Call, Commitment, and Cost

Short Talk (SHT123) Call, Commitment and Cost © Jane Hulme 2018 Aim of Short talk: Use of Short talk: To honour those who have fought for their country; following the call to fight against evil, committing to seeing the job through and bearing the cost. To challenge people today to follow Jesus’ call to love and fight against evil, committing to sticking at it and being willing to bear the cost. This is a short All Age talk picking out one issue from the Lectionary Gospel reading of the Sunday main service. The talk stands alone and assumes that the Gospel Bible reading may not yet have been read to the congregation. It could be used for example, for the whole congregation before the children go out to their age specific groups, leaving the adults with a full sermon later. You might find that basing a subsequent sermon around the 3 points of Call, Commitment and Cost is helpful too. Remembrance, Call, Commitment, Cost Mark 1:14-20 Year B – The 3rd Sunday before Advent, Remembrance Sunday You will need 3 pictures to either show the congregation or project as Power Point slides. (See Appendix) i) A picture of “Your country needs you” (of Lord Kitchener’s pointing finger) ii) A picture of the word, “Commitment” iii) A picture of a red Remembrance poppy Main themes: Biblical references: Lectionary: Props: SHORT TALK: “Call, Commitment and Cost” .................................................................................................................. Today is Remembrance Sunday; the day when we remember and honour the men and women in our armed forces, who have fought for their country so that we can enjoy peace and freedom. As we think about what these men and women have done, we are going to look at 3 words and they all begin with the letter “C.” Our first word is “CALL.”  Each one of the men and women who fought in the various wars responded to the call from their country to take up arms and fight.  In the First World War this picture was printed in a magazine. (Show or project picture 1) It had the words “Your country needs you” underneath it.  War is never good but sometimes it is necessary to fight against evil. Our second word is “COMMITMENT.” (Show or project picture 2)  The men and women who fought had to commit to seeing the job through and not give up at the first sign of difficulty.  It takes courage to commit to fighting against evil. © Jane Hulme 2018 2 Our third word is “COST”  War is very costly.  For many men and women it even cost them their lives.  We remember and honour them today as we wear our poppies (Show or project picture 3) Call, Commitment, Cost......but these 3 words aren’t just relevant for those in the Armed forces.  They are also relevant for every single one of us, whether we are in the armed forces or not. So back to our first word - “CALL”  Each one of us is called by Jesus to follow Him.  Jesus’ call is a call to love God and to love other people. Sometimes that call will require us to stand against evil,  whether that is bullying in the playground,  unkindness in the home,  or poor ethics in our workplace. Our country needs us to respond to Jesus’ call to follow Him and show His love to those around us. Our second word, “COMMITMENT”  When we are called to follow Jesus, He asks us to give Him our total commitment.  We don’t simply follow Jesus when life is going well.  Jesus wants us to stick at following Him and not give up even when it is really hard to do so. And finally our third word, “COST”  It will be costly for us to follow Jesus. The first followers that Jesus called were fishermen. (Mark 1:17)  They were willing to leave their fishing businesses and their families to follow Jesus. (Mark 1:18)  It cost them. Many of us will be teased or rejected for being Christians.  Some people around the world really suffer for being Christians. So today as we remember those in the armed forces who responded to the call of their country with total commitment; with many being wiling to pay the ultimate cost,  let their example encourage you to respond to Jesus’ call to follow Him with total commitment; being willing to pay the cost so that our country becomes a better place,  more like Jesus wants it to be. [For other Remembrance short talks put “Remembrance” into the website’s search bar] © Jane Hulme 2018 3 Appendix 1 – Pictures 1. CALL:“Yourcountryneedsyou” 4 2. COMMITMENT:“Commitment” Note: This image was used on the front cover of the popular magazine “London Opinion” on 5th September 1914 (a month after the beginning of World War 1) 3. COST:“Remembrancepoppy” © Jane Hulme 2018