Off-Load Stress – Part 1
A professional actor I know once invited me to see the play 1776. He had the role of Thomas Jefferson in this particular production.
The plot of 1776 actually centers around John Adams, as he attempts to get the Second Continental Congress in Philadelphia to act decisively and declare independence from England. The times call for change. But certain members of this congress are painfully slow to move. The representatives lack imagination or are even self-serving. As you watch you wonder how in the world they will emerge with a united spirit.
Adams, seeing the issues clearly, struggles to gather support for what he believes in so strongly. Even though no colonies have ever before broken away from a mother country, these men must seize the hour and vote for independence. Unfortunately, John Dickenson from Pennsylvania gets a motion passed that in order to approve the declaration written by Thomas Jefferson of Virginia, the vote must be unanimous. All thirteen colonies must say yes. And it’s obvious there’s no way such agreement will ever be reached. Emergency dispatches continue to arrive from General George Washington, who was made chief of the continental forces a year earlier. He’s in New York where the British have just landed 25,000 crack troops. He writes that it’s imperative that action be taken.
I’ll never forget one scene in the play. It’s the night of July 3, 1776. The hall is empty save for John Adams, who reviews the facts as he sees them. South Carolina and Pennsylvania are opposed to the motion for independence. Delaware is undecided. New York’s representatives are awaiting further instructions. It looks hopeless.
Wrestling with a vision shared by only a few, Adams paces back and forth in the hall. We can feel the stress in his body as we watch. Suddenly he looks up and cries out dramatically into the void:
Is anybody there!
Does anybody care!
Does anybody see what I see!
I found that moment very moving. I was engrossed in the whole scenario: the magnitude of what was being decided, the frustration Adams must have felt, the rightness of the cause he believed in so strongly, and the anxiety as time was running out. It was all so real, I got caught up in the tension, forgetting momentarily that I knew what had to happen on the Fourth of July!
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Sunday’s coming. Do you have your sermon ready? Is it relevant? Will it effectively motivate your congregation to walk more in step with the Master? What about that Sermon Series you’ve been thinking about?
Or, if you’re someone who plans well ahead, have you asked yourself what you will preach for your Easter Sermon, your Advent Sermon, your Christmas Sermon?
David Mains and Mainstay Ministries can help. We offer a wide variety of Sermon Starters and Full Sermons that will give you Sermon Ideas to help you prepare for regular Saturday or Sunday sermons, Mid-week Bible Sermons, and Sermons for special occasions.
We also offer assistance as you create Topical Sermons, Sermons Series, and sermons for special times of the year. We have resources available to help you with Advent Celebrations, Advent Sermons, Christmas Sermons, Easter Sunday Sermons, Patriotic Sermons, and more.
For more information on how to create better Bible Sermons and how to turn Sermon Ideas into Sermon Outlines, and then into effective, meaningful Sunday Sermons, please click here to visit David Mains’ website.
You will also find a variety of resources for pastors and congregations at the Mainstay Ministries website. Just click here.
