Sermon Fire Starters II: Twigs to Ignite a Homily

By Rev. William A. Scott

Sermon Fire Starters II, a companion volume to Sermon Fire Starters, provides thirty additional lessons by Rev. William A. Scott based on his popular weekly Radio Teaching Ministry. This book will help the reader guide his or her community in gaining a deeper knowledge of the Bible and the theology derived from it; developing a worldview that enhances all areas of life; nurturing knowledge acquisition, critical thinking, informed discussion, and personal research; encouraging the formation of a godly charter and attitude; supporting fellowship; and promoting services that demonstrate the love of Christ. The book also includes a section of Reverend Scott's writings on current events at the local, state, and national level.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: Jul 30, 2019
• ISBN: 9781645153276

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Sermon Fire Starters II

Twigs to Ignite a Homily

Rev. William A. Scott

Copyright © 2019 by Rev. William A. Scott

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Part I

Part II

Part III

Part IV

Part V

Dedication

Icome from a family of thirteen brothers and sisters, most of whom have passed away. I was raised, along with those thirteen siblings, in a section of Philadelphia that no longer exists: Eastwick. The proper spelling of our neighborhood’s name was Elmwood, but those of us who lived there pronounced it Ellenwood. The people of Eastwick were good, down-to-earth, and God-fearing. I’m sure a great number of them have gone home to be with the Lord. So I dedicate these written orations to them.

There are two living members of Ellenwood who are dear to me because they knew me before I knew myself: my sister, Janet Ann Scott Abrams and her best friend, Lizzieola White Stevenson. In my life, I have never called Lizzieola by her given name. She has always been Nickey (she prefers Nikki) to me. My love for them both continues to eclipse time. I am proud to call them my big sisters. They are honest, brave, and tenacious ladies. This book is dedicated to them.

Preface

This is the second book of my weekly Radio Teaching Ministry programs. This compilation contains thirty lessons that vary in context from Old Testament biblical principles to New Testament parables and suggested themes from scripture. Most of the subjects have been derived from events of the day, connecting them to books of the Bible or biblical themes or characters. As with the first book, it is my hope that these sermon fire starters will benefit pastors, preachers, teachers, and inspirational speakers.

I’ve used many of the same reference materials I consulted for the first Sermon Fire Starters. But this time I have relied heavily on Homiletics, a bi-monthly magazine that offers a mother lode of valuable information and themes, which I’ve embellished to suit my listening audience.

This book follows a format similar to the one I used in the first Sermon Fire Starters. Part I is a prayer of invocation. Part II consists of thirty numbered fire starters. Part III is a doxology of praise. Part IV is an assortment of articles on subjects I’ve written for my local newspaper; some relate to events happening in and around Southampton County, Virginia, while others address social and political issues at the federal, state, or local level (they are presented in no particular order, hence the part title: potpourri). And as I’ve always done in my radio teaching ministry and in the first Sermon Fire Starters, this book ends with a prayer of benediction (part V).

Unlike my first Sermon Fire Starters book, here the invocation, doxology, and benediction prayers are singular. I’ve included a short poem at the end of the Variety section because it sums up the feelings and belief of us bottom dwellers. Moreover, each part of the book contains a scripture reference that captures that section’s underlying theme.

Except as indicated, all biblical references came from the Holy Bible, King James Version, African American jubilee edition (American Bible Society 1999).

Variety

How am I to identify, in a positive way, the entire black community in the United States? In what way can that group of people, created by a system of oppression, be characterized? I believe that any attempt to answer these two questions must come from an investigation of that population’s past and the effects of that past on its progeny. These writings do not answer those questions; it only highlights the issues as reflected in these sermon twigs.

The current black community comes from a different social strata, the majority of which are descendants of the West African slave trade. Since the time of the Cold War, proxy wars necessitating global air travel, the civil rights movement, and the post–civil rights era, however, that population has witnessed a moderate influx of other nationalities due to the African diaspora. These coupled with the increase in interracial marriage have further broadened and strengthened the gene pool of that community, thereby seriously transforming it even further away from the African bloodline.

What has developed over time is a mixture of ethnicities, an assortment of black people, a new ethnic group, a melting pot of people who occupy this country—not Afro-Americans or African-Americans or even black Asian Americans, but black Americans—should I agree, and I surely don’t—through the one-drop rule.

My target audience is this new ethnicity that has embraced its own form of Christianity from a social, educational, ministerial, and spiritual context. It is the search for and the realization of God, which enriches personal growth, blissful experience, and an encounter with one’s own inner components. That kind of Christianity has endured and aided this new group of people, though oppressed, to survive. The sermon fire starters in this book, as well as the Variety and Potpourri sections, take up their concerns.

Never call a soul this, outside any given name,

Igniting racial tension, displaying ignorance and shame.

Grab hold of this word’s history and visualize its stain.

Gather intellectual enlightenment, help to heal the pain.

Erase this disrespectful word, its derogatory existence,

Reflecting only on its past use and historical significance.¹

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¹ Latorial D. Faison, Twenty-Eight Days of Poetry Celebrating Black History, vol. 3 (Prince George, VA: Cross Keys Press, 2012).

Part I

Prayer of Invocation

The nobleman saith unto him, Sir, come down ere my child died.

Jesus saith unto him, Go thy way; thy son liveth. And the man

believed the word that Jesus had spoken unto him, and he

went his way.

—John 4:49–50

Dear God, we come to you, asking your assistance with our present need for understanding and wisdom regarding the parents’ responsibility to the children you have blessed us with. Let us reach out to you, God, in the good and bad times. Give us wisdom, knowledge, and understanding of your word. Let us be completely aware of our own weakness as parents and ask for your help in our present need. Having complete confidence and faith in your unfailing mercy and kindness toward us, let your will be done for our children.

Let our children know and understand that, even though they may feel alone and unloved, you are always with then. Show us when to reprove and when to praise our children. Give us the courage to be disliked, when necessary, by our children when we must make decisions that are not popular to them and their peers. Give us the imagination to enter their space, so we may understand and guide them. Let us not only be hearers of your word, but also doers of your word, so we may lead them by example.

Let us never betray our children’s trust, their hopes, or discourage their dreams. Let your grace and love fall on our children and give them inner strength, peace, and patience for the narrow road to you and not the wide road to self-destruction. In the name of your Son, our lord and savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.²

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² Debra Wilson, December 2010.

Part II

Sermon Fire Starters: Twigs to Ignite a Homily

Let the wonderful kindness and understanding that

come from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ help

you to keep on growing. Praise Jesus now and forever!

—2 Peter 3:18

A deep and terrifying darkness

We usually associate a revelation from God with light. Truth or wisdom or an essential message shines clearly before us. But among our readings of Genesis 15:1–12 and 17–18, we witness a very different manifestation, a very different expression of revelation.

God has promised Abraham—at that time called Abram—that his children will be as numberless as the stars. Abram believes the promise, and the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness (Gen. 15:6). God then gives Abram directions for an act of ritual sacrifice. But no sooner is the sacrifice prepared than we read, As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram, and a deep and terrifying darkness descended upon him (Gen. 15:12). The subsequent revelation includes a prediction from God of the Hebrews’ enslavement in Egypt. What a striking contrast there is between the revelation that Abram’s children will be as the stars of night, and the deep and terrifying darkness that brings with it the knowledge of enslavement in Egypt. God will establish an everlasting unconditional covenant with Abram that shines like a star and yet predicts a deep and terrifying darkness.

Textual critics see verses 13–16 as an insertion by some editor, and indeed, this does seem to make sense because verses 17–18 are clearly a continuation of the earlier story. But whether the textual critics are right or not, the way the text stands, the way it blends promises and hope with a deep and terrifying darkness is worthy of reflection by all of us who look to the word of God, his holy script, as factual and true.

Without the deep and terrifying darkness, the promise of the future becomes too facile, too superficial, too shallow. We are left only with the loveliness of the twinkling stars as a sign of a future. But with the deep and terrifying darkness, the promise takes on realism it would otherwise lack: Abram’s children will multiply, but his descendants will face a hard and cruel world.

This scripture has application for and to us today. We, like the children of Abraham, have grown like the stars of the sky. As Abraham’s descendants were made up of all the nationalities of the then-known world when they departed Egypt under the leadership of Moses, we black folks have been created in like manner. We have been created with a mixture of bloods, cultures, and ethnicities. The black culture of this country is factually made up of every nationality on earth, much akin to Abraham’s offspring. We, unknowingly, represent the entire human race, the entire human race created by our sovereign God.

Again, this scripture applies to and for us today, as we have gone through a portion of that deep and terrifying darkness—it was called slavery, just like what the children of Abraham, who were in bondage (subjugated) for more than four hundred years, went through. But also like Abraham’s descendants who faced a hard and cruel world, especially during the period of the Judges, we blacks had also gone through our period of that deep and terrifying darkness from 1865 to the civil rights era of Jim Crow to that racial caste system that is still very much a part of the American culture.

The election of President Barack Obama only served to highlight the massive divide of America along racial lines as TV, radio, social media, and all other means of data exploitation or manipulation demonstrates. And the president’s appeal toward national unity and national love for one another fell on deaf ears the very moment he finished his eulogy for the slain policeman of Dallas. Fifty-three percent of the population heard and agreed to begin the dialogue. But the forty-seven percent, that percentage of the population who voted against his presidency, blamed him for the tragedy. As a historical fact, for nearly eight years, President Obama has been blamed for every negative event that occurred during that time period, the eight years of his term in office.

Even the positive changes he accomplished have been termed failures simply because they are against the political ideology of the 47 percent. We are inundated with references to his failed policies. We have been flooded with talk like his failed approach to foreign policy. We have been drowned for eight years with words like his domestic policies, banking approach, massive debt, trading issues—all pointing to a failed presidency. When oil prices were high, he was blamed; now that interest rates are at an all-time low, he is blamed for a sluggish economy. Now, even now, the shooting in Dallas has been blamed on him. And when he offered some form of gun control, he was blamed for trying to change the Second Amendment of the Constitution. Bernie Sanders was right. We do need a revolution of change, a change from the negative dialogue that espouses an ideology that looks to and supports the past. We need a more positive dialogue/ideology that uses the past as a foundation for the future.

Like Abraham, President Obama believes that we are not as divided as our worldwide communications capability asserts. He calls on national unity and love for one another. And since the president believes God’s promises, the Lord reckoned it to him as righteousness, he quoted a number of scriptures, honestly pleading for a show of love in his eulogy in Dallas. Some have greeted the call of our sermonizing president, as they disparagingly refer to him, with mockery and ridicule.

Yes, we descendants of Abraham are hopeful people, as President Obama’s book, The Audacity of Hope, points out. Hope is the expectation of a favorable future under God’s direction. The four components of hope are promise, purpose, perseverance, and prosperity. These terms are loaded with the activity of God and are waiting to be delivered toward the fulfillment of purpose in the lives of our youth. We ought to encourage our youth to see themselves partnered with God in order to work toward the fulfillment of those purposes in their lives.

The blessing is the extension of the lifeline of hope to the present and future generations and encourages them to seek their place in salvation history.

This is good news for those of us who are anxious to find a higher power to help us. We need to be saved not only from the enemies who attack us from the outside but also from the sins that destroy us from the inside.

Living in an era of mixed media and mixed messages, our young people often find it difficult to embrace the legacy of their ancestral history and yet are fully in tune with today’s society. Because of peer pressure and other outside influences, there is uncertainty and inconsistency on the part of our youth to link the rich history of their heritage with the social norms of our prevailing culture, our prevailing black culture. Remember, as Christians, we are Abraham’s children!

God’s solution is a savior named Jesus the Christ, born to save us from our sins (Matt. 1:21). Jesus went to the cross for our sins. He is, for us, the way, and the truth and the life (John 14:6), the guide who shows us more clearly than anyone else what it means to walk in the way of God. Jesus is the solution to sin, the one who gives us forgiveness and new life, moving us from the wrong path to the right path. Finally, a decision is called for: will you remain complacent or change? To remain complacent is to stay in a passive mode. In that mode, that way of talking and feeling and activating your curiosity and your hunger, at the end of the day, you will still feel distant from God and sick about your sinfulness. You’ll keep missing the mark and stumbling off the right path.

The deep and terrifying darkness provides a richer understanding of revelation. Yes, revelation makes known the bright and shining promise of God (as our escape from slavery and continued existence during Jim Crow, yesterday, today, and tomorrow has not stymied our growth as a people), but revelation also discloses the brutality of human beings. Therefore, if our sermonizing president’s talks are to be faithful to the revelation of God, we too must be open not only to the promise but also to the deep and terrifying darkness that engages us with the hard truth of humanity’s inhumanity. After all, as a people, we black folks, I’d even say the nation, are in the period of the Judges.

A message not paid for by any candidate

Last week, my lesson