Let me ask you a question this morning: how many of you are bilingual—that is, you speak two languages? Or tri-lingual . . . if you want to show off? If so, were you raised speaking a language other than English, or did you learn that second language as an adult? There is a federal agency called the Foreign Service Institute that trains diplomats to operate in other countries. The folks at FSI also provide advanced language training in over 65 languages. Sometime back, they ranked all the major languages ...
Watching. Waiting. Preparedness. Servanthood. These are key words that appear in Jesus' teachings and parables in the Gospel accounts. We are told by advertising experts that a product name must be repeated several times before people remember and can identify it. Either Jesus repeated the message frequently so people would remember it, or it was a constant theme which he used in many different ways and on different occasions. In any event it is a theme that occurs so often in the Gospels that it must be ...
"The landscape of politics is changing," explained the political pundit on the television talk show. His hands were outstretched in front of him, palms up, as if to say, "We may as well face it." "It's the impact of the instant, electronic media," he continued. "Two generations ago, a presidential candidate could write one speech addressing the big issues facing the nation and whistle stop around the country giving it everywhere. But not today. The issues are hotter and more immediate. People don't care ...
Did you notice that bad things did not stop happening through the holidays? And is any warning necessary that bad things will happen in every season of this year? Surely there is better news than that, but we ought to be honest about the bad news. Not even the holidays generate enough good will to stop people from blowing up airplanes and destroying people's reputations and abusing children and selling drugs to teenagers and gunning down their neighbors. In fact, the holidays often elevate stress levels. ...
Object: someone's parents. Boys and girls, I asked (name the child)'s parent to come up for our story today. Since (the child) is here in our group this morning, I want to have the rest the rest of us play a little game for a few minutes. I want to have you look at (name)'s [Mom/Dad] and then tell me, how do you think the two of them are alike. For example, do they look alike in some ways? (Let the children make some suggestions. Be prepared for some humor mixed with some keen insights.) Both the parent ...
Object: someone's parents. Boys and girls, I asked (name the child)'s parent to come up for our story today. Since (the child) is here in our group this morning, I want to have the rest the rest of us play a little game for a few minutes. I want to have you look at (name)'s [Mom/Dad] and then tell me, how do you think the two of them are alike. For example, do they look alike in some ways? (Let the children make some suggestions. Be prepared for some humor mixed with some keen insights.) Both the parent ...
The Spanish explorer Ponce de Leon's obsession with discovering the fountain of eternal youth led him eventually to the land of flowers, or as we know it, Florida. Even now, there are those who claim that the bold adventurer did, in fact, discover such a fountain and that its perpetual waters contain the treasure of agelessness, or the much pursued "ever young" potion. Several years ago, somewhere in Florida, I took a drink from a fountain which was allegedly the genuine source designated by Ponce de Leon ...
Parables - short stories - are very effective ways to communicate ideas. Again and again we read in the Scriptures parables which are used to communicate God’s message to us. Jesus is a master at the short story. He tells us that the kingdom of God is like a father who had a son leave home with his inheritance. The son is welcomed home after a disastrous journey. Or, the kingdom of God is like a woman who lost a coin and celebrates when she finds it. Or, the kingdom of God is like a field with a treasure ...
"You will not handle the name of the Lord your God as though it is nothing, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who handles his name as though it is nothing." Exodus 20:7 One of the best plays that I have seen in a long time was the prizewinner of a few years ago titled "The Miracle Worker." The story of Ann Sullivan’s battle to educate the blind, young Helen Keller, the story is a masterpiece on human perseverance and love. Called by Helen’s wealthy southern parents to train their child, "Miss Annie ...
HENRY CLOSE’S (see biographical note preceding A New Perspective) sermon On Loneliness grew out of discussions with people in alcoholic rehabilitation programs. In it he deals with the subject of loneliness, an emotion the well-known American psychiatrist Harry Stack Sullivan used to say was the only motivating force in people stronger than anxiety that could move them toward facing the possibility of pain and growth. People have used many different symbols or figures of speech to express their sometimes ...
The homework for a Sunday school class was to read Isaiah 9. The teacher asked the class how many had remembered to read the chapter. Every hand went up. "Wonderful!" she thought, "We can have a great discussion!" "Do you remember the first verse?" she asked. The group fell into complete silence while a few of the youngsters paged furiously through their Bibles trying to find Isaiah. "I''ll give you a bit of help," said the teacher. "''The people who walked in darkness . . . ''" Still no answer. "I have a ...
One of the typical difficulties of days like today is connecting the ritual and annual stories of Palm Sunday with the stuff you came in here today worrying about! Okay, so Jesus rode into Jerusalem on a donkey 2,000 years ago. Hey, that's cool. But, you say, I'm worried about paying for repairs to my Chevy so I can ride into Buffalo to go to work! Okay, so the people were all excited about Jesus and waved palm branches at him. That's a neat image, you say, but I'm more concerned about whether the ...
I've told you this story before, but it's been a long time. And even if it had not been, it's the most appropriate story I know to introduce our theme for today. It's the story of one of my most meaningful experiences. I have a friend who is a Benedictine monk. The way we live out our lives is vastly different, but I feel a real kinship, a oneness of spirit with Brother Sam. One of the most meaningful memories, to which I return often in my mind, is an evening he and I spent together alone, sharing our ...
...Comes from the 15th chapter of John's Gospel. I'm going to read verses 12-17. Let's share now this Word of the Lord. "This is my commandment that you love one another as I have loved you. No one has greater love than this, to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you. I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing. But I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard ...
A mild little boy, not known for being ugly or mean, was being chastised and about to be punished for pulling a little girl’s hair. His mother asked him, “Son, why did you do it? That’s just not like you.” “Mama,” he responded, “I just got tired of being good all the time.” It happens to all of us, doesn’t it? We get tired of being good. But it’s not just a periodic getting tired now and then – the truth is we get worn out – being Christian and practicing ministry wears us out. We talk about fatigue in all ...
The January 2004 edition of Trail magazine has got some 'splaining to do. Trail is a British publication that provides maps and suggests particularly beautiful or challenging hiking trials to the growing number of devoted hill-walkers throughout Great Britain. Unfortunately if anyone had followed the seemingly precise, detailed directions given by the magazine to reach the summit of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis, they would have hiked straight off a sheer cliff and ended up in a broken heap at the ...
Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe
OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Old Testament lessons for this Sunday articulate the completion of God's salvation and encourage the reader to enter God's new world. Deuteronomy 30:15-20 is a call for Israel to choose life in the land over death in the wilderness, while Psalm 119:1-8 provides encouragement for the worshiper, who has left the wilderness and entered the land, to persevere in walking on God's roads in God's world. Deuteronomy 30:15-20 - "Bond Yourself to God and Choose Life" Setting. The book of ...
Canaan Valley, West Virginia is a high mountain valley. It is, in fact, the largest high mountain valley east of the Rockies. The valley nestles in the bottom of a bowl, surrounded by barren, windblown tundra on the tops of the mountains. As you walk across the strangely spongy surface of the mosses and lichens that cling to the earth high up on the mountain ridge, suddenly there rears up a row of teeth in front of you, stone stalagmites pushing up from the earth. Chiseled and chipped by decades of wind ...
Thomas Jefferson could truly say, "Been there, done that, now what?" He was Ambassador to France, the first Secretary of State, a Vice President, the President of the United States, founder of a major university, author of the greatest political document in history, a multi-faceted inventor, architect, author, farmer, and scholar. He was perhaps the most brilliant man ever to occupy the White House. He was present at the signing of the Declaration of Independence; he attended the second Continental ...
What a colorful figure Paul must have been in flesh and blood! His individuality shows a man who refuses to be dominated by anything. For us to be able to experience his ministry, as he went about, would have been something that would have made an indelible imprint on us. As he wove his life and ministry into his day and time the enemies were many. This was especially true among his Jewish brothers and sisters. Only by the grace of God was he able to fulfill what he had been called to do. The hatred could ...
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: Death Has Been Conquered New Title: Look Up, Not Down The Rev. Gary Paterson, a pastor in British Columbia, talks about the first worship service he led in his first pastoral charge. He ...
It’s a common expression. When good fortune comes our way over which we have no control, about which we really did nothing, we say, “I was in the right place at the right time.” We hear it all the time about people who have made a lot of money, without a lot of effort: “He was in the right place at the right time.” We say a similar thing when the unwanted happens to us. “I was in the wrong place at the right time.” Some of us feel that’s the story of our life — being in the wrong place at the right time. ...
A group of boys and girls were trying to find a game to play. “Why don’t we play Hide and Seek?” asked Billy. “No way,” said Sally. “I’m afraid I’ll get hid and nobody will be able to find me. Then everybody will go home and I will be lost.” “Lost and Found.” It’s such a common predicament that the classifieds run a special section for it each day. In Nashville this weekend somebody lost a small, black, fluffy, female cat near Thompson Lane. Somebody else found a silver-grey Schnauzer Terrier dog around ...
If you're like me, then you've spent your whole life in the church. And if you've spent your whole life in the church, then you've surely heard about the Ten Commandments before. We grew up with them displayed on the walls of our Sunday school classrooms, and perhaps in the stained-glass windows of our sanctuaries. We have heard sermons, lessons, and devotionals based on them. Perhaps we've even seen a movie or two about them. Why, then, would a preacher want to return to such well-worn material? First, we ...
Trinity Sunday begins the second half of the church year. The first half of the church year beginning with Advent and ending with Pentecost focused on the life of Christ. We call this second half ordinary time but there is nothing ordinary about it. It is an extraordinary time of the year when we focus on the church's life and mission. Some have called Trinity Sunday the "great hinge" of the church year. Others have called it the "great pain"! Why? Because as the only Sunday of the church year that focuses ...