And he took a cup, and when he had given thanks he gave it to them, saying, "Drink of it, all of you; for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins. I tell you I shall not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom." How do you normally react when someone offends you in some way? Perhaps they do something to embarrass you in public. Or maybe they humiliate you in front of your friends. How do you ...
Monday Week Three2 Kings 5:1-15Luke 4:24-30 Expectations -- What Should They Be? Expectations are one of the unavoidable realities of life. Although expectations will differ from person to person and from situation to situation, everyone has certain expectations. This is true in how we view events, material things, specific situations, and especially people. If we are honest, most of the time our expectations are high, especially when it comes to results desired and the usefulness and/or effectiveness of ...
During the week he was always dressed in a dark suit, a white shirt, and an expensive tie. On Saturday mornings he wore blue jeans and a flannel shirt. He was a vice president of a large corporation. He was a very successful corporate executive, but on Saturdays he was just another guy. At least that's what his neighbors thought. As he pushed his two-year-old lawn mower out into the sun one Saturday morning, he cheerfully greeted his neighbor as she was pulling out of her driveway next door. Then he bent ...
Tradition – what a concept! What do you think of when you hear the word tradition? Exactly what is tradition? Mr. Webster’s dictionary defines the word tradition as "the transmission of knowledge, opinions, customs, doctrines, and practices from generation to generation, originally by word of mouth and personal example." We have all inherited traditions from our ancestors, which we will in turn pass on to future generations. And traditions are important. Even now we’re looking forward to Thanksgiving and ...
Text: Jeremiah 17:5 - Thus says the Lord: "Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his arm, whose heart turns away from the Lord." Let's face it, we are paradoxical, a people who, while expressing our trust in Almighty God, are motivated by the apparent conviction that humanity is more to be trusted. That which is real is that which is pragmatically, empirically proved to be of value to humanity, and it is almost without exception something that humanity has produced. We have closed our ears to ...
"... if two of you agree ... about anything ..." - Matthew 18:19 The inimitable Will Rogers was once asked, "What's wrong with the world?" And he replied, "People!" Of course, the famous humorist was being humorous. Others have been seriously cynical concerning the human race. One said, "The world would be a pretty good place to live if it weren't for the people in it." But when all the cynics have had their say, I will still believe, that in general, we human creatures really have some pretty good things ...
If there is one short word that would describe the people of this day as we make our way through the days leading to Christmas, it would be the word "Preparers." We all are quite busy with a multitude of preparations. We are busy preparing for Christmas programs, gifts, family gatherings, parties, special activities, and special guests. We are the preparers! And we spend much of our time, energy, effort, and money during this month of December, preparing. Even in the Church we regularly go through a season ...
DICK FRAZIER is presently associate director of the Presbyterian Family Life Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, a multi-service pastoral counseling facility. Before that he was a local pastor and then a Clinical Pastoral Education Supervisor and Chaplain Therapist at a psychiatric center working with institutionalized patients. He also preaches in the context of invitations from local churches that value his input and perspective. The Flow of Life underscores the normality of the ebb and flow of feelings ...
Bill Bryson traveled to Hannibal, Missouri, to visit the boyhood home of author, Mark Twain. The house was a "trim, white-washed house with green shutters, set incongruously in the middle of downtown." It cost two dollars to walk around the site. Bryson found the house a disappointment. "It purported to be a faithful reproduction of the original interiors," he writes, "but there were wires and water sprinklers clumsily evident in every room. I also very much doubt that young Samuel Clemens’ bedroom had ...
Mussa Zoabi of Israel claims to be the oldest person alive. He says he's 160 years old. Unfortunately, Guinness Book of World Records isn't going to print his name simply because his age can't be verified. Mr. Zoabi is older than most recordskeeping systems will go. But here's the interesting thing! However old he really is, Mussa Zoabi knows exactly how he managed to live so long. He'll tell the secret to anybody who wants to know. He says: Every day I drink a cup of melted butter or olive oil! Doesn't ...
[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.] Original Title: He Touched Me New Title: A Little of That Human Touch Liz O’Dwyer, a mother of two, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. She underwent chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, but the ...
Sometime ago there appeared a cartoon in The New Yorker magazine which depicted that dramatic story in the Old Testament of Moses' parting the Red Sea and the Israelites passing through on dry land. Actually, the moment depicted in the cartoon is when the water has been parted and the Israelites are moving swiftly through the passage. Moses is irritated because, obviously, someone has said something to him, so he replies to the man next to him, "Of course, it's damp underfoot, but that strikes me as a ...
Back in early December, Jerry and I were in Jerusalem for a meeting of the presidents of the World Methodist Council. We deliberately chose to meet in Jerusalem because we wanted to identify the world Wesleyan family with that small, often- persecuted and almost always forgotten Christian community in that land our Lord made holy. It disturbs me greatly that of all the millions of Christians who visit that land, very few seek out the Christians there and hear their story. A Christian should not go to ...
The original invitation to deliver this Johannaber Lecture included the general instruction that the lecture theme have something to do with spirituality and/or spiritual formation. The more I thought of that in the context of a “ministers week,” the more certain I was that I wanted to focus on leadership – the vocation of leadership. Pastors are leaders, but they are specifically Christian leaders. So that’s my focus: leadership from a Christian perspective. I begin with three pictures. The first is out ...
Psalm 15:1-5, Micah 6:1-8, 1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, Matthew 5:1-12
Sermon Aid
Marion L. Soards, Thomas B. Dozeman, Kendall McCabe
OLD TESTAMENT TEXTS The Testament texts are a call for us to act in accordance with the reality that we know is true. Micah 6:1-8 makes this point through a legal confrontation between God and Israel, while Psalm 37:1-11 presents a series of wisdom sayings that are meant to bring the reality of God more clearly into focus by encouraging us to adopt the moral way of life. Micah 6:1-8 - "Controversy in the Congregation" Setting. Micah 6:1-8 uses the imagery of dispute as the setting for the prophetic oracle ...
You probably heard about this – it was in all the papers; it was in radio and television news reports; it was a “hot topic” on the call-in-talk shows. A minister in North Carolina had members of his church voted out of the church because they had voted for a Presidential Candidate different from the one he voted for and supported. In October last year (2004) he preached a sermon in which he told the congregation who he was supporting for President of the United States… and he said that if any of them were ...
In the golden days of the settling of the west, you will remember, of course, that one of the major means of public transportation was the stagecoach. But, did you know, that in stagecoach days, they had three different kinds of tickets you could buy… 1st class, 2nd class or 3rd class. A First Class Ticket meant that you got to sit down. No matter what happened, you could remain seated. If the stagecoach got stuck in the mud… or had trouble making it up a steep hill… or even if a wheel fell off, you ...
My sermon is not going to be anything like the movie with the same title. It is different in two very distinct ways. I am not going to be talking about Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, Darth Vader, Chewbacca, Yoda, nor R2D2. Rather, I am going to be speaking about a real empire, the Kingdom of God, and the real Emperor, whose name is Jesus. Furthermore, in the movie “The Empire Strikes Back” the hero, Han Solo, is left carbon-frozen in need of being rescued. But when this empire strikes back, the ...
If you have ever watched the President of the United States deliver the State of the Union Address in recent years, you know that at some point in his speech he will point to the balcony and introduce an ordinary citizen as a real hero in this country. You may not know but that custom began when President Ronald Reagan introduced a man named Lenny Skutnik. To this day reporters will ask presidential aides the question: "Who are the ‘Skutniks' this year?'" Lenny Skutnik was a federal worker walking down the ...
I heard a story about a man who decided that he wanted to live a good life. He set his mind to developing healthy habits. He read every book he could find that laid out the path to a long and productive life. He never smoked, drank, or overindulged at the table. He ate fresh fruit and vegetables and stayed away from anything with preservatives in it. He exercised every day and got his eight hours of sleep each night. He lived in the country and avoided going into the city with its smog and high incidence ...
Those of us who live in the United States have no experience with royalty or with “kingdoms” ruled by kings or queens. We have no royal family, so we have to invent our royalty. We had the “King of Rock’n’Roll,” Elvis Presley. We had the “King of Pop,” Michael Jackson. We had a “King of Soul,” James Brown. We have a Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin. We have a “King of all Media,” Howard Stern. We have a Queen of Clean, Linda Cobb. We even have a King of Greasy Goodness” for the Queen of Clean to clean up: ...
If you're going to study a subject or learn a profession, a good strategy is to investigate one of the earliest theoreticians or practitioners. If you study physics, you might start with Albert Einstein. There were others, but he's a good beginning. If you're interested in drama, you could turn to William Shakespeare. Other playwrights are around, but he'll give you a good start. If you're considering nursing, you could read up on Florence Nightingale. The work of other early nurses would benefit you, but ...
Big Idea: When the Christian faith is reduced to a mere complement to cultural norms, churches come to affirm the very things they should despise and despise the very things they should affirm. Understanding the Text First Corinthians 4:6–13 ends Paul’s response to the deeper and broader issues in the report coming from Chloe’s household. Paul brings the tension between Corinthian ideals and true Christian ideals into their sharpest contrast yet by pointing to his own situation. Everything about Paul, both ...
Once an amateur archeologist saw a man wearing a bolo tie on which was mounted what appeared to be an almost perfect Indian arrowhead chipped out of obsidian. His imagination began to run away with him. He imagined a time in the distant past when someone had quarried the stone from a place far to the north, where obsidian is to be found. He imagined it being crafted by an ancient artisan and sent along some long-forgotten trade routes to be traded to a member of one of the southern tribes. He wondered if ...
As with most employment, pastoral ministry has occupational hazards. I don’t want to overstate the case. Ministry is not potentially lethal as it is for police, firefighters, or combat infantry. By comparison, ministry’s hazards are irritations, mere inconveniences. For instance, simply being a minister is an obstacle to making new friends. Let us say you are the new pastor in town. Probably by accident, you receive an invitation to a rip-roaring Neighborhood Association New Year’s Eve party. At that ...