Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 251 to 275 of 3160 results

Sermon

James Angell

... inclined to be kind and tolerant. Dawn is a good time to be thinking about such things as we bask in the newness of another new beginning and restudy our dreams. Lifting up still one more prayer for peace, and, for the ten-millionth time, go about the business of sorting out the permanent and the beautiful from the impermanent and the ugly. We wish for a more settled order, but the chaos that has followed what appeared to be the end of the Cold War is enough to prove to us that we will have to wing our way ...

252. Jesus and the Women in His Life

Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Thomas Blowers

... Jesus secretly for fear of ramifications which could ruin him.(Strange then that after Jesus died his body was placed in Joseph's own tomb at Joseph's own request.) And of course Jesus was often seen talking with all sorts of questionable characters. It was no baseless rumor that Jesus hung out with all sorts of people. He did. And some of the people whose company he sought soon began seeking his, Mary Magdalene being one of them. And as I started to say a few moments ago who she was is not nearly as ...

253. Never Cry Uncle - Malchus

Matthew 26:47-56

Drama

Thomas Blowers

... how Jesus and I had been caught in the middle of the world's hostile push and shove. My worst suspicions had been proved. The great nightmare which is the truth about the world had overtaken me, had finally and decisively overtaken Jesus and me. And in a strange sort of way, he and I had become brothers. Well, I knew I was near to fainting and for a few moments everything seemed to fade away and I was aware of no one but myself. Finally, I heard someone shout "Put away your sword" or something like that and ...

254. The Importance of Believing

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

... this or that, here or there. And what we accumulate as we make our way toward the end of the line usually turns out to be a rather intricate complex of beliefs. Most commonly, we do not select these by deliberate intellectual process; rather we sort of absorb them by osmosis, sort of catch them like chickenpox. But we do pick them up, we do incorporate them into our lives, and they do become very decisive for our living. Our beliefs are important to us because they do things to us and cause us to do things ...

255. An Everyday Theology

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... he also notes that intellectual sharpness can remove obstacles that stand in the way of an intelligent response to Christ’s offer. The proliferation of modern human wisdom and the simplistic mood in today’s church make a theological style of this sort all the more imperative. We need and will continue to need an everyday theology. Preferably, it will be an everyday theology that is conversant with and informed about the learned theological style. This will serve to restrain our common, everyday theology ...

256. Museum or Mission?

Luke 15:1-7, Luke 15:8-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... guess is that neither Michael Harrington nor William Buckley, Jr., could tune up my car. But I would define ideology as an inescapable outlook from which we view ourselves and the world. It comes as standard human equipment, and none of us is without some sort of ideology. It gives order to the way we understand life and it weights our interpretation of facts and experiences. Like the chap who discovered, to his surprise, that he had been speaking prose all his life, we are condemned to having an ideology ...

257. Mission to Unbelievers

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

... that which we happen to prefer at the moment. Cole Porter wrote their song: "Anything Goes." Christians are called to care about both types of unbelievers. It will not do for us to thunder against the atheists of our day either the admirable or the despicable sort. Rather, in terms of our Lukan passage, we are called to witness to these persons. We are to be the sufficient "Moses and the prophets" to them. One of the great chapters in church history of the early centuries is the work of the Apologists. The ...

258. Faith Bridges the Gap

Luke 7:1-10

Sermon

... life, but our modern heresy is that we believe that our faith and works earn us only the good and the best things that this life can bestow upon us. In the movie, The Man in the Glass Booth, the captured Nazi officer who admitted to all sorts of atrocities in the German concentration camp in World War II, when asked about the difference between Christians and Jews, declared, "A Christian is just a new Jew who thought he had bought himself an A#l insurance policy." Put that up against the admission of the ...

259. A Mission and a Message

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

... setting, and that another portion was to be done in a parish. She was silent until she reached her floor, but as she was about to leave the elevator, she stopped, held the door open, and said to him, "I didn’t know that people your age did that sort of thing anymore." And she went her way. But people of all ages and both sexes still follow Jesus today - as they always have; when he says, "Come, follow me!" they do, you know. And that bodes well for Jesus’ larger intention - to take the good news to all ...

260. Booby Trap

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

... at all for other people, at least for treating them as our neighbors. The faith can deteriorate into a "My God and I" sort of relationship from which others are pretty well excluded. Or, we are interested in the physical and spiritual welfare of our families when ... heavenly love in earthly action. Neighbors in need enable us to be compassionate, kind, and just in our dealings with those in any sort of trouble, and to grow up and mature in the love of God. The poor and the needy, the hungry and the homeless, ...

261. The Nearest Hand

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Carveth Mitchell

... description of the priest and the Levite, as well as in other places, Jesus had no great admiration for the church leaders of his day. In his story he makes the one who was a real person, doing God’s will, a Samaritan - a sort of halfbreed, upon whom Jesus’ own race and institutional church looked down their noses. In our day, the indictment against the institutional church has risen anew. The name and activity of "social ministry" is becoming part of every Christian congregation, insisting (and rightly ...

262. Proper 6

Genesis 25:19-34

Sermon

... bear in mind a number of points before being too harsh in our assessment of Jacob from the reading of these verses. First, a business transaction in the Near East - while always subject to certain legal restrictions - from ancient times, has been looked upon as a sort of game. It is a process in which contestants match wits with one another. Skill in bargaining is something looked for and prized, and it is part of the fun of the transaction. There are many places in the world where this is still true, where ...

263. Proper 8

Genesis 32:22-32

Sermon

... psychological strength it took for Jacob to engage in combat with this mysterious stranger who, without provocation, attacked him out of the inky blackness of the night. Was this a literal contest? There is no reason to deny it. There must have been some sort of physical contact because, when Jacob resumed his journey the next morning, he was lame. This physical fact is commemorated today by Jews who abstain from eating that part of the animal which corresponds to the hip and thigh area in Jacob. People are ...

264. Beginning a Ministry

Matthew 4:18-22

Sermon

... ’re going to be and you can deal with it." The disciples were able to face every difficulty, pass every trial, preach and teach effectively, and even face death as martyrs for the faith after Jesus ascended to the Father, quite in contrast to the sort of people they seem to be in the Gospels. Peter was crucified upside down, according to tradition, Bartholomew was supposed to have been skinned alive, and all the others, with the exception of John, witnessed to the Gospel by laying down their lives for the ...

265. Cross Work

Matthew 5:27-30

Sermon

George Bass

... : Jesus did, even though he could get angry enough with them to condemn their unholy activities. He even loved those who were responsible for his suffering and death. He might not have liked them, or anything about them, but he loved them as children of God; that sort of love is not a feeling, but an act of the will and the mind. It results in beneficial actions on the part of the person who is offended. This is the person whose quality of life is extraordinary, because there is no preoccupation with self ...

266. Invincible Harvest

Matthew 13:1-23

Sermon

... I find that I still do not mind it. Like you, I have known for a long time what a difficult thing it is to listen. All sorts of things block my ears. My mind wanders or I find myself preoccupied with my own concerns. I think I know what the other person is ... visible assurance of this victory may be no greater than that of a farmer sowing seed in an unplowed and uncultivated field. All sorts of events may argue against its happening. Signs of its promise may be carried off and devoured. Or they may be choked ...

267. Trouble on the Mountain

Exodus 32:1-33:6

Sermon

... and tried to wash his hands of any responsibility.) Aaron compounded his crime and tried to diminish the seriousness of it by proclaiming a "fast to the Lord." It was all a bumbling attempt to save his own face and whitewash his sin by putting God's name to it, sort of as an afterthought. His disclaimer as to how it happened is the most ridiculous and stupid of its kind; "Don't blame me!" he said. "They wanted it. I just took the gold they gave me, and threw it into the fire, and there came out this calf ...

268. Image and Inscription

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

... Yes" would be to antagonize his countrymen and women who staggered under the yoke of Roman oppression, who resented paying any sort of tribute or tax, no matter how trivial, to the government occupying their homeland against their will. But to say " ... sword" or "No, in this case, the demands of justice will not be well served." And, as always, not to decide is to decide. That sort of deciding is far from easy and frought with dangers. To be sure, in spite of our best and most earnest efforts we will sometimes ...

269. If the Son Makes You Free

John 8:31-41

Sermon

... and out of the way, taking care of myself. I don’t know why I ever let you talk me into going into that cocoon in the first place. It was dark as death in there. Felt like a tomb." "I think it was a tomb, of sorts," said the first. "A tomb in which old caterpillars were buried and new butterflies emerged. Butterflies who can fly." "Caterpillars who can, if they’re stupid enough, allow themselves to be blown about by the wind," corrected the second. The first butterfly again stretched his wings. Grateful ...

270. An Intimate Conversation and an Exclusive Covenant

Exodus 19:1-25

Sermon

... her grandmother, pushed up the bangs on her forehead, and asked, "Is the cross still there?" (adapted from my soon to be published book, Is the Cross Still There? Letter To Jennifer) She knows now that she is a child of God - forever! A baptismal conversation, of sorts, clarified in a way that even a child can understand, that the covenant contained in Christ’s cross is meant for all and will last as long as the earth itself. God’s word can actually reach any one of us and move us to faith. The people ...

271. The Dimensions of the Decalogue

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

... before God and can give a good reason at all times for what he does. But more important, his conscience has experienced a great deepening. His actions are placed in the world but are subject to the will of God ... In the midst of a life disjointed by all sorts of selfishness and lies, he is in search of a primal innocence which marked it at the beginning before man set himself at odds with God. The Christian is able to say, "Jesus Christ is the Holy One of God. There is no other who is completely holy in ...

272. The Keeper of the Covenant

Exodus 31:1-11

Sermon

... the evil which he thought to do to his people." That is the kind of a God we have, a God of gracious love and mercy, the sort of a God who would send his only Son into the world to make the ultimate act of forgiveness by dying on a cross outside of ... had placed there." For three people, at least, real reconciliation, like that, which God works in Jesus Christ, had taken place. That is the sort of God we see speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, and that is the God who loves us, forgives us, and receives us as ...

273. Judgment and Justice

Amos 5:18-27

Sermon

... the Christian story as well as telling it to all who will listen. But in order to live it fully, they had to study the word in conjunction with their public worship of God. All over the world millions of people are still suffering all sorts of injustices and experiencing poverty, starvation, discrimination, and other inequities that need to be addressed and resolved, but there is a great spiritual hunger evident, too. When a tour group went to a worship service in Shanghai, it was the first time that the ...

274. Beginning A Healing Ministry

Sermon

... for people "coincidences" happened, and that when he stopped praying, the "coincidences" stopped happening.3 It is true that some people do not receive the particular healing for which they and their loved ones have prayed. However, in every instance, healing of one sort or another does happen. There is no such thing as unanswered prayer. In one way or another, the healing ministry enables people to experience the power of God's spirit in their lives. Often God's response to prayer is the gift of strength ...

275. The Nearest Hand

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

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