Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 26 to 46 of 46 results

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

William G. Carter

In the small town of Mapleville, the ecumenical Thanksgiving Eve service was poorly attended. Once it was a popular event for the whole town, gathering people from a variety of denominations and faiths. In recent years, attendance had faded to a faithful few. Most of those who came in any given year were members of the host congregation. What began as a spirited occasion that brought together a va...

27. A Thankful Heart

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Erskine White

Then one of them, when he saw he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice ... giving Him thanks. (Luke 17:15-16) If you ever doubted the importance of saying "thank you" to someone when a "thank you" is due, consider the story which is our text for this sermon. Luke tells us that Jesus was on the way to Jerusalem and as He passed near Galilee and Samaria, He was met by ten lepers....

28. To Be Sure

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

I am always impressed with the litany-like phrases Martin Luther uses in The Small Catechism as petition by petition he explains the Lord's Prayer: To be sure, God's name is holy itself ...To be sure, the kingdom of God comes of itself, without our prayers ...To be sure, the good and gracious will of God is done without our prayer ...To be sure, God provides daily bread, even to the wicked, witho...

29. The Spontaneous Routine

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Theodore F. Schneider

The Duty Of A Nation History records that the Pilgrims celebrated a good harvest as early as 1621, and that Massachusetts celebrated a thanksgiving day now and again until the 18th century. But our first President, George Washington, is credited with establishing our first national day of prayer and thanksgiving. By proclamation President George Washington set aside November 26, 1790, as a day of...

30. Don't Be a Turkey (Thanksgiving)

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Alex Gondola

There is little question that the commercially grown turkey is, pound for pound, one of nature’s less intelligent creatures, at least according to an article I once read. In that article, author Fred McGuiness calls the domesticated turkey "as brainless as a baseball," and describes how turkeys can have trouble doing even simple things. For example, your average turkey can get into trouble doing ...

31. Leaping Lepers - Thanksgiving

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Leaping lepers. That is as good an image as any for the sight of a rag-tag bunch hustling down the road to the Temple. Just a few minutes ago they had been the ancient cast of one of the oldest "Survivor" dramas in history. No, they were not on some South Pacific island, but as far as the rest of Israelite society was concerned, that would have been preferable. Scripture was clear: "The person wit...

32. Learning to Give Thanks

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Did you know that not everyone has been brought up to smile? When McDonald’s restaurants invaded Russia, the bosses--all of whom were American--insisted that the Russian young people working behind the counter give customers the standard Mickey D smile. Russian customers were outraged--and insulted--because in Russia smiling at strangers means you’re making fun of them. How did Mickey D Russia ...

33. How about Something Different?

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Mark Trotter

I can recall three rhetorical questions that accompanied me throughout my childhood. The first was, "Were you born in a barn?" That usually came when I left a door open, or didn't clean up my room. The second was, "When will you ever grow up?" Which was a question my sisters asked me as a carefully planned, relentless program of persecution. The third one was, "Have you forgotten something?" Tha...

34. Once More with Feeling!

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Stephen M. Crotts

It's that holiday season again. Friends and loved ones are making plans for a visit. Christmas decorations are out in the store windows. Once again people's hearts are swelling with optimism. Jack Frost has left his calling card. The smell of wood fires curls from the chimneys, and inside, mothers work their magic as fathers are heard to say, "Make some of those sugar cookies that you made last ye...

35. The Ultimate Thanksgiving Feast

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

There is a time-honored story about four brothers who left home for college. They became successful doctors and lawyers and prospered. Some years later, they chatted after having dinner together. They discussed the gifts they were able to give their elderly mother who lived far away in another city. The first said, “I had a big house built for Mama.” The second said, “I had a hundred thousand do...

36. The Grateful Samaritan

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

Everyone knows about the Good Samaritan. He is one of the best-known characters in history. We know he belonged to a despised people--Samaritans--people who did not keep the laws in the prescribed way and who had intermarried with foreigners. We know he was the surprise hero in Jesus' parable that bears his name. We know he was a generous and compassionate man who paid an innkeeper out of his own ...

37. Finishing In The Top 10%

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Frank Lyman

Two tiny legs disappearing under the water. That is all the 16th Century Flemish artist Pieter Bruegel depicted of poor Icarus. Two tiny legs. Pieter Bruegel was a moralist as well as a paintera moralist who saw human folly in many guises. In his work, "Landscape With The Fall of Icarus," he portrayed that folly through an interpretation of the Greek myth of Icarus. We recall that Icarus escaped K...

38. Giving Thanks Empowers

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Phyllis Faaborg Wolk

The lepers Jesus heals in our gospel lesson weren't always lepers. One of them might have been a carpenter, building homes and workplaces in his community. One of them may have been a fisherman, working hard day after day to provide food for his neighbors. In a better time, one of them could have been a teacher, another a farmer, another a priest. At one time, the leper from Samaria might have be...

39. The Tenth Man

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

A 4-year-old boy was asked to return thanks before Thanksgiving dinner. His family bowed their heads in expectation. He began his prayer, thanking God for all his friends, naming them one by one. Then he thanked God for Mommy, Daddy, brother, sister, Grandma, Grandpa, and all his aunts and uncles. Then he began to thank God for the food. He gave thanks for the turkey, the dressing, the fruit salad...

40. Choosing to Be Grateful

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Albert G. Butzer III

Then Jesus asked, “Were not ten made clean? But the other nine, where are they?” — Luke 17:17 There was once a minister who was well known for his beautiful and moving prayers. He always knew just what to say because, I am told, his heart overflowed with gratitude. But one Sunday morning he woke up to the kind of day we preachers dread. If it was not a full-blown nor’easter, it came pretty close....

41. "Preference by L’oreal"

Lk 17:11-19 · Mt 6:25-33 · Jn 6:25-35

Sermon

Peter Rudowski

There is an ad on television about hair coloring. It’s called "Preference" by L’oreal. At the beginning of that ad, you see a very beautiful young lady. There is a face on the screen. Then you get a close-up of the hair, and it is beautiful. The hair is bouncy and in control. There are no split ends. The young woman is very, very happy as she shows you what this hair coloring can do. After about t...

42. You Don't Have to Yell

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

King Duncan

What is the loudest event you’ve been to lately? Was it a ballgame, a concert, a family dinner, a party? I ask because I read an article this week about the incredibly strange way that the employees at Yahoo Inc., the Internet service provider company, chose to celebrate their 20-year business anniversary. They had a group yodel. And not just any group yodel. They gathered 3,432 employees at their...

43. Where Are the Nine?

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Richard Hasler

The mother of a little boy questioned him, “Why didn’t you pray last night like you usually do?” His frank response was, “I didn’t want anything from God last night.” But is prayer only petition and intercession? Surely, “thanksgiving” is an integral part of prayer. People in Jesus’ time were threatened by leprosy, even more than we are today by the advent of AIDS. Definite regulations had been s...

44. The Foreigner

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The craft of art restoration has become important to art historians and museums, particularly when talking about older works of art that may have become damaged from smoke, yellowed from resin, or simply dirt-covered with age. Many paintings from the Medieval or Renaissance period appear faded, shadowed, and their colors muffled and darkened from years of storage, passing of hands, or from materia...

45. The Power Of Proximity

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Jill J. Duffield

Imagine being ostracized and isolated, forced to cry, “Unclean! Unclean!” wherever you went, commanded to make visible through your clothing and hair your already physically evident and painful condition. The writer of Luke said they should keep their distance. Those ten with leprosy didn’t dare get close to Jesus, they called out for mercy from a distance. And Jesus, traveling to Jerusalem, betwe...

46. Justified

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In our 21st-century world, we talk a lot about what we deserve. We measure our worth in fact often by what we believe we should receive in exchange for what we have accomplished or the quality of who we are. This of course is a dangerous game. For whenever we use “deserving” as our measurement tool, in fact whenever we use any kind of measurement tool to decide our worth, or the worth of someone e...

Showing 26 to 46 of 46 results