"Do you think I will ever see her again?" The ride had been rather painfully quiet up Northampton Street to the Palmer Shrine Cemetery. About 40 minutes before, some eighty people gathered at the Ashton Funeral Home for a memorial service. She had died too soon, so many shared with me. She had lived a good, full life--even though her health the past three months had erased most of the evidence. One of her dear family members, with tears streaming down her face leaned over and asked softly, "Pastor, do you ...
Presbyterian preacher Thomas Hilton tells of watching Billy Graham on television a few years back, when his small daughter Karin came into the living room and looked at the television set and exclaimed, “Dad, what is he so mad about?” To a small child the body language of a person is often more important than the verbal language. She saw the raised arm, heard the loud voice, saw the intense face, and assumed anger. I have an idea that was not the message that Billy was trying to get across, but children ...
There is an old saying to the effect that a good rabbi always answers a question with another question. One rabbi was asked by a member of his congregation, “Why do you always answer a question with another question?” The rabbi replied, “Do I?” Jesus was called “Rabbi” by His followers. The word means, literally, “teacher.” In modern Judaism the rabbinate is an ordained office. In ancient times, however, “rabbi” was simply a title of respect, addressed to laymen learned in the Mosaic law. Although Jesus’ ...
I believe there is a beautiful, wholesome power in the second verse of the 23rd Psalm that will not let us go: He maketh me to lie down in green pastures. He leadeth me beside still waters. First, He maketh me lie down next to still waters. The words of the Psalmist suggest what is revealed in the creation story --that there is a need of regular rest and renewal in the make-up of human life. We all know painfully well that at times we find ourselves in a weary and worried pattern of life that cries out for ...
In the delightfully funny off-Broadway play "Nunsense", one of the main characters is Sister Mary Amnesia who arrives at the Convent in her "habit" without a clue to her identity, remembering only that a large Crucifix had fallen on her head. The Reverend Mother in the play once states about Sister Mary that "she is a good building but, unfortunately, nobody is at home." Toward the end of the play, Sister Mary, while singing, remembers her name and her identity and further discovers that she has won the ...
If you ask me to name the top ten songs on the popular music chart, I couldn't do it. But I do listen to popular music, and often times it teaches me. The song from which I got the title for the sermon was popular many years ago. But I wasn't preaching through the Gospel of Luke then, or dealing with Matthew's record of the sermon on the Mount. So it's only now that I can use this popular song as a springboard for a sermon. You remember it. Here's a little song I wrote. You might want to sing it note for ...
Across Northern Africa stretches the largest desert in the world, the Sahara, almost as large as the United States. From east to west, it measures thirty two hundred miles, farther than the distance from New York to San Francisco. Mile after mile of scorching, shifting, sand dunes make up the Sahara, where temperatures reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit during the summer -- so hot that breathing is nearly impossible. Yet at the eastern edge of this mammoth oven lies one of the richest, most fertile valleys know ...
A seminary student (not one of you) preached his senior sermon in a homiletics class. When he got through, the professor gave him his critique. “John, I’ll give you an A- on the sermon. It was a good one. But I must give you an F on the title.” “An F?” said John. “I don’t understand. What’s wrong with my title?” “Well,” said the professor, “the title is one of the most important parts of the sermon. It should be so compelling and captivating that if a busload of people pass by your sign on Sunday morning, ...
Some of you will remember a couple of humorous films a few years ago in which the late comedian George Burns played God. Oh, God, parts I & II, were not great movies, but they did allow us to reflect on what God is really like. A pastor was trying to explain to a child about God. The pastor said. “God is everywhere!” "Everywhere?” asked the little boy. “Everywhere!” said the pastor. The boy went home and told his mother, “God is everywhere! The pastor said so.” “Yes, I know,” said the mother. “You mean he ...
Travelers near the Badlands of South Dakota were surprised and intrigued in 1936 to see a sign which read, "Get a Soda ... Get Root Beer ... Turn next corner ... just as near ... to Highways 16 and 17 ... Free Ice Water ... Wall Drug." It all began out of frustration when the drugstore was on the brink of closing in Wall, South Dakota. One Sunday afternoon when Dorothy Hustead couldn't sleep, she got up and told husband Ted, "I think I finally see how we can get all those travelers to come to our store." " ...
I'm going to confess a trade secret. We preachers often wonder just how much good our preaching does. We all appreciate the compliments at the end of the service, especially when someone says that he or she really needed a particular sermon we have preached. At those moments, we begin to believe that our work and struggle have paid off. We wonder, though, about the compliments we receive at the end of the service. A friend of mine noted wryly that he has had parishioners compliment his sermons even on ...
In the musical Fiddler on the Roof, Tevye is the Jewish father of five girls living in a Russian village who finds himself going through a period that is continually challenging his traditions. First, his oldest daughter, Tzeitel does not want to accept the man picked for her by the village matchmaker. But Tevye has already struck up a deal with this man to marry his daughter. And so Tevye goes through a mental wrestling match with himself that goes something like this: "On the one hand ... I'm the papa, ...
Obsolete. Superceded. Null and void. Those are words that could be used in a court of law to describe legal contracts or agreements that are no longer in effect. Stipulations become obsolete with the passing of time or when two partners break off their partnership, whether it's a business or a marriage. Procedures can be superceded by new practices when old stipulations become obsolete. Whole contracts can become null and void when one side or the other fails to live up to the agreement. Now the happiest ...
About ten years ago the California Legislature funded what they called the "Task Force on Self-Esteem." I remember it received a lot of recognition, a lot of satire and criticism as well. Doonesbury, the comic strip, took after it. For instance it had Boopsy, the actress who has out of body experiences, volunteer to be a part of the task force. Of course the national press jumped on this, and had a field day. Some of the members of the task force looked like the stereotype of the California New Age type. I ...
I understand there is an organization in Colorado called, "Dare to Be Dull." I am not a joiner, but I think I may have found my people. Their mission statement reads, "We try to reach out to all other people out there who actually like jell-o and washing their own cars, but have been afraid to admit it." Actually I don't like jell-o. And I hate to wash my car. So I may be a wilder, crazier guy than I thought. But on the other hand, I leave a meeting, somebody leaves with me, and comments, "That was the ...
He was a man of mystery and charm; he was a man of brokenness and faith. He was hunted down like a common criminal; his only crime was seeking God's glory. The "Whiskey Priest" lived in Southern Mexico. The time was the 1920s; the Cristero Rebellion was underway. The Whiskey Priest was not perfect - far from it. He drank too much; he had fathered a child. In those days, the Mexican government said that is was illegal to practice the priesthood, but that did not stop the Whiskey Priest. Everything he did; ...
One day a man told a story which touched the hearts of all. He began, "I was a timid, frail, lost, and lonely six-year-old child when I first arrived at the farm in Georgia. I would have remained that way had it not been for an extraordinary woman. She lived on the farm in a small two-room cabin where her parents resided when they were slaves. To any outsider she simply appeared as any other African-American on the farm, but to those who knew her, she had a spiritual force whose influence was felt ...
"Heal the sick," Jesus commanded (Matthew 10:8). His orders leave our knees knocking and us feeling inadequate. In Edward Albee's play, The Death of Bessie Smith, a character rages, "I'm sick! Sick of everything in this fly-ridden world! I am sick of waking up, I am tired of the truth, I am tired of lying about the truth, tired of my skin! I want out, I want off this world!" Now, that, my friend, is desperate sickness! And perhaps today, as you read this, you find yourself ill. My question is, "Would you ...
A few years ago there was a hot slogan aimed at kids who found themselves facing the temptations of drugs, alcohol, sex, peer pressure of all kinds. "Just Say No!" Easier said than done . . . as anyone who has longed to fit in, be popular, or just avoid making a scene can tell you. Sometimes to just say no is the hardest thing there is to say. It's so much easier to go along to get along, to blend in with the crowd, to avoid that super-sensitive social radar that picks-up and picks-on anyone who is ...
Genesis 45:1-28, Matthew 15:21-28, Romans 11:1-10, Romans 11:25-32, Psalm 133:1-3
Sermon Aid
Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe
OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS In Genesis 45, Joseph provides his brothers with a theological interpretation of the events that have befallen him, while Psalm 133 celebrates kinship. Genesis 45:4-20 - "The Power of the Promise" Setting. Scholars have long since noted how different in character the Joseph stories are from the other ancestral stories. The sharpest point of contrast is the absence of God as a central character in the Joseph stories. God does not appear as a visitor at mealtime, does not talk directly to ...
That question used to be a very simple question that called for a simple answer. But thanks to what is now known as the "Information Super Highway," that has become a deeply complicated question. Go to any news sight on the Internet, and you will be bombarded with a series of choices. It's not so simple just to call up the news. Because when you go to any news website, you have to make a decision. Do you want local news? National? International? Financial? Political? Social? Medical? And on and on it goes ...
A little girl came home from Sunday School as excited as her mother had ever seen her. She said, "Mommy! My teacher says I drew the most unusual Christmas picture she had ever seen!" Well, the mother took the picture from her daughter and looked at it for a moment, and was, to say the least, a bit puzzled. She said, "Honey, this is a beautiful picture, but all you have here are people riding in an airplane." She said, "What does it mean?" "Well," the little girl said, "It's the flight into Egypt." ...
I don't have to tell you that families are falling apart, and that is born out by the following statistics: There has been a 200% growth in single parent households since 1970 - from four million to eight million homes. The number of married moms leaving home for work each morning rose 65% from 10.2 million in 1970, to 16.8 million in 1990. Married couples with children now make up only 26% of US households, down from 40% in 1970. 36% of children said their chores included making their own meals in 1993. ...
"When anger enters the mind, wisdom departs." Thomas a Kempis(1) Respiration deepens; the heart beats more rapidly; the arterial pressure rises; the blood is shifted from the stomach and intestines to the heart, central nervous system and the muscles; the processes of the alimentary canal cease; sugar is freed from the reserves in the liver; the spleen contracts and discharges its contents of concentrated corpuscles, and adrenaline is secreted. What does this describe? It is the physiological ...
Have you ever wondered "Why people ask why?" Here are some "Why?" questions that I think are worth asking. Why are there Interstate highways in Hawaii? Why are there floatation devices under plane seats instead of parachutes? If a 7-11 is open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, why are there locks on the doors? Why do they put Braille dots on the keypad of the drive-up ATM? Why do we drive on parkways and park on driveways? Why is it that when you transport something by car it's called a shipment. But when ...