Sermon and Worship Resources

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2651. What If It's ALL True?

John 20:1-18 · Matthew 28:10

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... poured some water on the little horned toad’s body. Immediately the body reacted by moving, curling up, its tail twisted. It had life again. But the first reaction of the little girl to a toad come to life was not rejoicing, but screaming in horror and dropping the box. It is one thing to hope for a life come back to life. It is another thing to accept that there actually may be an indestructible spirit that can overcome death, that resurrection may be real. Most of us are caught somewhere between wanting ...

2652. When the Small is Great, and the Great is Small

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Will Willimon

... seen. It's tough to see certain people. Jesus enters the temple with his disciples. And we're here this morning, in the church, as disciples of Jesus, following him into the temple, so to speak. Jesus watches the rich and important people parade by, drop large sums into the temple offering. Upon hearing the heavy, bulky money clanging into the plates, everyone would notice. But Jesus notices a poor widow, saw her offering her two pennies, all that she had. I daresay that no one else noticed her, from what ...

2653. Famine of the Heart

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... imagine them nodding their heads in approval at the second son’s rebuke? And yet Jesus continues….. [In response to the angry brother, the father says]: “This brother of yours was dead and has come to life; he was lost and has been found.” Mic drop. Jesus leaves it all right there. In the silence, you can likely hear only a heart beat. The heartbeat of resurrection! Who in the story suffers from famine of the heart? The second brother also. He may have grown up following every rule, obeying every ...

2654. Behold, the One Who Betrays Me Is With Me

Luke 22:14-34

Sermon

Will Willimon

... shared with them a meal. And what more intimate experience of conviviality, and warmth, and love, than a meal? Jesus and his twelve best friends. And what greater sign of solidarity and support than a communal meal? Scarcely has the meal begun than Jesus drops a bombshell, “One of you will betray me," he announces. (Widespread shock around the table.) Who among us, Jesus' best friends and disciples, could do such a thing? “Behold the hand of him who betrays me is on the table.” And all lifted their ...

2655. As a Fire Exists by Burning

Luke 10:1-11, 16-20

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... saw my smile and finally explained: She and her grandchildren had gone out that spring and picked wild raspberries and blueberries, brought them home and froze them. This morning, she had boiled some of them in sugar water until she had a thick syrup then dropped biscuit dough into the syrup making berry dumplings. To the untrained eye, they looked kind of, well, slimy. But once I knew what they were, I took another helping and announced to the group that dessert was the best part of the meal. Mrs. Davis ...

2656. For Someone Noted for Their Smile

Psalm 39 · John 6:51-58

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... of you might recall a clown character played by Emmitt Kelly. The character was called Weary Willie. He was a sad looking fellow who never spoke and never cracked a smile. His act was to juggle three balls while balancing a peacock feather on his nose and, when he dropped one of the balls, he’d bend over to pick it up. The crowd would roar with laughter because the feather never left his nose. It had been stuck into a hidden piece of putty on the tip of his nose. My friends, if you want to pay tribute ...

2657. For Someone Remembered by Many

1 Corinthians 2:9-10 · Matthew 16:13-20 · Mark 14:7-9, 10-12

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... and friendships with the people from the old neighborhood where he started his life, and how his management of life over the thirty some years since his wife’s death spoke volumes as to his resourcefulness and courage. And then just when the curtain was about to drop onto the stage of This is Your Life, the audience would’ve heard voices tell of what a wonderful man Ken happened to be and how you’d be hard-pressed to find someone who could match Ken when it came to integrity and honor and moral ...

2658. For Someone Remembered by Many

Luke 24:13-35 · Acts 20:31-35 · Matthew 16:13-20

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

... , the Peanut Gallery, the Lone Ranger and Tonto, Roy and Dale Evans and their horse Trigger. A good number can remember candy cigarettes and wax Coke shaped bottles with colored sugar water inside, Blackjack and Clove chewing gum and Pine Brothers cough drops, the “candy” we were allowed to eat in school. A good number of you are old enough to remember home milk deliveries, newsreels before movies, telephone numbers that began with words, party lines, hula hoops, 45 RPM records, green stamps, treasure ...

2659. The Mother of All Yard Sales

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... have I seen such vicious and spiteful behavior. I witnessed a whole new side of my family that I had never seen before ― a grossly insensitive and (dare I say) mean side. Yes, when it comes to other people’s property, my family knows not even a drop of the milk of human kindness. They had the temerity to suggest that I did not actually need all four of the rubber chickens that graced my study ― gifts lovingly given to me by various youth groups that I had faithfully led through the years. They had ...

2660. What’s In a Word?

Luke 2:1-14, (15-20)

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

... s relatives. The Greek word kataluma, often translated as “inn,” refers to a “guest room” built on the roof of a typical Judean home that could be used by company, by adult sons and their families as the larger family got bigger, or for guests who dropped in. Elsewhere in the gospel of Luke it is translated as “upper room” as in the guest room where the Last Supper is served. No one ever suggested the Last Supper was served in an “inn.” What was happening, El Borcense said, was that Joseph ...

2661. Do We REALLY Know What Time It Is?

Romans 13:11-14

Sermon

Heather Sugden

... push to buy? Do you hear the clock ticking on the “days until Christmas”? Are you counting time by the number of activities you have to complete, events you must attend, gifts you need to wrap, cards that demand to be written, addressed, and dropped in the mail so that they arrive before Christmas? The weeks before Christmas can both frighten and excite us with a countdown we have established as a society to emphasize consumerism and busyness. Even with the best of intentions, we can contort the days ...

2662. When In Our Music God Is Glorified

Isaiah 58:1-9a

Sermon

Will Willimon

... hymn didn't do a thing for me." Who cares? We are not singing the hymns for you, but for God. This is hard for us modern, self concerned types who tend to judge everything on the basis of the almighty me. One of the most frequently given reasons for dropping out of our choir is, “I'm so busy perfor1ning, singing the music, I never get to worship. I don't get anything out of it." Well, that's one of the drawbacks of being a leader of worship, and members of the choir are worship leaders, but we ought ...

2663. The Grande Masquerade

Luke 18:9-14

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... appears, dressed as a victim of the Red Death. No one recognizes the guest, but one-by-one as people encounter the masked stranger, they fall over to their death. Stunned and angry, Prospero seeks out the masked intruder, but upon reaching out to him, he too drops dead on the spot. No matter how wealthy or powerful, no matter how crafty or lofty, no one has the power to escape death. While this is the sort of macabre story we might hear at Halloween time, it’s also pertinent to today’s scripture in ...

2664. Broken Heart Study

Illustration

Charles Swindoll

In an article in New York magazine, Douglas Colligan writes about another study known to many people as the “Broken Heart” study. This study researched the mortality rate of 4,500 widowers within six months of their wives’ deaths. The findings of the study showed that the widowers had a mortality rate 40 percent higher than other men the same age.

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