About 30 years ago in Medford, Oregon I heard a Vietnamese pastor preach on the 'Good Samaritan.' He said the robber's philosophy was 'what's yours is mine,' the religious leaders that passed by believed that 'what's yours is yours and what's mine is mine,' and the Samaritan's philosopy was 'what's mine is yours.'

Ed Peterman, Azusa Friends Church (SoCal) around 1971. He started his message by reading select hard-hitting passages of scripture, then would proceed to rip the page out of the Bible saying something like, "I don't like that one." He did that for about 10 minutes, ripping pages out of his Bible and throwing them on the floor. Then he faced the congregation and said, "Do you get the point? How may time have we responded to the Word of God by ignoring it or by casting it aside?" I got the point and remember it to this day.

I heard a sermon about 10 years ago now, on John 12:1-2. The pastor preached about Mary, Martha and Lazarus, about how they represent the 3 parts of a complete relationship with God. Martha was serving, Mary was worshipping and Lazarus was just enjoying being in Christ's presence. I think about this sermon often, when I have allowed my life to get out of balance and try to get myself back on track.

I remember two sermon illustrations from 8 and 10 years ago, both from chapel speakers at Barclay College. The first was 10 years ago and the speaker used a metaphor with penguins and eagles, the emphasis was how we are being transformed from flightless birds to soaring eagles. The other used a donut to emphasize keeping our eyes on what's important--the donut rather than the hole. I don't remember the texts used, just the illustrations.