Merge pull request #80 from zo0o0ot/master

Adds sermons 0117 and 0118

content/sermons/an-evening-with-john-the-baptist-1979-0118.md

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+---
+title: "An Evening With John the Baptist"
+date: 2023-12-14T02:54:41Z
+categories: ["sermons"]
+tags: ["1979", "advent", "john-the-baptist", "St-Stephen-Lutheran-Church-Wausau-WI"]
+rcl_year: "B"
+rcl_season: "Advent"
+sermon_date: 1979-12-06
+sermon_scan: true
+sermon_text: false
+sermon_audio: false
+thumbnail: "/images/thumbs/Steve-JohnTheBaptist-Headshot.png"
+sermon_number: "0118"
+---
+
+_This sermon is a bit of an oddity. It was from December of 1979 and was performed during a midweek Advent service. Pastor Steve dressed up as John the Baptist and gave his sermon as if he had traveled through time to Wausau in 1979. The service is called "An evening with John the Baptist"._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+_The gospel text of Mark 1 corresponds to the [Second Sunday of Advent, Year B](https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=49) in the Revised Common Lectionary. Included is a copy of the bulletin from that day, a picture of Pastor Steve dressed as John the Baptist, as well as John the Baptist's sermon notes. It seems that John the Baptist preferred to write in pencil._
+
+**An evening with John the Baptist - 2 Advent B - 12/6/1979**
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0118/Advent-AnEveningWithJohnTheBaptist-12-6-1979-bulletin-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0118/Steve075.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0118/Advent-AnEveningWithJohnTheBaptist-12-6-1979-p0001-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0118/Advent-AnEveningWithJohnTheBaptist-12-6-1979-p0002-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+
+
+

content/sermons/the-gift-of-change-1987-0117.md

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+---
+title: "The Gift of Change"
+date: 2023-12-07T01:50:03Z
+categories: ["sermons"]
+tags: ["1987", "advent", "orval-hobart-mowrer", "wallace-ford", "sinaholics"]
+rcl_year: "B"
+rcl_season: "Advent"
+sermon_date: 1987-12-06
+sermon_scan: true
+sermon_text: true
+sermon_audio: false
+thumbnail: "/images/sermons/0117/2Advent-12-6-1987-p0001-Large.jpg"
+sermon_number: "0117"
+---
+
+_Here is a printed and highlighed Advent sermon from 1987. There is a bunch of yellow highlighting as well as a few revisions in blank ink. There appears to be an adapted Scandanavian joke about underwear near the beginning of the sermon. There is a reference to the "new" green Lutheran Book of Worship, compared to the older versions._
+
+<!--more-->
+
+_The gospel text of Mark 1 corresponds to the [Second Sunday of Advent, Year B](https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/texts.php?id=49) in the Revised Common Lectionary. There is a reference to a psychologist named Robert Mowrer, but I think that he is referring to [Orval Hobart Mowrer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orval_Hobart_Mowrer). There is also a reference to [Wallace Ford](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallace_Ford). I used Google Docs OCR to obtain the text of this sermon._
+
+**The Gift of Change - 2 Advent B - 12/6/1987**
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0117/2Advent-12-6-1987-p0001-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+{{< figure src="/images/sermons/0117/2Advent-12-6-1987-p0002-Large.jpg" width="1080" >}}
+
+"THE GIFT OF CHANGE"
+
+2 Advent
+
+(12/6/87)
+
+Mk.1:4 "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness, preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
+us.
+
+Just think how often we curse change. Perhaps it's because we seem to have so much of it and the changes today come too fast and too often for Sometimes it seems we can't stand one more change in our lives. And sometimes we don't like changes because they are just plain inconvenient for us. We have learned to manage things a certain way, and then a change comes along and we have to do things differently...and it feels like teaching an old dog to do new tricks. Not liking to learn new things is probably the reason that congregations don't like new hymnals. New hymnals make us learn new songs, new worship forms, new ways. And new hymnals make us give up us give up some old things we have treasured, that were familiar and comfortable. It's hard to believe that as we look at these 'new' green books in front of us that they've been in these pews for nine years this month. And as hard as they might be for some people to get used to, they will be treasures that we won't want to let go of in another ten or fifteen years when another worship book comes along.
+
+No, we just don't like change---much of it just seems senseless to us. We wonder how much difference some changes are going to make in the end. It's like the old good news/bad news story of the early days of our country when the commander of the fort announced to his men after a long tough winter: "Men, I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that we're going to have a change of underwear." (The men cheered). "The bad news is that Smith will change with Anderson and O' Brien will change with Schultz... Some changes seem like that to us...it's a change all right, but how much better off are we for it? Why change at all?
+
+Realizing our feelings about change, I still want to talk this Advent about change as a gift. That's how change is pictured in the Gospels. Change is what John the Baptist offered the people and it is what the Word of God offers us today. When Mark says that John appeared in the wilderness and preached a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins, that's just what is being described: a call for change. John the Baptist called for repentance, for a turning around of life. And that change is a gift from God. It is a gift because without that change called repentance we are locked in' 'locked in' to ourselves, our deadly habits and ways. A prominent Christian psychologist, Robert Mowrer, says that we cannot grow or change unless we acknowledge our wrong, our sin.
+
+Those who have struggled with the disease of alcoholism know how true Mowrer's words are---the famous first step in AA is to admit one's powerlessness over alcohol and that one's life has become unmanageable. Without that first step, there can be no healing, no gift of change. and I might not like to think of ourselves in these terms, but we too have a deadly disease; we may not be alcoholics, but we are all 'sinaholics'. We are powerless to deal with this problem of sin on our own. Oh, we can use our willpower to avoid this or do that, but the real root sin of trying to live as though we were God---that we all fall prey to. We have all tried at times to organize life around me, to put ourselves at the center and God somewhere else. This is hard to admit but we've all done it. After all, we don't see ourselves as bad people. It may not even be that we have tried to harm ourselves or others---but our sin is there just the same. It often shows itself in small, subtle ways. It is the little bit of gossip, our failure to notice another person's need, our callous comment at the checkout counter when we were in a hurry, our prejudice, a jealous moment. The list could go on forever, because of the subtle ways we like to keep ourselves at the center of life and God somewhere on the edge.
+
+But life doesn't need to go on that way, because God offers us the gift of change. Each day we have the opportunity, as Luther says, "to drown our sinful self and let a new self come forward to live with Christ in truth and purity". The call to repentance that we hear in a new way this Advent season is a reminder of the gift of change, the gift of new life offered to us in Jesus Christ. For some of us, the repentance is gradual and ongoing--for others it may be sudden and dramatic. For all of us, repentance and change are a gift.
+
+Wallace Ford tells a powerful story of how the gift of change came to one person, but was missed by so many others. It can teach us a lesson about becoming deaf to the call for repentance. Listen. 'Once upon a time there was a land in which the whole community lived under one big glass dome. For generations families had been born, lived and died under the dome. And the story was passed on from generation to generation that if anyone ever stepped outside the dome, that person would surely die.
+
+Because they were so sure that this was true, that they made a law that the punishment for a terrible crime would be death by expulsion from the dome. One day, a man from the community committed that terrible crime. The punishment was swift--the whole community took him to the edge of the dome and pushed him out into the world beyond. Then they all pressed their noses against the glass wall to watch him die.
+
+Well, the man lay on the ground for a while, face down, shivering in the terror of death. As everyone watched through the glass, he slowly got up, and looked around. In a few minutes he was not only walking around in the green meadows, but dancing and singing "Come out and dance with me!" The people were disturbed--they didn't know how to handle this After a bit of discussion, they got buckets of paint and brushes. They
+began at the bottom of the glass wall and painted as high as they could reach so that no one could see the dancing man. Then they breathed a sigh of relief and went back to life as usual.
+
+God, like that dancing man, calls us out of our self-centered lives to receive the gift of change. In grace and love he calls us out of our glass prison of sin to dance and sing in a new life. We have an invitation to repent, to let God's love change us. It's risky business. It means giving up some of our own ways. Some of us, like the people with the paint and brushes, don't want the gift that John the Baptist offers. We don't quite know how to handle it. But to those who would receive him, who believe on his name, God gives power to become children of God'.
+
+Let's celebrate the gift of change today. The gift of change in the opportunity to welcome new members...the gift of change opened up in our confession of sin and receiving of Christ's presence in Word and Sacrament...the gift of change as we let God be at the center of our lives. Let's accept that gift as we turn again to Christ.
+
+The peace of God which passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.
+