What Are You Waiting For?

BOOKS IN THE PROTESTANT PULPIT EXCHANGE

 

Be My People: Sermons on the Ten Commandments

Ross W. Marrs

 

Be My Guest: Sermons on the Lord's Supper

C. Thomas Hilton

 

Believe in Me: Sermons on the Apostle's Creed

James A. Harnish

 

Fatal Attractions: Sermons on the Seven Deadly Sins

William R. White

 

What Are You Waiting For?

Sermons on the Parables of Jesus

Mark Trotter

What Are

You Waiting

For?

 

  Sermons on the 

Parables of Jesus

 

Mark Trotter

 

 

 

 

Abingdon Press

Nashville

WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? SERMONS ON THE PARABLES OF JESUS

 

Copyright © 1992 by Abingdon Press

 

All rights reserved.

No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, except as may be expressly permitted by the 1976 Copyright Act or in writing from the publisher. Requests for permission should be addressed in writing to Abingdon Press, 201 Eighth Avenue South, Nashville, TN 37203.

 

This book is printed on recycled, acid-free paper.

 

Trotter, Mark.

What are you waiting for? : sermons on the parables of Jesus /

Mark Trotter.

p. cm. — (Protestant pulpit exchange)

ISBN 0-687-44604-X (pbk. : alk. paper)

1. Jesus Christ—Parables—Sermons. 2. Methodist Church—Sermons.

3. Sermons, American. I. Title. II. Series.

BT375.2.T76 1992

252'.076—dc20

92-20954

CIP

 

Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America.

 

"Long Live the Weeds," copyright 1936 by Theodore Roethke. From THE COLLECTED POEMS OF THEODORE ROETHKE by Theodore Roethke. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

 

"Finding Is the First Act," by Emily Dickerson, is from The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson, Thomas H. Johnson, editor, Little Brown & Co, 1960. Used by permission.

 

96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03—10 9 8 7 6 5 4

 

MANUFACTURED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

 

 

 

 

For

Jean

Contents

 

Introduction

 

1. The Sower

Matthew 13:1-9, 18-23

 

2. The Wheat and Tares

Matthew 13:24-30

 

3. The Mustard Seed

Matthew 13:31-32

 

4. The Buried Treasure

Matthew 13:44-50

 

5. The Lost Sheep

Matthew 18:10-14

 

6. The Laborers in the Vineyard

Matthew 20:1-16

 

7. The Wedding Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

 

8. The Wicked Servant

Matthew 24:45-51

 

9. The Wise and Foolish Bridesmaids

Matthew 25:1-13

 

10. The Talents

Matthew 25:14-30

 

Notes

Introduction

 

In seminary in the late fifties I had the impression that all the serious work in biblical studies had been done. The Germans, and a few Britishers, had wrapped it up, and nothing more need be said.

I also concluded that biblical scholarship wouldn't be much help to me as a preacher. I found Form ...