There's a thing that we do in all cultures and in all languages that is the same. It is so common that we almost don't even think of the significance of it. For a parent it's a privilege, for children, an expression of preciousness, for organizations, an expression of identity? what I'm talking about is that we name children, corporations and pets and sometimes even cars, trucks and various kinds of machines. You've certainly done that, in fact most of us in this room have probably named someone or something. I once had a 1966 Chev pick up that I named ?Patches?, for obvious reasons. Names have meaning don't they, it's unlikely that you?ll call a pure white dog , 'spot?. Peoples names have meaning too, though it's not always that clear. For instance the name ?Karen? means ?Pure?, the name 'marcia? means ?Brave?, the name ?Jeffrey? means ?Gift of Peace?. It's interesting to note that the world's most favorite name for a baby boy has not changed since 1999, and the most favorite name for a girl has not changed since 1996? Jacob and Emily.
Okay, so why all this talk about names, what does this have to do with Palm Sunday? Well if you have a name, and that name not only means something, it in a sense represents you, that is your reputation is attached to your name, then is this also true for . . .
Rev. Spence Laycock
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Robert Louis Stevenson once described a storm that caught a vessel off a rocky coast and threatened to drive it and its passengers to destruction. In the midst of the terror, one daring man, contrary to orders, went to the deck, made his way to the bridge and there saw the steersman, tied tightly with rope to a post right in front of the ships wheel. Holding the wheel unwaveringly, inch by inch he was turning the ship out to sea. The pilot glanced over at his unexpected visitor and smiled. This daring passenger then went below and gave out a call to his fellow passengers: ?I have seen the face of the pilot, and he smiled. All is well.?
What is it that will bring comfort to you, here, this morning? You saw the memorial services that sought to console the soul of the nation this week, you hear of the debate about whether we as a country should re-define marriage and you feel the country tremble at the unknown consequence of such short sightedness. Let me ask you, can you see the face of the Pilot of your soul, can you see His smile of assurance, do you see His hand set firmly to the wheel, do you see what holds Him in place to . . .
What is it that will bring comfort to you, here, this morning? You saw the memorial services that sought to console the soul of the nation this week, you hear of the debate about whether we as a country should re-define marriage and you feel the country tremble at the unknown consequence of such short sightedness. Let me ask you, can you see the face of the Pilot of your soul, can you see His smile of assurance, do you see His hand set firmly to the wheel, do you see what holds Him in place to . . .
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How twisted man can be in following some of the most basic plans of God for life. Take marriage for example, there are endless examples of man missing the point and somehow ending up with absurdity. The Brahmans of southern India have traditionally prohibited a younger brother from marrying before an elder brother. So when a suitable bride can't be found for the senior brother, he may be ceremonially married to a tree, leaving the younger brother free to take a wife. An old Kentucky law states that a wife can't move the furniture in the house without her husband's permission. But then a man in Kentucky has restrictions too: he can't legally marry his wife's grandmother. Today, in the state of New Hampshire , the legal age for marriage for females is 13, for males 14. And in Canada we are just opening up the can of debate that seeks to vaporize the traditional meaning of marriage with such neutral language that it would be tantamount to taking your hands off the steering wheel while driving in the mountains so that the car can be free in where it wants to go. It not only misses the design but it invites disaster.
But marriage has not always been so, you can remember back to a wedding that had great significance for you, perhaps it was your wedding. The groom, the bride, the wedding guests, the great celebration, the wonder of . . .
But marriage has not always been so, you can remember back to a wedding that had great significance for you, perhaps it was your wedding. The groom, the bride, the wedding guests, the great celebration, the wonder of . . .
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One of the most memorable experiences I ever had was in helping to build a small shed. There was nothing impressive about the size of it, just a 10 by 12 shed. It was going to house a generator so we also had to put some concrete footings in and put a concrete floor in it. What made this experience so memorable was that it was done in 35 degree heat and 90% humidity. The thing is, your body can't cool itself down, the sweat won't evaporate fast enough because the humidity is too high, so what does your body do?it produces more sweat. There is nothing like tropical sweat, it just pours out of you like a leaky radiator. Sweat is really a remarkable thing isn't it, most of you have taken great pains to not sweat, here, this morning, and we're happy you did! It's even in our idioms of speech, if something is not a bother to me, I say , ?No sweat, I can do that.? I got to thinking about this as I read a small pamphlet called, 'the Lord's Work in the Lord's Way?, by K.P.Yohannan. In it he said that 'sweat signifies man's effort, sweat is the result of the curse that sin brought?. You remember the words of Genesis 3:19, ??in the sweat of your face you shall eat your bread.? What he meant was that things were going to get harder for all people because of sin. Though work is a good thing, there are . . .
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There is a great war that has been declared upon a natural process, a process that is seen in almost every aspect of life. The war that has been declared can be both righteous and vain; it has desires that are both constructive and deceptive. The great war that I speak of is the war we wage against corrosion. Almost everything is subject to corrosion. Wood is subject to decay, as are metal, stone and flesh. Appearances are subject to decay and it is here that our war becomes an exercise in vanity. Morals, values and even faith are subject to decay; our war is an act of righteousness in this area. The corrosion of our values regarding the traditional view of marriage, which in part is a political pawn and in part is the reaction of a post modern world rejecting anything that was as bad, startles us with an awareness of the extent to which decay can go. When you think about it, we have been fighting the corrosion of sin in one form or another since the Garden of Eden.
When I was a kid growing up in the 1950's I remember a car that Ford developed called the Rambler. One of the distinct properties of the Rambler was that they showed how they repeatedly dipped the entire body of the car into a great vat of . . .