A junior high music teacher had just organized a band in her school. The principal was so proud of the music teacher's efforts that without consulting her he decided that the band should give a concert for the entire school. The music teacher wasn't so sure her young musicians were ready to give a concert, so she tried to talk the principal out of holding the concert, to no avail. Just before the concert was ready to begin, as the music teacher stood on the podium, she leaned forward and whispered to her ...
Over the past few weeks, I’ve heard some variation of the following over and over again: “I’m craving some good news.” “I am longing for beauty.” “I’m tired of feeling beaten up and not good enough.” Maybe you’ve heard versions of these sentiments, too. Or maybe you have expressed them. I’m not sure why I’m hearing this from so many sources now, but I can guess it is because there is so much bad news, so much ugliness, so many people willing to be critical, pointing out flaws in themselves, their friends ...
When Mark Twain was at the peak of his writing career, it is said that his magazine and journal articles were worth $5 a word--a great sum of money in those days. One enterprising Harvard graduate student sent Mark Twain a letter: "Dear Mr. Twain: Enclosed please find $5. Please send me your best word." A few days later, the student received a telegram with this single word response: "Thanks!" "Thanks" may be the most valuable word in any language. It is certainly the word that dominates our thinking ...
Will you hear the word of the Lord as found in the third chapter of the Book of Acts, the first ten verses? “Now Peter and John were going up to the temple at the hour of prayer. The 9th hour, and a man lame from birth was being carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple, which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of those who entered the temple. Seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, he asked for alms, and Peter directed his gaze at him with John and said, ‘look at us,’ and he fixed ...
A woman went into a restaurant and ordered the breakfast special, "I want my pancakes well done," she said. "You need to cook them all the way through and golden brown on both sides. Use the light syrup because the regular syrup is too sweet. Make the bacon crisp and thin, not oily or soggy and put it on a separate plate. The eggs must be over-easy, not broken or runny." "And would you like butter or margarine?" asked the waitress. The woman answered, "Oh, it doesn't matter; I'm not that picky." (1) A ...
We have officially begun that wonderful season of waiting and watching known as Advent. Small children, of course, are waiting for Christmas Eve and the coming of jolly old St. Nicholas. I heard about one little boy who climbed onto Santa’s lap. Santa asked the usual question: “And what would you like for Christmas?” The child stared at him open-mouthed, horrified. Then he gasped, “Didn’t you get my Snapchat?” Well, let’s hope Santa consults his Snapchat account while he is deciding which toys he will be ...
Universities in the Northeast take great delight in staging Elizabethan dramas. This is one of the cultural aspects which universities in the Northeast emphasize. It is a way of giving aspiring young actors and actresses some practical experience on the stage and it is a way of taking classical literature out of the boredom of the classroom and making it come alive in the minds of students as they watch it performed on the stage. Perhaps, one of the greatest of the Elizabethan dramas is Christopher Marlowe ...
There is an old story about a henpecked husband who went to a psychologist. He was tired of being dominated by his wife. The psychologist told him, “You do not have to accept your wife’s bullying. You need to go home right now and let her know that you’re your own boss.” The husband decided to take the doctor’s advice. He went home and slammed the door on the way in. He confronted his wife and said, “From now on you’ll do what I say. Get my supper, then go upstairs and lay out my clothes. After I eat, I’m ...
One long hot summer in a place called St. Johns, there came into town a man with a big tent which he set up at the corner of Lombard and Clarendon, with a sign posted in front: THE GREAT MARCEL AND HIS FABULOUS SNAKE SHOW. He was dapper and slim, and he wore a stovepipe hat and a cutaway coat. And when the crowds thronged around the tent that night and oil torches flickered their light over a lithe young lady dancing with snakes, Marcel told of his wonderful oil ” oil extracted from snakes that cured every ...
Ladies, what would you think if your husband came home with a box of Valentine candy and twelve long stem roses? In July? Well, he certainly would get your attention! Today I am doing something I love to do—preach about a familiar seasonable passage, out of season! Why? First, it is the next text we come to in Mark. But, second, liberated from the church calendar and from some of the expectations and trappings¾helpful and unhelpful¾we are free to explore deeper meaning and richer application for our lives ...
Once upon a time, many years ago, there lived a king who had a beautiful daughter. This princess had many offers of marriage, but she couldn’t make up her mind. A romantic girl, she wanted a man who would love her more than he loved anything else. Finally, she devised a way to test the love of her suitors. An announcement was made and sent throughout the kingdom that on a certain day, there would be a race. The winner of the race would marry the princess. The race was open to every man in the kingdom, ...
Proverbs is right: Having a good name is a terribly important thing. It is important in business, it is important in society, it is important at home, in a family. When we lose our good name, we have lost our trustworthiness. Sometimes it cannot be replaced. How do we know if we have a good name? What is the measurement? Is it the absence of gossip? Or the presence of trust? Is a good name something that we start out with only to find it comes up missing once we have done one or two things wrong? Or does a ...
Dr. Tom Long in his book, Shepherds and Bathrobes, tells a story that appeared years ago in the New York Times. It was just before Christmas. David Storch, a music teacher, borrowed a copy of the score of Handel’s Messiah from the Brooklyn Public Library. For some reason, through a clerical error, the transaction was not recorded. Afterward, there were several other requests for the score, and the library staff--unaware that it had been checked out--spent many hours searching in vain for it through the ...
Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord; He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored; He has loosed the fateful lightning of his terrible swift sword: His truth is marching on.Glory, glory! Hallelujah! Glory, glory! Hallelujah!Glory, glory! Hallelujah! Every time I hear these words of the "Battle Hymn of the Republic," I have visions of some old Civil War movie with soldiers marching off to meet their fate in the glory of the battlefield. In such a context this hymn ...
Lent is one of the primary seasons of the Christian calendar. But this year that phrase "primary season" has a different meaning. Lent may be a primary season of prayer and fasting, repentance and introspection in a theological context. But in 2008 this is "primary season," which means something very different in a political context. No matter how apolitical you may be, it has been impossible to avoid the 2008 "primary season." The pious pronouncements of the endless parade of political pundits can become ...
In the nineteenth century, most American denominations felt pretty smug that theirs was the real faith. Some might have grudgingly admitted that not everyone would be cast into outer darkness for the sin of worshiping in the wrong building. But overall it was a time when theological differences as well as points of practice separated people. Having said that, some denominations had a lot in common, whether they wanted to admit it or not. Take the Mennonites and the Dunkers, otherwise known as the German ...
Bill was a writer, a really good writer. As a matter of fact, the whole country knew his name ” although they did not know him as "Bill." Editors competed to get Bill's stories. He was not one of those struggling young writers who couldn't get a break. In fact, editors paid top dollar competing for Bill's work. Bill seemed to have it made. He had money, he had fame, and he was superb at what he did. One more thing. Bill's stories usually had a bit of mystery about them. He was famous for the little twist ...
It is amazing that one word could change all eternity. One word. One simple word. What was that word? We'll come to that in a moment. First we must go to Caesarea Philippi where Jesus is asking his disciples one of the most familiar questions in all the Bible, "Who do people say that the Son of man is?" I doubt that Jesus was really all that interested in what the crowd thought about him. He knew the masses of people are quite fickle and easily led astray. There was a glaring example of this not too long ...
It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isa. 25:9). About the best that can be said of the church in the past days of Lent is that we have waited. Lent is the church waiting. Questions were raised that had no ready answers—questions of sin, injustice, evil, suffering, the demonic power of Pilate's state, the limitations of the howling, democratic mob, the ...
There you are with nine other lepers. What a terrible disease. First the loss of feeling, then the loss of hair, feet, hands, nose, eyes, etc. Your own family treats you like some grotesque monster. You subsist on alms given by strangers. From time to time you cry out, “Unclean, unclean,” to warn away the unsuspecting. What a dread, dread disease this leprosy. Misery loves company, though. Thank God for these fellow lepers. Deep in your heart you long for the company of whole persons, persons who have not ...
I don’t know about you, but I love receiving invitations. They make me feel special because they are deliberate and have me specifically in mind when sent. Now, sometimes invitations can be disappointing, especially when they have a hidden catch like, “Come to the wedding, but don’t forget a gift,” or “Come on vacation with us and maybe you will want to buy a time share.” Invitations quickly lose their appeal when there is an agenda hidden behind them. But generally speaking, receiving an invitation means ...
Big Idea: In the face of death, wealth cannot buy God off, but he can and does redeem (spare) our lives from the power of death at his own will. Understanding the Text Psalm 49 has typically been classified as a wisdom psalm and dated anywhere from the tenth to the second century BC (see the sidebar “Wisdom Psalms” in the unit on Ps. 37). Kraus prefers the category of didactic poem because this psalm, like Psalms 73 and 139, aims to reflect on a problem.1In the same frame of thought, Craigie imagines that ...
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout aloud, O daughter of Jerusalem! Lo, your king comes to you; triumphant and victorious is he, humble and riding on an ass, on a colt the foal of an ass. I will cut off the chariot from Ephraim and the war horse from Jerusalem; and the battle bow shall be cut off, and he shall command peace to the nations; his dominion shall be from sea to sea, and from the River to the ends of the earth. As for you also, because of the blood of my covenant with you, I will set your ...
THEME: Adam and Eve speak of our origins. Not only have we all eaten of the "fruit of the tree of good and evil," but we are usually drawn to members of the opposite sex. Yet, while drawn to our opposites, we are also confused by them. They act and communicate differently. SETTING FOR THE SERMON MONOLOGUE: This was a mother's day sermon. However, it celebrates God's gift of all women. While we may like to romanticize our mothers, in actuality, they have their foibles. Here Adam is made to share the joys, ...
If you were a Miracle-Worker, and you had one final miracle to perform before dying, what would you choose as a big, never-to-be-forgotten climax? Suppose you had already done such things as calm a storm at sea, multiply five loaves and two fishes into enough food to feed 5,000 people, walked on water, opened blind eyes, caused the dumb to speak, the lame to walk, and the deaf to hear, turned water into wine, and even raised the dead - now you are about to do one more miracle before you die - what would it ...