A farmer who lived on the Great Plains had never traveled to a city of any size, but one day a church choir trip allowed him to do just that. When he got home, his wife asked him what he saw and what he learned. He told her all about it, including the fact that their group had attended church on Sunday in a large congregation which has a really big choir. "They sang an anthem," he told her. "What is an anthem?" she asked. "Well," he replied, "you know we sing hymns here at home. If I were to say to you, ' ...
Have you ever been frustrated because you were trying to talk to someone who simply was not listening? Would you wives hold up your hand? Television news host Hugh Downs once told how frustrating it was to him to see journalists conducting interviews without really listening to the person they were interviewing. He called those types of conversations the "yeah-well interview." As an example of a "yeah-well interview," Downs recalled an interview he heard between a journalist and a former prisoner in the ...
Passion/Palm Sunday Everybody loves a parade or a celebration. Everyone loves to be part of something big and exciting. Early in Frank Sinatra's career, George Evans, his publicist, used some slick tricks to get Sinatra extra publicity. Evans hired teenage girls to hang around outside the club where Sinatra was singing. They were paid to scream out his name and "swoon." He even arranged for an ambulance to park outside the club. The faked hysterics worked; crowds packed the club to hear this fabulous new ...
I love Thanksgiving. We could celebrate Thanksgiving several times a year as far as I'm concerned. Storyteller Donald Davis had a kindergarten teacher named Mrs. Rosemary who also believed in celebrating holidays more than once a year. She liked a good celebration, and saw no reason to wait until a holiday came along before celebrating it. In fact, every Monday morning Mrs. Rosemary's class celebrated a different holiday. In an average school year, the children might celebrate Memorial Day, Valentine's Day ...
A Swiss man, Jean Francois Vernetti, is listed in Guinness World Records 2004. What did Mr. Vernetti do that was so extraordinary? He made the Guiness book because of his enormous collection of "Do Not Disturb" signs. In his travels to 131 countries, Vernetti has amassed a collection of 2,915 "Do Not Disturb" signs in a variety of languages. He dreams of collecting such signs from all 191 countries of the world. (1) Who would have thought that this would be a universal sign? "Do Not Disturb." On second ...
In T. S. Eliot''s classic writing, MURDER IN THE CATHEDRAL, there is a revealing scene when Archbishop Thomas Beckett goes back to the cathedral knowing that King Henry II has pronounced him to die. Knowing that he will be murdered, Beckett goes back to the cathedral. Out of respect for the Archbishop some of the guards of the cathedral lock the doors. However, the Archbishop cries out, "Unbar the doors! Throw open the doors. I will not have the church of CHRIST which is a house of prayer, a sanctuary, ...
Spiritual storytelling (a.k.a. "my testimony") is often an inspiring experience for a gathered group of Christians. It is also inherently risky. The risk is that the story will sound wonderful. Whenever the overwhelming number of details of someone's garden-variety life are squeezed down to a significant few, it can seem that that four-minute abridged version of existence is fabulously more exciting or meaningful than anything the rest of us have experienced in the previous forty years. We may say to each ...
Our second scripture lesson and the text for our message this morning is from Paul’s letter to the Philippian church. I’m going to be reading from the Revised Standard Version. I’m reading the 5th-11th verses of the 2nd chapter of Paul’s letter to the Philippian church. This is the word of the Lord. Hear it. “How this mind among yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who though he was in the form of God did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a ...
Last September, there was a groundbreaking service for a Catholic cathedral that is going to be constructed in Los Angeles. The Diocese of Los Angeles commissioned the famous Spanish architect Jose Rafael Moneo to design the building. Their hope is that the cathedral will be completed by the beginning of the millennium. It’s to be a pectacular witness to the glory of God. There were models of the cathedral at the groundbreaking service and on the basis of the models a Los Angeles Times reporter wrote a ...
The title of this sermon, "You Have Outwitted Me," comes from the writings of Brother Lawrence. I am indebted to John Imel, who discovered the quote, shared it at a staff devotion some years ago. Brother Lawrence entered a monastic order thinking that he was giving up the happiness of this world to become a monk. He discovered instead a deeper happiness in a monastic life than he had ever imagined. He said, "God, you have outwitted me." That's a wonderful phrase, and a testimony to what we call the ...
"Hoke, you are my best friend." It took Daisy Werthan almost twenty years to make that statement; it wasn't easy. The relationship between Daisy and Hoke was not mutual or cordial at the outset. Daisy had driven her beautiful new 1948 Packard into her neighbor's backyard. Boolie Werthan, Daisy's son, thought that such an incident was sufficient evidence to warrant that his mother stop driving; she needed a driver, a chauffeur. Hoke Coleburn, a middle-aged black man, was Boolie's choice for the job. Daisy, ...
Every year or so another great cure-all springs from science, folk medicine, or common sense and becomes the hottest "new cure." [Bring some show and tells to pass out to your people-or just show them off. Maybe some people in your church collect old, 19th century remedies and containers they were sold in. Use them as symbols of what you're preaching about. Maybe even have a display set up.] How many of you sucked on and sucked down zinc lozenges a few winters ago when some anonymous "studies" suggested ...
Fred Craddock tells about a family that was taking a lovely Sunday afternoon drive, when suddenly the children began shouting, “Stop the car! There’s a kitten by the road!” The father kept on driving, but his children wouldn’t quiet down. He tried to reason with them. The kitten was probably someone’s pet. It might have a disease. The family already had too many pets. It did no good. The children insisted that a loving father would stop the car for a stray cat. So finally the father drove back to the spot ...
Her name is Pascale. She is five years old. She is a very important part of our church family. She is here in the 8:30 service most every Sunday morning. One evening recently, Pascale was watching television with her mom and dad. Suddenly, a news flash showed President Bush walking to a meeting. The President was surrounded by a group of men in dark suits. Pascale asked her parents: “Who are those men with the President? Why are they with him?” Her parents answered: “They are members of the secret service ...
I am beginning a series of messages that I have entitled: "Home Sweet Home." These messages are going to deal with the fruit that every family tree ought to bear. I want you to imagine what your marriage would be like, what your kids would be like, what your spouse would be like, what you would be like, if the tree of your home and your heart bore the fruit of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self -control. Now quite frankly, if a lot of us started bearing ...
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 ...
I greet you this morning as “Easter people” because that is who you are. In Korea, Christians are called “resurrected people.” For an Easter person, Easter is not only the most important day of the year; the first Easter was the most important date in history. Resurrection is the capstone and cornerstone of our faith. Billy Graham declared, “If I were an enemy of Christianity, I would aim right at the Resurrection because that’s the heart of Christianity.” St. Paul felt the same way. He said, “If Christ ...
For those of a certain age, Norman Rockwell was the artist who captured our American way of life. Beginning in 1916, he painted over 300 covers for the Saturday Evening Post which have become classics in American art—everything from childhood adventures in the old swimming hole to moving tributes to war heroes, gentle laughter and deep sentiments. He imaged what we imagined life was, or could be, like in those days of my growing up. Along the way he also challenged some of the narrow attitudes and ...
The train clanked and rattled down the tracks one lazy summer afternoon as I traveled from Kyoto to Tokyo. My car was relatively empty — a few housewives with children in tow and a few older folks going to or returning from shopping. At one station the doors opened and suddenly the quiet of the afternoon was shattered by a man who began to bellow violence and incomprehensible curses. The man was big, drunk, and filthy. As he yelled, he swung at a woman carrying a baby. The blow sent the woman into the lap ...
In the parable of The Giving Tree, a young boy would gather his favorite tree's leaves on mild autumn afternoons. He fashioned them into a crown for his head and played king of the forest. The tree was fun to climb, and he loved to eat its delicious apples. The boy enjoyed swinging from the tree's branches, and discovered a shady resting place beneath those same branches on hot summer days. As the boy became a teenager, he visited the tree less frequently. He did stop by once to carve his initials, and ...
Happy Mother's Day to all of our mothers in congregation. Years ago, I asked my Mom if I was a gifted child, she looked at me sort of funny and said, "Well, I certainly wouldn't have paid for you." Years ago I read story about female physician who was taking her four-year-old daughter to preschool. Mom, the doctor, had left her stethoscope on car seat, & her little girl picked it up, hung around her neck and began playing with it. Mom had this moment of thrill as she thought, "Be still, my heart, my ...
Did you hear about the woman who called the fire department one day. She was very agitated, "Come as quick as you can," she cried, "my house is on fire." Then she hung up. A few minutes later she called back, and "Hurry, hurry as fast as you can, it's spread from the kitchen to the dining room." And then she hung up, again. A few minutes later, she called one more time, this time, with the volunteer fire crew all ready to roll the dispatcher said, "OK, lady, just calm down and tell us how to get there." It ...
A mother asked her little girl if she would like an ice cream sundae. The little girl replied, "I don't want to wait until Sunday... I want ice cream NOW." (1) Have you ever waited expectantly for something? Christmas day, your Wedding Day, a birthday, commissioning. There's that whole jittery sense of anticipation. Well, that's sort of the way I've felt about this sermon. Partly because it's Pentecost Sunday, the day we received the outpouring of God's Holy Spirit and the day we celebrate as the birthday ...
A few weeks ago, my son Kevin asked me to make some suggestions for his reading. I thought about that only for a moment - immediately I suggested that he read one of my favorite writers, Loren Eiseley. I went back and reread some of his marvelous stuff myself. In his book, All The Strange Hours, he talks about the experience he had at his father’s death. During the last days of his father’s illness, there had been no sign of consciousness. His father on his death-bed. Then, Leo came. Leo was his half- ...
In his little book, Portraits of God, Harold T. Bryson tells boys who asked their minister for a service project where they could help somebody. The minister gave them the name of a blind man who wanted someone to read the Bible to him. When the boys arrived at the blind man’s house, they agreed that over a period of time, they would read the entire New Testament to him. However, when they started reading the first chapter of Matthew, they quickly came to all the “begets” and begats”. Abraham begat Isaac, ...