning are part of a larger body of Jesus’
teaching about the kingdom of God. This discourse is prompted by a question from His disciples:
“Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?”
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"In the Details"
Titus 3:4-8a
Luke 3:15-22
One day when Cory was just three, his grandma came over to babysit him. Cory’s parents
were going to be gone a few hours, so his mom set out some of Cory’s favorite DVD’s. Grand-
ma was all for it as there was a limit as to how much time she could spend on the floor playing
with Cory’s trucks and dinosaurs. There was only one problem. Grandma was not very tech
savvy, and it required three different remote controls to watch a movie; one for the TV, one for
the surround sound receiver, and another for the DVD player. She expressed her concern: “I
don’t think I can remember which buttons to push. Maybe you’d better write it down for me.”
Mom just laughed and reassured her, “Don’t worry about it. Cory knows which buttons to push.”
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"Arise, Shine: For Your Light Has Come!"
Isaiah 60: 1-6
1 Peter 2: 9-10
There was once a pastor of a small country church in South Carolina who was known as one
of the thriftiest persons in Aiken County. In order to keep the air conditioning bills down in the
summer, every night, the good parson would walk around the sanctuary opening the windows to
the cooler evening air. Then each morning, he would just as methodically close them before the
morning sun began to beat down on the building. In fact, he was so thrifty that he didn’t want to
waste electricity switching on the lights for his nightly ritual. He had become pretty good at navigating
in the dark from window to window. But sometimes, he would manage to bump into a massive oak table
which sat at the rear of the sanctuary. Have you ever known one of those high-energy people who
always move fast, almost like a bee buzzing from place to place? That’s how
the good pastor walked, even in the pitch dark. So after banging into that oak table at excess of
four miles an hour, he’d be left with a Charley-horse or a wicked stubbed toe. As he limped or
walked stiffly around the town of Graniteville, South Carolina, everyone knew that the pastor was
trying to save the church money, again.
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"Angels We Have Heard High and Low"
Isaiah 63:7-9
Hebrews 13:1-2, Matthew 1:20-21, 2:13-15, 19-23
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"The Grinch Failed" ( A Christmas Meditation)
Luke 2: 1-14
For many of us – young and old alike – one of our favorite stories of the season is “How the
Grinch Stole Christmas.” Many of us have read this book to our kids and grandkids; watched the
animated version on TV with them; even stomached the 2001 Universal production starring Jim
Carrey. In this Christmas story, the old Grinch is annoyed by the merriment of the Who-ville
townspeople as they celebrate Christmas. According to Dr. Seuss, the Grinch’s heart was “two
sizes too small.” Grinch hated the joy, the decorations, and most of all, the noise of their Christ-
mas morning festivities.