Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 2826 to 2850 of 4508 results

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

I don't know about you, but I envy Moses and Peter and James and John. I envy Joseph and Mary and Abraham and Sarah and Paul and Jacob - all the biblical folk who see visions and dream dreams and are swept into the palpable presence of God. And I particularly envy the many parishioners I have known over the years who have shared their holy experiences with me. Jeanne Grimm's blinding moment of lig...

2827. Who Is Your Hero?

Sermon

King Duncan

Much has been written since the death of Princess Diana about the burden of being a celebrity. Studies show that most Americans don't even want to be famous. The loss of personal freedom that celebrities must endure can be costly. Singer Olivia Newton-John wanted to buy her husband a birthday present while she was visiting an old friend named Faye in Portland, Oregon. They went to the mall, knowi...

2828. Until It Dawns on You

Sermon

Mark Trotter

Lord Dunsany said, "It is seldom that the same man knows much of science, and about the things that were known before science." That has been my experience, and I think there is a reason for it. You can blame it on the Darwinians, and their assumption that life is always evolving into higher, more complex forms, so that what is now is better and more sophisticated than what was before. That was ...

2829. The NFL of Grace

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

I read that once, during Vince Lombardi's years at Green Bay, the Packers were resoundingly defeated by an opposing team. They did everything wrong. The very next day at practice, Coach Lombardi stood up and said, "Gentlemen, I've seen about enough. We're going to start over, right at the very beginning! The object I am holding in my hand is a football." One of the players, a jokester of the bunch...

2830. Sneak Preview

Sermon

Charles L. Aaron

How much do we miss when we don't really look? Edgar Allan Poe explores that question in his short story, The Purloined Letter. As the story begins, two men are sitting in an apartment in Paris smoking their pipes and enjoying each other's company. They are not much for conversation; they go for an hour at a time without saying anything. One of the two men is the brilliant detective, Auguste Dupin...

2831. Right in Front of Our Eyes

Sermon

King Duncan

Pastor Jeff Strite tells a fascinating story about a businessman named John Henry Patterson who back in 1884 founded the National Cash Register Company. Almost immediately the company was profitable. Patterson made it successful because he paid attention to details and kept an eye on each department in the company. At one point, it became apparent that the factory was having a high number of burg...

2832. Hear Him

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The last couple of weeks have brought us a full plate of pictures from Tunisia, Egypt, Libya. Can any of us ever forget the images from Cairo’s Tahrir Square? Or the monstrous Muammar al‑Gaddafi, also known as Colonel Gaddafi, speaking to his people from the back seat of an automobile holding a white umbrella? But the one that may stick the longest is the human ring of ordinary men and women stan...

2833. A Mountain Of Meaning

Sermon

Brett Blair

A brilliant magician was performing on an ocean liner. But every time he did a trick, the Captain's parrot would yell, "It's a trick. He's a phony. That's not magic." Then one evening during a storm, the ship sank while the magician was performing. The parrot and the magician ended up in the same lifeboat. For several days they just glared at each other, neither saying a word to the other. Finally...

2834. Transforming Moment

Sermon

King Duncan

You may be familiar with Peter Jenkins, author of such best selling books as Walk Across America. Jenkins tells of the night he was converted to Christ. He was attending a huge revival in Alabama. "I didn’t understand all that these people were saying about what had just happened between God and me," he recalled. "Born again...," "Saved...," "The Lord led you here tonight...," "Praise the Lord...,...

2835. How Long Should We Stay?

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

Mountains were very important to Matthew. When Jesus was tempted to worship the devil in exchange for all the kingdoms of the world, it happened on a mountain. It was good enough for Luke to have Jesus preaching on a nice level place, but when Jesus preaches essentially the same sermon in Matthew he does so on a mountain. That's why we call it the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus went to the mountain to...

2836. A Moment of Brightness

Sermon

Dean Lueking

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain apart. And he was transfigured before them and his face shone like the sun and his garments became white as light. (Matthew 17:1-2) In these words the evangelist Matthew tells us of a transcendent moment in the ministry of our Lord. Where It Occurred It is noteworthy that Jesus went to a...

2837. Don’t Just Do Something, Stand There!

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

The Cadillac ELR commercial that was made for and launched during the 2014 Winter Olympics, was called “Poolside.” It featured actor, Neil McDonough, blond, handsome, and cocksure, touting not so much the car as the people who made it and, more importantly, the people who can afford to buy it. In fact, if you don’t watch carefully you don’t even know it’s about a car. It was about hard driving, in...

2838. Lessons From The Mountaintop

Sermon

Robert Beringer

Frederick Buechner in his book, Peculiar Treasures, writes about Moses in the following way: "Whenever Hollywood cranks out a movie about Moses, they always give the part to somebody like Chariton Heston with some fake whiskers glued on. The truth of it is, he probably looked a lot more like Tevye the milkman after 10 rounds with Mohammed Ali. Moses up there on the mountain with his sore feet and ...

2839. Transfiguration

Bulletin Aid

B. David Hostetter

READINGS Psalter - Psalms 2:1-12 or Psalms 99:1-9 First Lesson - God summons Moses to the top of Mount Sinai to receive the tables of the law. The "glory of the Lord" bursts through the clouds in view of the people. Exodus 24:12-18 Second Lesson - Peter was an eyewitness of the transfiguration and personally heard the voice confirm Christ's divine sonship. 2 Peter 1:16-21 Gospel - Before the eyes ...

2840. The Transfiguration Of Our Lord

Bulletin Aid

Amy C. Schifrin

Gathering Litany Divide the congregation into two parts (left and right would be easiest here) with the choir or assisting minister as a third voice besides the pastor (marked “L” in this litany). Leader: Looking for the Light. I: Looking for the Light. II: Looking for the Light. Leader: This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased. Leader: Looking for the Light. I: Looking for the Light....

2841. Lent 2

Sermon Aid

George Bass

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Lent is structured so that those who keep it will go through devotional exercises designed to bring about conversion of the penitent to the life in Christ. Lent is really the altar (font) call of the church, at which the believers will find forgiveness of their sins and renewal of the gifts God gives in baptism to those who will have him as their God in Jesus Christ. Sunday is se...

2842. Tis Good To Be Here

Illustration

In the classic fantasy book by J.R.R. Tolkien, The Hobbit, Bilbo Baggins and his troupe is traveling through a dark, dangerous forest infested with gigantic, poisonous spiders and all manner of dark critters and creepy-crawly things. Just being in that kind of place was a frightening experience. And each member of the group, especially Bilbo Baggins, wanted to get out of that dreadful forest of da...

2843. Transfigured: Who Changed?

Illustration

Laurel A. Dykstra

Laurel A. Dykstra, a scripture and justice educator living in Vancouver, British Columbia, wrote the following in an article for Sojourners Magazine: "My first night at Guadalupe House, a Catholic Worker "transition house" where I spent nearly 10 years, I sat at the wobbly-legged table amid a circle of men's faces, black and brown and white, and looked at the peeling linoleum, tattered sheer yello...

2844. Climbing the Mountain

Illustration

William B. Kincaid, III

When we are out driving and approach a great stretch of mountains, it is breathtaking and terribly humbling. A drive through the mountains gives us a different perspective on things. Some people invest a lot of time and money in mountain-climbing. That's not for the exercise. They could get the exercise doing a hundred other things. Mountain-climbing is about mastering the mystery and standing whe...

2845. We Can’t Live on the Mountaintop

Illustration

William B. Kincaid, III

A young woman made an announcement one morning to her co-workers, "My honeymoon is over and I am so relieved. Now we can get on with our marriage." That's the way it is with our mountaintop experiences. We can't live there forever. The light is too bright, the pace too frantic, and the demands too great. It is a relief to return to normal lives where we can be ourselves and let others be themselve...

2846. Don't Your Ever Do That To Me Again!

Illustration

Johnny Dean

Fred Craddock tells a wonderful story about a young minister, newly graduated from seminary, serving his very first church. He gets a call telling him that a church member, elderly woman who has given her life in service to the church, is in the hospital. She's so weak she can't even get up out of bed, and the doctors don't hold much hope for her recovery. Would he go up and visit? Well, of course...

2847. Heck of a Place to Lose a Cow

Illustration

Southern Utah folklore still enshrines stories about Ebenezer Bryce, a cattleman who used to run his herds early in this century on land that is now Bryce Canyon National Park. The canyon he used is actually the face of a high plateau, carved by wind and water into fantastic, colorful sandstone castles and cathedrals. Few people can stand on the canyon's rim, look down at the majestic scene belo...

2848. The Battle Hymn

Illustration

In 1861, a prominent Bostonian woman and her husband were visiting Washington, D.C. shortly after the outbreak of the Civil War. They witnessed an impressive military review one day and were on their way back to their hotel with some friends in a carriage when their way was blocked by several columns of soldiers. To pass the time, Julia Ward Howe and her friends began to sing popular army songs, i...

2849. Peter, James and John

Illustration

J.O. Sanders

G.C. Morgan wrote concerning the special three: "There can be no doubt that these men, Peter, James, and John, were the most remarkable in the apostolate. Peter loved Him; John He loved; James was the first to seal his testimony with his blood. Even their blunders proved their strength. They were the men of enterprise; men who wanted thrones and places of power...Mistaken ideas, all of them, and y...

2850. The Gift of Wonder

Illustration

Brett Younger

In his book, This Sunrise of Wonder, Michael Mayne writes this to his grandchildren: "If I could have waved a fairy grandfather's wand at your birth and wished upon you just one gift it would not have been beauty or riches or a long life: It would have been the gift of wonder." (Michael Mayne, This Sunrise of Wonder, London: Fount Paperbacks, 1995, p. 11) He goes on to suggest that they set their ...

Showing 2826 to 2850 of 4508 results