Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 John 3:1-3

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... their awareness of God's working in all our lives. We all yearn for nurturing relationships — with others and with the Christ in each of us. The community of believers, the church, is the place where we receive and accept God's love. Families are configured differently today from the time of Christ, and even from a generation or two ago. Ozzie and Harriet don't live here anymore, and maybe they never did. I never did think television families such as the Nelsons, Beaver and the Cleavers, and the Andersons ...

27. Reversal of Fortune

Luke 6:17-26

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... with position and power? Getting madder all the time, he said: "NO! Doggone it! You sit around here and you spin your little webs and you think the whole world revolves around you and your money. Well, it doesn't, Mr. Potter! In the . . . in the whole vast configuration of things, I'd say you were nothing but a scurvy little spider." That's the kind of person Jesus was talking about: the kind of person who doesn't give a hoot about anyone but themselves or what they can gain, no matter what it might cost ...

28. Forced To Fit

Illustration

Richard J. Foster

... I had no idea he could make a suit fit so perfectly someone as deformed as you." Often that is just what we do in the church. We get some idea of what the Christian faith should look like: then we push and shove people in to the most grotesque configurations until they fit wonderfully! That is death. It is a wooden legalism which destroys the soul.

29. Stand by Me

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... homes and businesses, and worst of all, took hundreds of lives. The city was decimated and had to start over, virtually from “scratch.” Rapid City held big celebrations this last week, the third week of June, commemorating the rebirth, regrowth, re-configuring of their community. Everyone seemed to agree that the Rapid City that emerged after the flood was a far better place than the antediluvian Rapid City. The people “weathered the weather” with guts and grace and built a new beginning for their ...

30. The Second Journey to Egypt

Genesis 43:1-34

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... . He then declared his determination to go and see him before he died. Additional Note 44:5 In Egypt, counselors used such cups for divination. They would pour a variety of liquids, such as oil or wine, into water standing in the cup and then read the future by the configuration of the resulting designs.

31. Jesus, Messiah and Lord, Is True Interpreter of the Torah

Matthew 22:15-22, Matthew 22:23-33, Matthew 22:34-40, Matthew 22:41-46

Teach the Text

Jeannine K. Brown

... the image side and the words “High Priest” on the other.1 22:21 So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s. This saying has a riddle-like quality because it plays on more than one possible configuration of lordship. On its surface, it seems to divide the world neatly into two categories of authority: Caesar’s authority as Roman emperor (presumably the political sphere) and God’s authority over the rest (presumably the spiritual realm). Yet this division sounds much more ...

32. “In Peace I Will Lie Down and Sleep”

Psalm 4:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... placement of selah (at the end of 4:2 and 4; see NIV footnote) probably reflects the musical performance of the psalm,[1] rather than a logical outline (see the sidebar “Selah” in the unit on Ps. 3). The content of the psalm yields a different configuration: 1. The Lord who answers in distress (4:1–3) 2. The psalmist’s trust in the Lord and advice to the rebels (4:4–5) 3. Words and prayer of reconciliation (4:6–8) Historical and Cultural Background David’s opposition includes distress (4:1b ...

33. “In the Lord I Take Refuge”

Psalm 11:1-7

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... produce copies of the Bible. Resourcefully, they collected as much printed Communist literature as they could obtain. Taking those printed texts, they cut out each word and pasted them back together to produce a printed Bible. Originally, these same words, when configured within the Communist documents, had depicted the world of the Communist literature they printed. Once reconfigured as the Bible, these words had quite a different textual meaning.16 “I Will Sing the Lord’s Praise, for He Has Been Good ...

34. “The Lord Is My Light and My Salvation—Whom Shall I Fear?”

Psalm 27:1-14

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... battle seemed lost and then the enemies stumbled and fell (see “Theological Insights” regarding the personal pronoun in 27:2). It certainly is within the bounds of good homiletical theory to apply this to the hostile forces of our own lives that configure to send us into retreat. And when the “battle” seems lost, the circumstances may miraculously turn, and the hostilities may be defused by a rush of the adrenaline of grace, taking away the fear and restoring confidence. Illustrating the Text “The ...

35. Jesus Predicts His Death

Matthew 16:21-28

One Volume

Gary M. Burge

... (cf. 1 Cor. 15:20–23). Second, while Peter has rightly understood Jesus’s identity as Messiah (16:16), he does not understand the kind of Messiah Jesus is. Since it is not clear that suffering was a part of first-century messianic configurations, Peter’s response is understandable. Yet for Jesus (and Matthew), suffering and death are central for defining the kind of Messiah Jesus comes to be. Though Rome executed any number of would-be messiahs for their pretensions, Jesus is not predicting his death ...

36. The Arrangement of Tribal Camps

Numbers 2:1-34

Understanding Series

W.H. Bellinger, Jr.

... the core of the chapter reminds readers that the tabernacle as the place of the divine presence is the center of the ordering of this people and also reiterates the significance of the Levites. The camp is to journey in the order and configuration of this list. Ephraim on the west may also reflect historical background because of its association with the northern kingdom of Israel; it thus faces Judah. Verse 32 summarizes and recounts the total of the force, excepting the Levites (v. 33). Note the diagram ...

37. A Silver Cup in a Sack

Genesis 44:1-34

Understanding Series

John E. Hartley

... witnessed that the brother who had proposed his sale now vigorously defended Benjamin. Additional Note 44:5 In Egypt, counselors used such cups for divination. They would pour a variety of liquids, such as oil or wine, into water standing in the cup and then read the future by the configuration of the resulting designs.

38. The Sabbath

Exodus 31:1-11

Understanding Series

James K. Bruckner

... the skilled people “to make everything just as I commanded you.” Exodus 25–30 gives fairly specific details of all the tents, furnishings, and vestments. Nonetheless, many significant details are missing (e.g., the height and thickness of the lampstand; the configuration of the posts for the veil). The wisdom and skill of the artisans would be part of the creative process (see also Durham, Exodus, p. 410). Additional Notes 31:1 “I have chosen Bezalel.” The Heb. be-tsal-ʾel means “inprotection ...

39. Praise to the Lord

Isaiah 25:1-12

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... to get confused over whether the OT is “nationalist” or “universal” in focus. Is Israel preoccupied with its own destiny or does it care about the world? A passage such as this does nothing to clarify the matter because it continues to presuppose a different configuration of the question, or to presuppose that the antithesis is a false one. In the prophet’s vision we are back on this mountain (vv. 6, 7, 10), Mount Zion (24:23). It is to be the place where Yahweh’s people have their worldwide ...

40. The Year of the Woman

Genesis 2:18-24

Sermon

King Duncan

... all created in the image of God. We deserve to be treated with dignity and to treat others with dignity. This is God’s will for our life and for our marriages. May God bless our families regardless of how those families may be configured. May we love and support one another as God intends. 1. Rev. Lowell’s Laughter in the House of God: Humorous Anecdotes about Churches, Clergy, and the World of Religion (Kindle Edition). 2. http://www.dailyfreeman.com/opinion/20180321/kathleen-parker-is-2018-finally ...

41. The Promise of Dreams

Genesis 37:1-11, Matthew 1:18-25

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... -tech dreams means we need to be first and foremost dreamers of God’s dreams for the world, not Hollywood/Bollywood/Nollywood dreams or Silicon-Valley dreams or Wall Street dreams but God’s dreams. The church’s dreams are not its own confabulations or configurations. They are not mere human goals or selfish manners of attainment, as Jeremiah warned. The dreams of a prophetic church in any age, are the dreams of God, realized through Jesus, and carried out in the world as the Church. You are the church ...

42. More

Isaiah 61:1-4, 8-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , makes a world. It is a world made open, with old, comfortable certitudes broken by the advent of a God who makes all things new. In the world where God comes, we are allowed to roam, to redecide. Here is poetic imagination assaulting ideology. New configurations of life yet unformed, unthought, undreamed, now available. "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me,...good tidings to the afflicted;...the opening of the prison to those who are bound....to give them a garland instead of ashes." (Isaiah 61:1, 3 RSV ...

43. The Law of the Serpent

John 3:14-21

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Adam, will restore the world and reverse death and erosion, offering a gift of eternal life and eternal kingdom with his gift of redemption and salvation. If the first human was “Adam Transient,” Jesus shines forth as “Adam Eternal.” This configuration of opposites: dark and light, death and life, sin and salve, change and permanence, mortality and eternity, even humanity and divinity pervade the story of the gospels, as well as the earlier Hebrew scriptures. Darkness can be changed by the presence ...

44. The Call

Matthew 16:13-20, Mark 1:14-20, Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Will Willimon

... that there is no free-standing, independently valid means whereby what we call ''reason'' can distinguish between reason and insanity. What we call ''reason'' that leads us to label someone a lunatic is a socially constructed term that is subservient to some prior cultural configuration. A society's definitions of who is insane and who is sane are often a function of what that society considers to be important, how it makes its money, who is in power. It is rather frightening to be told that what we call ...

45. I Have Been Gifted!

1 Corinthians 1:3-9

Sermon

Ronald Love

... for IBM, working at North Carolina’s Research Triangle Park, he set out to find a solution. He eventually developed what is known as the Universal Product Code. We know it better as the tag or label on a product that has a black bar that is configurated in black lines with a 12-digit number printed below it. The bar code allows the cashier to simply scan the item being purchased, instead of typing the cost into a cash register. The bar code is faster. It allows for fewer errors, and it allowed the ...

46. “The Words of the Lord Are Flawless, Like Silver Purified in a Crucible”

Psalm 12:1-8

Teach the Text

C. Hassell Bullock

... Soviet Union were without proper printing equipment to produce copies of the Bible. Resourcefully, they collected as much printed Communist literature as they could obtain. Taking those printed texts, they cut out each word and pasted them back together to produce a printed Bible. Originally, these same words, when configured within the Communist documents, had depicted the world of the Communist literature they printed. Once reconfigured as the Bible, these words had quite a different textual meaning.16

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