Ship of Fools: Memorable Messages

Thread: Memorable Messages Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

We sometimes hear a great sermon and think we must remember that, but mostly it vanishes before we get home. And who said it’s often the children’s talk that sticks in your mind?

However, there were moments that I still remember as eye-openers, some from my distant youth.

Leslie Weatherhead talking, with his arms spread wide, of ‘atonement’ as ‘at-one-ment’

The preacher at a communion service at Knock Presbyterian, also in the fifties, noting that Jesus blessing the bread and the wine at the Last Supper was doing what he normally did when they ate together, though with different words.(Of course, this was the experience of the disciples at Emmaeus.)

Our minister a few years ago now with photos of a man with a severely disabled child and the man’s trust that his daughter was ‘made in the image of God’.

And a visiting minister arranging four chairs in front of the congregation to represent his Morris Mini, taking the driver’s seat, and pointing out that Faith had brought him there on his journey, Hope lay ahead, and Love travelled with him.

Anyone with special memories to share?

GG

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

hosting/

I think this is Heaven territory, so I'm moving it there now.

/hosting

Posted by venbede (# 16669) on :

I remember Gonville ffrench Beytagh, the Dean of Johannesberg who had been imprisoned by the Apartheid regime, preaching and saying "God so loved the world. It doesn't say he loved the church. God must get as fed up with the church as I do." (Gonville was an undoubted Anglo Catholic - he was not anti-church in a protestant sense.)

And the parish sermon beginning "Today the church presents for our consideration the parable of the wise and foolish bridesmaids. (Pause.) Humph. They were virgins in my day."

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :

Not so much inspiring as curious. I went with my cousin to a Brethern meeting sometime in the late 60s. The preacher was an elderly man with an odd way of speaking - breaking long words into clearly ennuciated syllables. So we had 'the arc-ane-gel Gab-rye-el' and 'de-vine in-spire-ay-shun'.

Years later, reading up on Victorian threatre, I discovered this was a technique adopted by actors - and, presumably preachers - in pre-amplification days in order to send their words to the back of large spaces.

So I had heard something which connected back to the days of Irving and Spurgeon.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

That preacher would have done well at a local chapel here, built in the 1950s and with a terrible echo. If I preach there I have to choose my words and enunciate very carefully (I usually talk too fast)!

[ 14. August 2016, 08:05: Message edited by: Baptist Trainfan ]

Posted by Ariel (# 58) on :

One memorable moment in a lengthy sermon was when the priest had been recounting a tale of someone who had gone out and done something extremely worthy and heroic, like saving lives on a battlefield, then paused and said that we weren't all called to be on the front line and not everybody was cut out for it. He went on to make the point that we all serve God in different ways according to our abilities.

It was a perfectly obvious point that hadn't occurred to me before and came as quite a relief: it was all right to be yourself and do your own thing and not to feel guilty that you weren't striving to do something heroic. Sometimes the small things turn out to be essential.

(As I've got older I realize there are many acts of unseen and unsung heroism in daily life, which often go unrecognized by anyone except the angels.)

[ 14. August 2016, 08:22: Message edited by: Ariel ]

Posted by Galloping Granny (# 13814) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Firenze:
Not so much inspiring as curious. I went with my cousin to a Brethern meeting sometime in the late 60s. The preacher was an elderly man with an odd way of speaking - breaking long words into clearly ennuciated syllables. So we had 'the arc-ane-gel Gab-rye-el' and 'de-vine in-spire-ay-shun'.

Years later, reading up on Victorian threatre, I discovered this was a technique adopted by actors - and, presumably preachers - in pre-amplification days in order to send their words to the back of large spaces.

So I had heard something which connected back to the days of Irving and Spurgeon.

It is worth considering that in preaching out-of-doors to a large gathering, Jesus probably had to project his voice in ways that might sound harsh in some of our church buildings.

GG

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :

GG - are you suggesting that Jesus didn't really bless the cheesemakers?

Posted by Teekeey Misha (# 18604) on :

Many moons ago (1989 maybe?), I heard a sermon from the Archdeacon of Stow and Lindsey (at that time Ven Christopher Laurence) which ended with a rhetorical conversation arguing that we should stand up for Gospel teachings. It went more or less:

God: You must stand up for what you know is Truth.

We: But if I do that, they'll condemn me; I'll be slandered - I'll be slaughtered - I'll be crucified! And then what?

[Long pause...]

God: Resurrection, perhaps?

I can still remember the feeling of the hairs rising on the back of my neck during the pause and the thought passing through the mind of this (then) teenager when he delivered the denouement... "F**king hell, that was good!"

Posted by St. Gwladys (# 14504) on :

A couple of things from a previous church - the elderly preacher who preached on Joel - the greater locus -tss and the lesser locuss -t's and the locuss -t swarm. At that time, we had wooden swing back pews, and one of his sons reckoned that he had had to bite the back of the pew in front to keep from laughing.
Also in that church, but in a different league - the visiting preacher preaching on the tax collector and the Pharisee, who started his sermon by telling us that when he was in school, he had fallen in love with a girl with ginger hair and glasses, who was known as Ginger Foureyes. He went on to say that the Pharisee must have had glasses because he had 4 "I"s...

Posted by Tree Bee (# 4033) on :

A well loved rector opened my eyes regarding the ten commandments. He said they were natural laws which if broken would have an inevitable negative outcome.
He illustrated this by asking us to imagine climbing the church tower and jumping off.
The law of gravity would ensure that we would be badly hurt.

Posted by jacobsen (# 14998) on :

Best wedding sermon ever:

The priest advised the young couple that friends, relations and everyone else would have lots of advice to give. "It didn't work for them, and it won't work for you, so ignore it."

Posted by basso (# 4228) on :

I was present when Archbishop Tutu preached at a seminary graduation in Berkeley.

I don't remember his words, but I do recall the electric feeling (the hairs on my arms stood up) as he spread his arms wide (such a small man!) to illustrate God's embrace.

I'm tingling recalling it now.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

Richard Hare, then Bishop of Pontefract, concluding a lively service with the closing words of the liturgy, "Go in peace, to love and serve the Lord", before adding "now let's make the very gates of Hell tremble..."

"In the name of Christ, amen", the congregation thundered - and it really did feel as if they did.

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