Sermon and Worship Resources

Antonyms: keep, claim, continue, stick by, self-control, power through, achieve, defend, bear, hope, acquire, quick visit, adopt, continue along, adhere, remain, pursue, support, take up, keep up, reuse, advocate, stay, persevere, cherish, keep going, carry on

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326. The Mighty Mustard Seed

Mark 4:26-34

Sermon

King Duncan

... collect change for charities. No one has kept records on how much money the coin collectors club has found and donated. But they’ve been going strong for 12 years now, so they’ve probably donated a substantial amount. (1) One man decides to collect discarded coins to give to charity. His neighbors, inspired by his example, join in. Who will be inspired next, and what good will they contribute to the world? Maybe it will be someone in this congregation this morning. We need people like that—people who ...

327. All Wrapped Up

John 20:1-18

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... remained, even though Jesus was missing from them. In addition, the scriptures tell us that Jesus’ head cloth not only remained but lay wrapped up in a separate place, as though someone had removed it and placed it there. It was not thrown or hastily discarded but placed carefully aside. We cannot know if that head wrapping was wrapped up and placed aside by the angels of God who also appeared to Mary or by Jesus himself as he rose before exiting the tomb into the garden. But the message is clear ...

328. Meeting Jesus

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... works like this: when people discover that they are holding two mutually exclusive ideas or perceptions at the same time, they will tend to find a way to hold onto the one they’ve held the longest or into which they have placed the most personal investment and discard or devalue the other. If, for instance, I have been smoking for thirty years and one day you tell me that smoking is unhealthy, I will probably try to find a reason to dismiss what you are telling me rather than quit smoking. Or, if I accept ...

329. More Than Enough

John 6:1-21

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

Forty percent of all the food that is produced in the United States is thrown away. That’s about twenty pounds per person per month, a total of about 33 million tons or $165 billion worth of edible, nutritious food per year. Discarded food is the second highest component of landfills in this country that as it decays, becomes a significant contributor to methane emissions.1 Worldwide, western, industrialized countries waste about 30% of all produced food, an annual total of about 220 million tons, an ...

330. I'm Going Fishing

John 21:1-19 · Acts 9:1-20

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... , to restore the lost. Now was his time. He cannot do as he wishes, he has now come to maturity as a disciple, and he must now do as he has committed….even unto death. In Jesus’ name now Peter would give hope to the dying, offer equality to the discarded, heal the sick, and rescue the meek. Jesus words to Peter: “You can do this!” We all as Jesus disciples are chosen for a mission, called to a vocation. Some of us may be clear on what that is. Others may still be discovering their path in Jesus ...

331. Have Mercy!

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... ? I celebrate when someone pays forward a cup of coffee or opens a car door! This isn’t ordinary compassion. This is over-the-top, extraordinary, transcendent compassion! Mercy like you’ve never imagined! In a world in which people often watch someone being beaten and discarded and turn and walk the other way or run to close their own draperies so they don’t have to become involved, what would this look like in our world today? Would you go up to someone you don’t know on the street, someone from ...

332. Bigger, Better, Basta!

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... phobia. A psychological disorder, hoarding is not only isolating, but it can be dangerous, causing problems in living conditions, cleanliness, and rifts in one’s closest relationships. Hoarding disorder appears on the surface to be the difficulty someone has in discarding or parting with possessions because of a perceived need to save them. A hoarder is committed to excessive accumulation regardless of the value of the objects. The more, the better. But the impulse runs much deeper than that. Sometimes ...

333. The Potter's Secret

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... it, and the clay would be good as new. You see, that’s the “secret” of clay. It can always be remade. No matter how hard it gets, whether it cracks into a hundred pieces, whether it’s a decade old, or whether it’s been used and discarded, that clay can be softened, watered, and re-formed into whatever the potter desires. Clay is always restorable. The potter decides its fate. The word in Hebrew for potter is “yatsar,” the one who forms. You can see now why the metaphors of clay and potter are ...

334. Why the Cross?

Hebrews 2:17-18

Sermon

Charley Reeb

... goes with it — death, fear, and hopelessness. So why is there still evil in the world? It is because evil is a sore loser! We are just cleaning up his mess. Everything evil, everything that goes against the force of God’s love, will be mopped up and discarded when the kingdom of God comes in all of its glory. One thing remains is the overcoming power of God’s love revealed on the cross. This love is something that is available to each of us. It is available to you right now. Remember, the only thing ...

335. Mind Your Manners

Luke 14:1, 7-14

Sermon

Will Willimon

... of us prune our invitation list with care. But here is Jesus who sends out invitations indiscriminately, despite the cost. Orientation is a time for you to find your place. And manners are a means of keeping in your place. So here is Jesus eating with social discards and here are we, exclusive and excluding, at the university, scrambling for seats of honor at Commencement. Will we feel out of place showing up in a tux or evening gown at one of God's parties only to find the place crammed with a crowd that ...

336. Hidden Treasure

Matthew 13:31-33, 44-52

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... has already taken up residence inside. Some may have bruises. Some may be shaped oddly. Some would be larger than others. Some would have bird pecks, scrapes, holes, or dirt. This we accepted as part of the harvest of apples. When we went through them, we would discard what we couldn’t eat and make food out of what we could.The same went for harvesting corn on the cob. Husking corn in those days was not the same as husking supermarket corn. You could find quite a number of critters lurking in the interior ...

337. Marketplace Christianity

John 2:13-22

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... they are peddling. Jesus message? We are not to run our places of worship as exclusionary businesses, but as places of worship and sacred prayer, places of openness and grace for all without exclusion. We must not treat people like objects to be discarded, negotiated, or as commerce (options or expendables) but as subjects, as valued people of God. God’s economy is different than our economy. God’s economy is one of love, openness, inclusion, and grace. This was Jesus’ mission the entire time on earth ...

338. The Art of Restoration

John 3:1-17

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... the most astonishing witnesses to this theory is the art of “kintsugi.” Practiced primarily in Japan, artists take broken pottery and china and create beautiful works of art from them by sealing them together with molten gold or platinum. These often discarded and deemed “worthless” pieces are revisioned and reworked to become some of the most cherished and astounding (and expensive!) pieces of art in the world today. Why are we talking so much about the art of restoration? Because this is the way ...

339. The Art of Reconciliation

Luke 12:49-59

Sermon

Lori Wagner

In 2015, North Carolina public “found-object” sculptor, artist William Massey created a piece called “The Art of Reconciliation.” Inviting more than 200 people from Atlanta to clean up discarded objects from the streets, he then hung the objects onto a metal frame and asked the community to paint their personal stories and creative images onto the “abandoned junk.” The art sessions welcomed all members of the community, including the homeless, local business folk, veterans, children, and others ...

340. The Power Of Proximity

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Jill J. Duffield

... was doing, Jesus stopped and tended those the world ignores, overlooks and writes off. Jesus heard, saw, and cared for those on the margins of our world, the outsider, outsiders, like lepers from Samaria. He unquestionably showed those long ostracized, isolated, demonized, and discarded that they were regarded, beloved, and worthy of not only the world’s attention, but God’s. If this is how Jesus, on the way to Jerusalem, responded, how much more ought we hear and respond to those calling out for mercy ...

341. The Seven Year Switch

2 Corinthians 5:16-21

Children's Sermon

King Duncan

... is still remarkable. Look what we can do with it. (Blow over the mouth of the bottle so it makes a musical sound.) Hear that? I'll bet that if we had enough bottles like this one we could b play a tune. Then it wouldn't be just a discarded drink bottle anymore, would it? It would be a musical instrument. The Bible tells us that everyone who is in Christ is a new creation. What does that mean? I like to think of it being like this coke bottle. The word for "Spirit" in the Bible is the same ...

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