Bread? or Crumbs?

A Collection of Sermons for Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Pentecost

Swanson

• Publisher: Resource Publications
• Year: 2007
• eBook ISBN: 9781498274791
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

This anthology of sermons is compiled from a sixty-year practice of preaching. Reuben Swanson's prophetic poetic prose, as it has been called, has developed through the faithful discipline of preparing written sermons. Readers will travel through the Christian year surprised and blessed by sermons from Advent, Christmas, Epiphany, and Pentecost.

1

Bread? or Crumbs?

The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost

Mark 7.24–30

From there he set out and went away to the region of

Tyre. He entered a house and did not want any one to

know he was there. Yet he could not escape notice, but

a woman whose little daughter had an unclean spirit

immediately heard about him, and she came and bowed

down at his feet. Now the woman was a Gentile, of

Syrophoenician origin. She begged him to cast the

demon out of her daughter. He said to her, “Let the

children be fed first, for it is not fair to take the children’s

bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she answered him,

“Sir, even the dogs under the table eat the children’s

crumbs.” Then he said to her, “For saying that, you may

go—the demon has left your daughter.” So she went home,

found the child lying on the bed, and the demon gone.

Mount Cross Lutheran Church

Camarillo, California

Bread? or Crumbs?

Bread?

or crumbs?

What a strange woman in our gospel.

She longed for bread

when she could have crumbs.

We know this story was not written

in the twenty-first century.

Who eats bread today

when they can have crumbs?

Consider

the parable of the loaf.

A man was exceedingly hungry.

A loaf of bread was upon the table,

but he went to the cupboard

in search of crumbs.

A neighbor found him

a few days later beside the table.

The learned physician pronounced the cause

of his death malnutrition.

You see, the man had bread,

but he preferred ...

Table of contents

• Title Page
• Preface
• Chapter 1: Bread? or Crumbs?—The Sixteenth Sunday after Pentecost—Mark 7.24–30
• Chapter 2: Noah and the Ark—The First Sunday in Advent—Matthew 24.37–44
• Chapter 3: The Leafing Fig Tree—The First Sunday in Advent—Luke 21.29–33
• Chapter 4: The Axe, the Tree, and the Fire—The Second Sunday in Advent—Matthew 3.1–12
• Chapter 5: Light and Darkness—The Third Sunday in Advent—John 1.6–8
• Chapter 6: Consider the Candle—The Fourth Sunday in Advent—Matthew 1.18–25
• Chapter 7: No Room in the Inn—Christmas Eve, 1983—Luke 2.1–7
• Chapter 8: The Weeping Rachel—The Sunday after Christmas—Matthew 2.13–18
• Chapter 9: The Lamb of God—The Epiphany of Our Lord—John 1.29–34
• Chapter 10: The Opening Heavens—The First Sunday after the Epiphany—Mark 1.4–11
• Chapter 11: From Water to Wine—The Second Sunday after the Epiphany—John 2.1–11
• Chapter 12: In the Power of the Spirit—The Third Sunday after the Epiphany—Luke 4.14–21
• Chapter 13: Blessed are the Pure in Heart—The Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany—Matthew 5.1–10
• Chapter 14: The Dot and the Iota—The Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany—Matthew 5.17–20
• Chapter 15: Blessings and Woes—The Sixth Sunday after the Epiphany—Luke 6.20–26
• Chapter 16: The Sun and the Rain—The Seventh Sunday after the Epiphany—Matthew 5.38–48
• Chapter 17: Three Booths, a Cloud, and a Voice—The Day of the Transfiguration of Our Lord—Matthew 17.1–9
• Chapter 18: The Glory of God—The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost—Psalm 19.1
• Chapter 19: Not a Sparrow Will Fall—The Fifth Sunday after Pentecost—Matthew 10.26–31
• Chapter 20: Peace or a Sword?—The Sixth Sunday after Pentecost—Matthew 10.34–39
• Chapter 21: Where to Find Bread?—The Tenth Sunday after Pentecost—John 6.1–15
• Chapter 22: A Journey into Faith—The Fifteenth Sunday after Pentecost—Matthew 19.10–12
• Chapter 23: Treasure and the Heart—Matthew 6.19–21
• Chapter 24: Friend, Go Up Higher!—Luke 14.7–11
• Chapter 25: Speak the Word!—Luke 7.1–10
• Chapter 26: A Man Had Died—Luke 7.11–17
• Chapter 27: The Least and the Greater—Matthew 11.2–19
• Chapter 28: The Alabaster Flask—Luke 7.36–50