Purpose: Learning to express love. Materials: A pop bottle, a balloon and a candle. Special Preparation: Place the neck of the balloon over the neck of the pop bottle. Hold the bottle over the flame of the candle until the air in the bottle is expanded by the heat and it begins to inflate the balloon. Practice to see how long it takes before the balloon begins to show signs of being inflated. Try to use a warm bottle. Lesson: This morning I want to show you what happens when the air in this bottle is ...
There was a young couple who had just purchased brand new appliances for their house, and they decided to give their old refrigerator to their parents. Since they lived many miles apart, they just shipped the refrigerator to their parents. A few days later the phone rang, her mother said, "Honey, we want to send you a check for the refrigerator." The daughter said, "No, Mom, it's a gift. We want you to have it." The mother said, "But you could have sold it and made money." The daughter said, "Look, Mom, ...
When Jimmy Carter was President, the press often described him as a "born-again Southern Baptist." Everybody knew what a Southern Baptist was (just a Methodist unafraid of water and willing to tithe). But the term "born again" was a mystery to many. There was and is something different about Jimmy Carter. Even his political enemies detected in him an inner peace, a spiritual depth, and a transcendent commitment. Perhaps Jimmy Carter's difference had to do with this business of being born again. Let's ...
In a "Peanuts" cartoon strip, good old Charlie Brown says to Linus, "Life is just too much for me. I've been confused from the day I was born. I think the whole trouble is that we're thrown into life too fast. We're not really prepared." And Linus asks, "What did you want . . . a chance to warm up first?" The Advent season is supposed to be our chance to warm up. It's that time to prepare our hearts and homes for the birth of the Christ child. It's that time when we put all the decorations in their place, ...
The following is an article written by Keller published in the Atlantic Monthly in 1933. I All of us have read thrilling stories in which the hero had only a limited and specified time to live. Sometimes it was as long as a year; sometimes as short as twenty-four hours. But always we were interested in discovering just how the doomed man chose to spend his last days or his last hours. I speak, of course, of free men who have a choice, not condemned criminals whose sphere of activities is strictly delimited ...
Exegetical Aim: Winter and cold as symbols and signs of the world's darkness and the need for God's intervention. (This Children's Sermon is a bit more symbolic than usual, but so is the scriptural text.) Props: A branch with enough green leaves for each child to tear one off. Lesson: As you were coming to church this morning perhaps you noticed the weather. What was the weather like? (response) What kind of things did you see? What kind of sky was there? (response) What was the temperature like? Was it ...
"But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. (Luke 2:19) The shadows are getting long in late afternoon as Joseph comes running into the house bursting with news: Caesar Augustus has ordered a census for the whole Roman Empire. Everyone will have to go to their family’s hometown to be counted and to pay a tax. For Joseph and Mary, this means travelling to Bethlehem. Mary wants to know more, but Joseph can’t answer her questions. The Romans are not in the habit of explaining themselves to ...
McFaith. You know people like that don't you? They want Gospel Lite as if it were something consumable and not something to consume their souls. They don't want to bear the cross as Jesus said, but they'll gladly wear it as jewelry. They don't seem to get it. They have no idea what their destination or purpose in life is all about. They remind me of a story told about the late Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. When he was eighty-eight years old he was traveling by train. When the conductor came ...
Wisdom for Life’s Tests 1:1 The letter from James opens with a simple and direct greeting. The writer identifies himself simply as James, a servant of God. There was only one James so well known in the early church that he would need no other form of identification, and that was James the Just, brother of Jesus, leader of the church in Jerusalem. The readers are expected to recognize the name. Yet for all his prominence and important position in the church (so important that the letter from Jude begins, “ ...
Wisdom for Life’s Tests 1:1 The letter from James opens with a simple and direct greeting. The writer identifies himself simply as James, a servant of God. There was only one James so well known in the early church that he would need no other form of identification, and that was James the Just, brother of Jesus, leader of the church in Jerusalem. The readers are expected to recognize the name. Yet for all his prominence and important position in the church (so important that the letter from Jude begins, “ ...
John 20:10-18, Song of Songs 4:1-16, Revelation 22:1-6
Sermon
Lori Wagner
The lure of a beautiful song is a mystery. You hear those first notes, and the music draws you in. It’s that song that you listen to over and over and over again. It is the song that in some way stirs your heart, makes you cry, softens your face, touches your soul. For you, it is the “song of songs.” When you are down, when you are out, when you are in doubt, when life seems dark, or dreary, you can put on that song, and you are transported to another place, where life feels like a beautiful dream. Soon, ...
“It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the survivors of Israel; I will give you as a light to the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth.” (Isaiah 49:6) Animators (Props): cornucopia….apples…..pumpkins As we enter the fall season, we prepare for a lot of celebrations. Halloween, All Saints Day, Thanksgiving, Advent. In the midst of all that, there are festivals for families and celebrations for children too. It’s the ...
Jesus had just told the disciples that “he is the vine and they are the branches.” To disciples Jesus is speaking. The very people he chose to be with him those three years of his ministry are the ones who hear these words. While they are wondering how they got into this mess, our Lord assures them they didn’t choose him, he chose them! “I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete (v. 11).” So the disciples have the assurance that they have not chosen God ...
Do you remember the Legend of the Touchstone? It’s a great story to recall on Easter Sunday morning. According to that ancient legend, if you could find the touchstone on the coast of the Black Sea and hold it in your hand, everything you touched would turn to gold. You could recognize the touchstone by its warmth. The other stones would feel cold, but when you picked up the touchstone, it would turn warm in your hand. Once a man sold everything he had and went to the coast of the Black Sea in search of ...
This time of year we're all searching for the perfect gift aren't we? We want Christmas to be special for the people we know and love. We want it to be memorable. Often times though we're like a comic I saw this week in the theological section of the paper. In the Pearls Before Swine comic strip: Pig and Rat are talking and Pig says: "Look, Rat . I'm counting down the days to Christmas with my new homemade calendar. You open a prize box for each day that passes. It's called and Advil calendar." Rat simply ...
Sometimes things happen that push us back to our deepest questions and force us to answer. A marriage breakdown, loss of a job, kids leaving home, or simply the midlife re-evaluation that all of us go through — any of these can push us back to asking what it's all about, what we really want in our lives, what matters and what doesn't ... what we want our life to count for. Sometimes the question gets asked more directly. An Islamic family moves in down the street, and their children ask your children what ...
How would you like to climb a mountain? Right now. Too tired? Completely exhausted after a week of commuting to the office or working around the house? What if you could take the hike without leaving your seat? Don’t scoff! It can be done. No leg work is required. All you need do is exercise your imagination. So, off we go, up the Sermon on the Mount, crossing the ridge to a lookout that offers us a view of the loftiest peaks of the Mount. Those peaks have a name. Collectively, they are known as the ...
I have a confession to make: I love Christmas carols. I mean, really LOVE Christmas carols. Can I get a witness? On the radio….on CDs….in the stores….in the car….they just uplift our spirits in this season, don’t they? There’s something about Christmas Carols that just seem to warm the heart and stir the soul. I know you’re not supposed to listen to them until after Advent, but I admit it before God and all of you: I cheat. I listen to Christmas carols before the 12 days of Christmas. Now I know how ...
Ever hear of those infamous love stories in which someone looks at another person and immediately, they seem to recognize each other. We sometimes call this seeing your “soul mate.” Anyone ever have that happen to them? Perhaps some of you are still married to your “soul mate” –that person who just instinctively “gets you,” “knows you,” “and deeply loves you.” Some say it’s the eyes, that when you look into someone’s eyes, you can see into their soul. Others believe, it is some kind of physical pheromone ...
I THINK ST. PETER HAS GOTTEN A “BUM RAP.” As a result of our Scripture lesson of the morning, St. Peter is often pictured as being a coward, cringing in the courtyard before the onslaught of a serving maid’s questions. Sometimes it seems as though Jesus called Peter “the Rock” not because of his standing qualities, but because of his sinking qualities. Actually, it took a great deal of courage for him to be there at all. None of the rest of the twelve were there. Gone were the crowds who, on Palm Sunday, ...
In 1948 two brothers, by the names of Richard and Maurice McDonald, converted their barbeque drive-in with carhops, into the world's first McDonald's limited-menu self-service drive-in in San Bernardino, California. One restaurant serving one community. In 1954 a man by the name of Ray Kroc mortgaged his home and invested his entire life's savings to become the exclusive distributor of a five-spindled milkshake maker called the Multimixer. He heard about this McDonald's hamburger stand in California that ...
Epiphany We wonder, our heavenly Ruler, about the three wise men who brought gifts of frankincense and myrrh to the Christ child, some months or years after his birth. What a presence they must have made in Bethlehem. Did the commonplace appearance of the Holy Family's home cause them to think they might have come to the wrong place? Did they wonder about the plainness of the friends of Joseph, Mary, and Jesus? Perhaps they stepped outside their abode to recheck the position of the guiding star. Did these ...
She had every reason to be bitter. "Though talented, she went unrecognized for years. Prestigious opera circles closed their ranks when she tried to enter. American critics ignored her compelling voice. She was repeatedly rejected for parts for which she easily qualified. It was only after she went to Europe and won the hearts of tough-to-please European audiences that stateside opinion leaders acknowledged her talent. "Not only has her professional life been a battle, her personal life has been marked by ...
There was a news story a couple years back in The Associated Press about a novel experiment by the University of Minnesota to foil Christmas tree thieves. It seems that the year before the university lost seven evergreens to poachers. So the university began spraying balsam fir, Scotch pine and anything that could pass for a holiday tree with skunk scent. Yes, I said skunk scent. For years, according to this report, Christmas tree thieves have been sawing down trees in the middle of the night. But in 2002 ...
In the rock opera Jesus Christ: Superstar, Mary Magdalene sings, "I don't know how to love him." You see, Christ had saved Mary from prostitution and demonic possession, and now she wanted to live to please Jesus, to offer him her lifelong devotion. But how could she express her love? In her earlier years she had easily known how to please men. But Jesus was different. What did he want from her? How could she serve him? Isn't Mary like most of us? Here we are saved and wanting to be devoted to God, but not ...