Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 301 to 325 of 655 results

Drama

Pamela Urfer

Cast: NARRATOR (the only speaking part), JESUS, two SOLDIERS, PILATE, a PRIEST, three WOMEN, and a MAN Length: 8 minutes NOTE: Due to the scope of the Passion Readings and the fact that the readings are the same for all cycles, the Good Friday skits have been arranged as a series. Cycle "A" covers John 18:1-12, Cycle "B" covers John 18:13-40, and Cycle "C" covers John 19:1-30. Each skit is complete in itself, but the three may be strung together to cover the entire Passion in one presentation. Or they may ...

302. Gifts of Lent VI: The Thief Who Gave Nothing

Luke 23:26-43

Drama

Donald Neidigk

Dramatic Monologue We've never met, you and I. And if we had, you can be sure I'd never let you know what line of work I was in. I'm the type of person your mother told you to stay away from when you were a child for fear I would infect your mind with my devious ways and get you into trouble. I'm a thief and a robber. I was that one who named Jesus as my Savior in the last moments of my life. How did I come to be there on that gloomy Friday nailed to a cross beside Jesus? Oh, don't think I didn't know ...

303. Proper 22

Luke 17:1-10, Lamentations 1:1-22, 2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Old Testament: Lamentations 1:1-6 Lament for Jerusalem that lies in ruins. The series of seven lections is interrupted by a passage from Lamentations. In 586 B.C. Jerusalem was conquered and burned to the ground. The people were carried away to Babylon. Jerusalem now lies in ruins and is deserted. Along with the city, the holy temple is now a heap of ashes. The book of Lamentations is a collection of five poems moaning Jerusalem's end. It is appropriate that Lamentations is in this series from ...

304. Proper 11

Romans 8:18-27, Isaiah 44:6-23, Genesis 28:10-22, Matthew 13:24-30, Matthew 13:36-43

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: The mystery of good and evil. In Genesis, Jacob tricks his brother and flees from his wrath. In Romans, Paul bemoans human moral weakness. The Gospel parable deals with the mystery of the weeds growing together with the wheat COMMENTARY Lesson 1: Genesis 28:10-19a (C) Upon hearing of Esau's plan to kill Jacob after Isaac's death, Rebekah spirits Jacob back to her relatives in her native land. It is an unsettling time for Jacob, leaving home and a fugitive. Jacob stops for a night at Bethel and in ...

305. A Voice Crying In The Wilderness

John 1:1-18, John 1:19-28

Sermon

John A. Stroman

The people wondered who John the Baptist was. He appeared as a rather strange person who came from the wilderness, preaching repentance, dressed in camel's hair, surviving on a diet of locust and wild honey. John the Baptist was the beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ. Yet his message of good news seemed as strange as his attire. It was good news involving repentance, and repentance involved change. That is good news to some people but it is bad news to others. It was good news for the oppressed. It ...

306. What's Inside

1 Corinthians 1:28-31

Children's Sermon

B. Kathleen Fannin

Object: A paper dusk jacket from a hardbound novel slipped onto a Bible. Lesson: Boasting; children of God; love; talents; thanksgiving. This morning a large group of children has assembled, their numbers increased by junior-high youths who are visiting from another denomination. I begin by holding up the covered Bible, and ask one of the older children to read the title on the cover. "A Piece of the Moon Is Missing,"1 Arthur responds. "My goodness," I answer, "A Piece of the Moon Is Missing!" Does that ...

307. Peter's Confession, Christ's Prediction

Mark 8:27-30

Sermon Aid

Richard A. Jensen

We will treat these texts as one. In examining them we have entered what many commentators believe is the central section of Mark's story: 8:22--10:52. The immediate context for this central section of material is the climax of the section that precedes it: Mark 6:35--8:21. We need to say a few words about 8:1-21, as it is omitted from the lectionary. Mark 8:1-9 is the story of the Gentile feeding of the multitude with bread which we have discussed in an earlier chapter. The response to Jesus' feeding of ...

308. Advent 2

2 Peter 3:1-18, Isaiah 40:1-31, Mark 1:1-8

Sermon Aid

Russell F. Anderson

Theme: Christ as our Shepherd King. Isaiah 40 has the Lord coming to save and comfort his dispossessed people. He comes as a mighty king who will rule his people in justice. At the same time, he is a loving shepherd, caring for his wounded sheep. The Old Testament held up the ideal of the king of Israel as a shepherd. In so doing the emphasis shifts from the desires of the king to the needs of the people. The Gospel Lesson from Mark 1 has John the Baptist pointing to this ruler who was mightier than ...

309. It's Hell, I Say: Herod Speaks

Matthew 2:1-12

Drama

Dr. Raymond Bailey

Theme: I regret the insensitive way I spent my life. I do wish for you to understand me, through my times and the culture that shaped me and my decisions. Setting For The Sermon Monologue The sermon was used on the first Sunday after Epiphany. Epiphany is the season that recognizes the first revelation of Christ to the Gentiles (Magi). Whereas, in Advent we look forward to the coming of Christ, Epiphany is also the time that we contemplate His coming, and ask what our response to Him ought to be. For this ...

310. Advent's "Invisible" Man

Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

The idea of-the invisibility in our culture is no new thing. The great H.G. Wells wrote a book called The Invisible Man. In it he imaginatively explores the development of a professor's ingenious use of science to effect his own invisibility. Invisibility becomes a metaphor for invincibility. His becoming invisible is by his own choosing. He literally disappears with the ingestion of a certain chemical solution, which eventually drives him insane. The point here is this man, Griffin, chooses to become ...

311. The Darkest Hour

Drama

Pamela Urfer

312. Colorizing Jesus

John 20:24-31

Sermon

Carl Jech

The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said ... "Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe." (John 20:26b, 29b) Most of us are familiar with the controversy that has been going on over the issue of "colorizing" old black-and-white movies. Do Humphrey Bogart and the Maltese Falcon or Jimmy Stewart and his Wonderful Life look better in the original black-and-white photography or with color added by one of the latest wrinkles in computer technology? There is a strong parallel ...

313. The First Sunday In Lent

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

The old songs may be the best songs, but you can't always believe them. I have in mind, particularly, that mountain spiritual, "Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley." The first part of it is true enough. Jesus walked this lonesome valley, Had to walk it by himself. Oh, nobody else could walk it for him; He had to walk it by himself. Those lines could almost describe what we heard in the Gospel reading for today - the story of Jesus alone in the wilderness, enduring the temptations of the devil. It is with the ...

314. Lent 4

1 Samuel 16:1-13, Psalm 43:1-5, Hosea 5:1-15, Hosea 6:1--7:16, Romans 8:1-17, Matthew 20:17-19, Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE The clue to the theme for worship and preaching this Sunday comes more from the general theme of Lent than it does from any theological content of this Sunday. Before Vatican II, the Fourth Sunday in Lent was known as Laetare Sunday, the mid-point in Lent, and was known as "Refreshment Sunday;" The purpose of this Sunday was to gather strength for the final stages of the Lenten pilgrimage. Therefore, the Introit could declare, with one of the Songs of the Pilgrims, (Psalm 122, a Psalm of ...

315. Embalmed With Cardiac Arrest

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

I always wonder what an agnostic or an unbeliever or a skeptic does on Easter Day. Have you ever wondered that? Out of curiosity, let’s join two of them on the first Easter day. For them, the story was all over, the last curtain was rung down. Their hopes lay shattered. Their dreams lay twisted and ruined. Easter Day found them on the way back home to Emmaus, back to the old home town, about seven miles from Jerusalem, back to the workaday world, back to the dull, monotonous business of eking out an ...

316. Reconciliation

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Burton F. Blair

One of the criminals who were hanged there kept deriding him and saying, "Are you not the Messiah? Save yourself and us!" But the other rebuked him, saying, "Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed have been condemned justly, for we are getting what we deseive for our deeds, but this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." He replied, "Truly I tell you, today you will be with me in Paradise." Luke 23: ...

317. The Ten Commandments - Part 2

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

Brett Blair

A little boy was once asked by his Sunday school teacher if he knew the Ten Commandments. "No ma'am," came the reply, "my dad said that I don't have to know them since they are doing away with them anyway." It is one thing to be ignorant of the Ten Commandments; it quite another to mock them with impunity. Millions dismiss them as mere platitudes fit for nothing more than a dusty old bookshelf. They disdain them because they are "religious." There are still others who want to do away with the Ten ...

318. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

One of the decisions every good storyteller has to make is when to tell the story’s secret to people. Every story has a secret, and the spinner of tales has to decide whether to let them know about the secret early in the story or to surprise them with it at the end. Mystery writers often hold back the secret until the last chapter, keeping us eagerly turning the pages to discover who really poisoned the heiress or pushed Colonel Whitington down the elevator shaft. The same is true of soap operas. "Will ...

319. On His Way

Matthew 21:1-11

Sermon

Larry Powell

See in your mind’s eye a city that has doubled in population almost overnight. The city is Jerusalem and faithful Jews have converged upon the holy city from great distances to celebrate the Passover. They have come from every country district and all the lands of the Diaspora. The Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded that as many as 1,000,000 pilgrims came annually to the feast. Families were reunited, friends renewed acquaintances, spirits were high, and from the Temple priests down to the simplest ...

320. Man Of Sorrows

Isaiah 52:13--53:12

Sermon

Larry Powell

The fourth Servant Song of Isaiah, included in our text, preaches itself. Remarkably, it provides the prophecy, biography, and epilogue of Jesus of Nazareth. We will not engage here in the arguments of higher criticism which raise sophisticated questions as to whether Isaiah was speaking of an actual person, or of Israel as a whole, or of one yet to come. We consign those arguments to the scholars whose devotion to research leads them to search out those kinds of things. We shall proceed, rather, under the ...

321. Easter People

Colossians 3:1-17

Sermon

T. A. Kantonen

Easter is the greatest of all holidays because it commemorates the greatest event that ever happened, Christ’s triumph over death. The resurrection of Christ is a glorious fact to be known and remembered, and indeed every Sunday is to Christ’s people a reminder that on the first day of the week our Lord brought us life out of death. But the Easter message which the apostle proclaims calls us to do more than celebrate a great event and remember a great fact. It invites us to be not merely spectators of the ...

322. Obeying God Rather Than Men

Acts 5:17-42

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

How many times have we borne witness to this scene? Men and women of the Gospel attacked by their enemies for preaching the resurrected Christ? How many times have we seen this inevitable and inimitable skirmish between the horizontal and the vertical, the spiritual and the carnal, the things of man and the things of God? How many times have we seen this scene within and without the church, where servants of the Lord who have confessed with their mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe in their hearts that ...

323. The Healing Power of the Cross

Luke 23:26-43, Mark 15:33-41, Luke 23:44-49

Sermon

James W. Moore

Each year on Good Friday here at St. Luke’s, our Chancel Choir gives a magnificent performance of Dubois’ sacred cantata, “The Seven Last Words of Christ,”… a moving musical presentation of the seven sayings of Christ while He was being crucified on Good Friday. How many of those seven last words can; you remember? First, He prays for His executioners – “Father forgive them, they know not what they do." Second, He says to the thief on the cross, “Today you will be with me in paradise." Third, He provides ...

324. His Trial

Luke 22:66--23:25

Sermon

Brett Blair

On Friday of Holy Week the streets were filled with people. It was not an ordinary market day crowd. It was religious tradition that brought these people together. It was the festival of the Passover and Jews from far and near had migrated to the holy city of Jerusalem. It was this same religious fervor that created a certain tense atmosphere in the city. Jesus, the Nazarene carpenter, the one whom some called Messiah, had been placed under arrest by the Roman authorities due to pressure from the Jewish ...

325. Hope for Hurting Hearts

Isaiah 35:1-10

Sermon

David E. Leininger

"...Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away." Sure does sound like Christmas, doesn't it? I wish everyone could feel it. But the war in Afghanistan goes on. Families that lost loved ones on September 11th are preparing for a holiday that, a year ago, they could have never imagined. There is a certain dissonance to the season. Trips to malls and stores with the sacred Muzak in the air singing of "Joy to the World" or "God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen" mock the harsh realities ...

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