Invitation to pastors for Easter: Post your sermons

Ya there you go Howard I will have to book mark this and check it out. Now this is something worth reading.....

Can't wait

I am neither pastor nor priest. I simply offer this.

<b>The War Prayer</b>
<i>by Mark Twain</i>

It was a time of great and exalting excitement. The country was up in arms, the war was on, in every breast burned the holy fire of patriotism; the drums were beating, the bands playing, the toy pistols popping, the bunched firecrackers hissing and spluttering; on every hand and far down the receding and fading spread of roofs and balconies a fluttering wilderness of flags flashed in the sun; daily the young volunteers marched down the wide avenue gay and fine in their new uniforms, the proud fathers and mothers and sisters and sweethearts cheering them with voices choked with happy emotion as they swung by; nightly the packed mass meetings listened, panting, to patriot oratory which stirred the deepest deeps of their hearts, and which they interrupted at briefest intervals with cyclones of applause, the tears running down their cheeks the while; in the churches the pastors preached devotion to flag and country, and invoked the God of Battles beseeching His aid in our good cause in outpourings of fervid eloquence which moved every listener. It was indeed a glad and gracious time, and the half dozen rash spirits that ventured to disapprove of the war and cast a doubt upon its righteousness straightway got such a stern and angry warning that for their personal safety's sake they quickly shrank out of sight and offended no more in that way.

Sunday morning came -- next day the battalions would leave for the front; the church was filled; the volunteers were there, their young faces alight with martial dreams -- visions of the stern advance, the gathering momentum, the rushing charge, the flashing sabers, the flight of the foe, the tumult, the enveloping smoke, the fierce pursuit, the surrender! Then home from the war, bronzed heroes, welcomed, adored, submerged in golden seas of glory! With the volunteers sat their dear ones, proud, happy, and envied by the neighbors and friends who had no sons and brothers to send forth to the field of honor, there to win for the flag, or, failing, die the noblest of noble deaths. The service proceeded; a war chapter from the Old Testament was read; the first prayer was said; it was followed by an organ burst that shook the building, and with one impulse the house rose, with glowing eyes and beating hearts, and poured out that tremendous invocation

*God the all-terrible! Thou who ordainest! Thunder thy clarion and lightning thy sword!*

Then came the "long" prayer. None could remember the like of it for passionate pleading and moving and beautiful language. The burden of its supplication was, that an ever-merciful and benignant Father of us all would watch over our noble young soldiers, and aid, comfort, and encourage them in their patriotic work; bless them, shield them in the day of battle and the hour of peril, bear them in His mighty hand, make them strong and confident, invincible in the bloody onset; help them to crush the foe, grant to them and to their flag and country imperishable honor and glory --

An aged stranger entered and moved with slow and noiseless step up the main aisle, his eyes fixed upon the minister, his long body clothed in a robe that reached to his feet, his head bare, his white hair descending in a frothy cataract to his shoulders, his seamy face unnaturally pale, pale even to ghastliness. With all eyes following him and wondering, he made his silent way; without pausing, he ascended to the preacher's side and stood there waiting. With shut lids the preacher, unconscious of his presence, continued with his moving prayer, and at last finished it with the words, uttered in fervent appeal, "Bless our arms, grant us the victory, O Lord our God, Father and Protector of our land and flag!"

The stranger touched his arm, motioned him to step aside -- which the startled minister did -- and took his place. During some moments he surveyed the spellbound audience with solemn eyes, in which burned an uncanny light; then in a deep voice he said:

"I come from the Throne -- bearing a message from Almighty God!" The words smote the house with a shock; if the stranger perceived it he gave no attention. "He has heard the prayer of His servant your shepherd, and will grant it if such shall be your desire after I, His messenger, shall have explained to you its import -- that is to say, its full import. For it is like unto many of the prayers of men, in that it asks for more than he who utters it is aware of -- except he pause and think.

"God's servant and yours has prayed his prayer. Has he paused and taken thought? Is it one prayer? No, it is two -- one uttered, the other not. Both have reached the ear of Him Who heareth all supplications, the spoken and the unspoken. Ponder this -- keep it in mind. <b>If you would beseech a blessing upon yourself, beware! lest without intent you invoke a curse upon a neighbor at the same time.</b> If you pray for the blessing of rain upon your crop which needs it, by that act you are possibly praying for a curse upon some neighbor's crop which may not need rain and can be injured by it.

"You have heard your servant's prayer -- the uttered part of it. I am commissioned of God to put into words the other part of it -- that part which the pastor -- and also you in your hearts -- fervently prayed silently. And ignorantly and unthinkingly? God grant that it was so! You heard these words: 'Grant us the victory, O Lord our God!' That is sufficient. the *whole* of the uttered prayer is compact into those pregnant words. Elaborations were not necessary. When you have prayed for victory you have prayed for many unmentioned results which follow victory--*must* follow it, cannot help but follow it. Upon the listening spirit of God fell also the unspoken part of the prayer. He commandeth me to put it into words. Listen!

"O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle -- be Thou near them! With them -- in spirit -- we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe. O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it -- for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet! We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is the ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen.

(*After a pause.*) "Ye have prayed it; if ye still desire it, speak! The messenger of the Most High waits!"

It was believed afterward that the man was a lunatic, because there was no sense in what he said.

Twain apparently dictated it around 1904-05; it was rejected by his publisher, and was found after his death among his unpublished manuscripts. It was first published in 1923 in Albert Bigelow Paine's anthology, Europe and Elsewhere.

The story is in response to a particular war, namely the Philippine-American War of 1899-1902, which Twain opposed. See Jim Zwick's page "Mark Twain on the Philippines" for more of Twain's writings on the subject.

Spring Forth
Mark 16:1-8 Isaiah 42:1-9
Easter Sunrise APR 12 2009

Community Service at South Byron United Methodist Church, with sermon by Rev. James Renfrew of the Byron Presbyterian Church

God, is this your son Jesus hanging on the cross? The one who healed the sick, who fed the hungry, who taught us how to live in your peace? Here he is dead on the cross; and with his death all that is good dies and our hopes and dreams are shattered. What good is the good that he taught and lived if he dies so quickly at the hands of evil people?
It’s like looking on the ground seeing a favorite glass bowl or plate smashed on the ground, smashed into a million pieces – there’s no way that it can ever be fixed. That’s what the cross was meant to make us feel, not only to kill Jesus, but to defeat his friends and followers forever. Why did this happen? How could this happen? God, we want an answer from you.
But your answer, when we first hear it, makes no sense at all. Because we are used to stories in which the good guys always win. Even when things look the most bleak the cavalry comes charging over the hill to save the day. Somehow, James Bond defeats the bad guys at the last minute, even when he’s handcuffed and locked in a room and the bomb is seconds away from exploding. I was actually reading a science fiction story yesterday where the good guy, nearly totally defeated with all of his friends lying dead on the ground after a savage attack from some real bad guys, learns to turn the clock back to the moment when he made the wrong choice several days before, and this time makes the right choice to save the day. I wish I could do that!
We’re used to stories like that, but your story, God, makes no sense at all. The good guy, Jesus, loses, dies on the cross, ridiculed by his enemies, and his friends are completely humiliated and running for the hills scared out of their wits. Even with utter defeat before our eyes, you tell us that a new world has begun. In a nutshell, this is faith, not the full understanding yet, just the first glimpse of what God is able to do. Death does not get the last word. The amazing power of Christian faith is that the cross that was meant to defeat Jesus and kill off all of our dreams has, instead, become a living hope. It’s not just the cross long ago in Jerusalem, it’s all the crosses that fill our world, each of those crosses a sign of resurrection to come. So each cross that we see, each cross under whose shadow we live and labor, each cross that we bear, is a sure sign that God's new world of forgiveness, peace and justice is only beginning. The most amazing power of the resurrection is that God’s new world is only just beginning … and it is beginning in you!
Here, at the site of an accident, where a child awaits rescue. This is where your new world begins. Here, at a hospital bed, where someone is terribly sick and a family is afraid. This is where your new world begins. Here in the unemployment office, where the jobless wait for an appointment in a troubled economy. This is where your new world begins. Here in the jail, where windows are few. This is where your new world begins. Here, in the dust of Darfur, where refugees mourn for homes they have lost. This is where your new world begins. Here in Afghanistan or Iraq with bullets and bombs everywhere. This is where your new world begins. Here, in our own cities and towns, where families struggle with poverty, addiction, and violence. This is where your new world begins. Here in our churches, where the confused, the lost, the hopeless seek salvation. This is where your new world begins. Here, in this world, where death tries to have the last word. This is where your new world begins.
The good news has the most meaning when the bad news seems unbeatable. The good news begins to take form in the darkest, most dreadful places. Like that cemetery long ago, with the smell of death still in the air, when the women approached the entrance to the tomb where Jesus’ body had been placed. But the stone has been pushed back and the tomb is empty. They look inside. A new world begins, your new world begins.
In Matthew’s version of the story, the women find Jesus in the garden and later on a mountain in Galilee Jesus offers that powerful resurrection message, “Go, then, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit”. Or Luke’s Gospel, where the disciples meet a stranger on the road to Emmaus, and when they stop and break bread for their meal their eyes are opened and they recognize Jesus. Or in John’s Gospel where the frightened disciples are in a locked room and Jesus finds them there, showing the holes in his hands and side, and inviting those disciples to believe.
In Mark’s version of the Easter story the women enter the tomb and Jesus’ body is not there. End of story. We wish that Mark had more to say about this. In Mark’s Gospel we never meet Jesus, we’re just left with that empty tomb.
But this is the version I like the most. The reason is that we have to supply the ending ourselves. It means that we have to find the risen Christ for ourselves. We have to look for him in our world. Not in the pages of an ancient book, but right here, in this world where we live. Our faith cannot rest upon stories and rumors, we have to find him for ourselves. Mark’s version does not allow us to be spectators. For the story to make sense, for it to matter, we have to get involved with it, we have to look for the risen Christ ourselves.
In the reading from Isaiah the prophet we hear powerful words reminding us that we should look for him those places where his work is already being done, in those places where the Spirit is alive, where his justice is practiced, where eyes are opening, where those overwhelmed by darkness are being brought into light. “Spring forth” is the phrase that I noticed as I studied Isaiah this past week, “Spring forth”. And this means we head out the doors of the church this morning in a different way than usual, we step out into the world with a hope that will not be defeated.
As we spring forth from this place we will continue to see many, many crosses in the world around us, powerful crosses that have been erected to discourage us and defeat us, but today we laugh and smile when we see them, for now we know the true power of God. If God could move the stone way from the entrance to the tomb, imagine what God can do in your life. Spring forth!