what does the bible have to say about reflections re: christmas
I thought information technology would be interesting and appropriate today to look at some of Rex's best-known sermons and identify the Bible passages upon which they are based.
One of Rex's most artistic sermons is a clever mirror of the campaigner Paul'due south letters to the early church in New Attestation books like Galatians, Ephesians and Philippians. The sermon, "Paul's Letter to American Christians," imagines a fictional epistle written to 20th-century Americans. It begins in a familiar mode:
I, an campaigner of Jesus Christ by the will of God, to you who are in America, Grace be unto you lot, and peace from God our Father, through our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ….
As in the New Testament epistles, King's imagined letter from Paul contains both praise and criticism for its audition of believers. King imagines that Paul would critique not just America's racial inequality, but the un-Christian greed and materialism that define so much of American life.
"Loving Your Enemies" is a 1957 Male monarch sermon based on one of the most famous passages from the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew 5:43-48:
"You have heard that it was said, 'Honey your neighbor and hate your enemy.' Only I tell you lot, dear your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If yous love those who love you, what reward volition you get? Are not even the taxation collectors doing that? And if yous greet only your ain people, what are you doing more others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Begetter is perfect.
After discussing unlike Greek words for "beloved" used in the Bible, King reflects on Jesus' command:
…it's significant that he does not say, "Like your enemy." Similar is a sentimental something, an appreciating something. At that place are a lot of people that I discover it difficult to like. I don't similar what they do to me. I don't like what they say nigh me and other people. I don't like their attitudes. I don't like some of the things they're doing. I don't like them. Just Jesus says love them. And dearest is greater than similar. Love is understanding, redemptive goodwill for all men, so that you love everybody, because God loves them. Y'all refuse to practise anything that will defeat an individual, considering you lot have agape in your soul. And here you come to the point that you beloved the individual who does the evil human action, while antisocial the human action that the person does. This is what Jesus means when he says, "Love your enemy." This is the way to do it. When the opportunity presents itself when you tin defeat your enemy, you must non do it.
It'southward not hard to see the point Rex is making here, given the criticism and opposition the ceremonious rights motion faced at the time.
Male monarch'southward 1967 sermon "Why Jesus Called a Homo a Fool" is an examination of a passage from Luke 12. Here's how Rex paraphrases the story before beginning his analysis:
I want to share with y'all a dramatic footling story from the gospel as recorded by Saint Luke. It is a story of a homo who past all standards of measurement would exist considered a highly successful human being. And yet Jesus chosen him a fool. If you will read that parable, you will discover that the central character in the drama is a certain rich man. This human was then rich that his subcontract yielded tremendous crops. In fact, the crops were and so great that he didn't know what to do. It occurred to him that he had only one alternative and that was to build some new and bigger barns then he could store all of his crops. And and then every bit he idea nigh this, he said, "Then I'm going to exercise something later on I build my new and bigger barns." He said, "I'chiliad going to store my goods and my fruit there, and then I'yard going to say to my soul, 'Soul, thou hast much goods, laid upward for many years. Accept thine ease, eat, drink, and be merry.'" That brother thought that was the stop of life.
But the parable doesn't end with that human making his statement. It ends by saying that God said to him, "One thousand fool. Non adjacent year, not next week, not tomorrow, merely this evening, thy soul is required of thee."
If you call back of King only as a civil rights activist, you might be surprised at how much of his message of equality drew on Scripture, and at King'due south concern for American moral challenges beyond racial discrimination. I encourage you today to look for yourself—open your Bible (or BibleGateway.com, of grade!) and set information technology alongside a few of King'southward sermons, checking out the Scriptures as you read. (Here'south a comprehensive archive of King'due south sermons and speeches; merely you might find Wikipedia'south shorter list of notable Male monarch sermons to be an easier place to beginning.) Do Male monarch's Scriptural analyses hold up to scrutiny? Could these sermons be preached at your own church building today? How might King have preached about these aforementioned passages today if he were however live?
Source: https://www.biblegateway.com/blog/2011/01/the-bible-passages-behind-martin-luther-king-jr-s-message/
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