Sermon and Worship Resources

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1026. I Have Seen the Lord

John 20:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

It’s so good to see you this Easter morning as we celebrate the greatest event in human history, the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the tomb! I hope you came here this morning ready to celebrate. Ironically, on that first Easter Sunday morning, the women came to Jesus’ tomb expecting to do nothing like celebrate. They expected nothing but death and grief and painful memories. The surprise they experienced that morning changed their lives—and the course of human history. What would you do if you came to ...

1027. The Dean's Dilemma

Ephesians 5:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

When you were a kid did you ever fantasize about finding a magical being who would grant wishes for you? Kids see endless possibilities in the world, yet their power is fairly limited, so they get a lot of satisfaction from imagining a magical being, like a genie or a fairy or an angel, who can instantly give them whatever they desire. But the movies and stories along these lines almost always come with a moral: Be very careful what you wish for—you just might get it. It reminds me of the story I like to ...

1028. Desperation to Hope

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

Roland Jaffe’s brilliant and beautiful film, “The Mission” (1986) tells the true story of the Spanish Jesuit missionaries who served the indigenous (Indian) populations of Brazil, Argentina, and Paraguay during the first half of the eighteenth century. The “Jesuit Reductions,” as history has dubbed them, were mission stations created by the Jesuits to bring Christianity to the natives through education and medical service. They were independent of the Spanish government — though protected by it. The plot ...

1029. Who Is The Prisoner? Who Is The Judge?

John 18:33-37

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

The Elder John Kline (1797-1864) was a doctor, a carpenter, a preacher, and an elder among the Dunkers, one of the Plain People. Kline’s home was near Linville Creek, Virginia. He, like all the Dunkers, lived peaceably with his neighbors, which is not surprising since the Dunkers believed in non-resistance to violence. For the most part his people stayed out of politics, but from their arrival in America in 1729, the group had taken an unmitigated stance against slavery. Needless to say this made them very ...

1030. When Good People Pray

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sermon

King Duncan

According to the Gospel writer Luke, John the Baptist was baptizing people on the banks of the Jordan River. Then Luke makes one of the most startling pronouncements in the New Testament. He writes, “When all the people were being baptized, Jesus was baptized too.” Each year on the First Sunday after Epiphany, liturgical churches celebrate the Baptism of our Lord. For us, it is a major event. The Son of God submits to being baptized at the hands of a somewhat eccentric preacher called John the Baptist. ...

1031. Peter Asks A Question

John 13:1-7 · 1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Frank Ramirez

A Sermon To Prepare The Congregation For The Service Of Feetwashing And The Love Feast I like it whenever Peter appears in a New Testament story. He's going to do something. He's going to say something. He will not be content to remain a passive spectator. When Jesus asks the question, "Who do people say that I am?" I can picture the other apostles hemming and hawing and looking at the ground, sort of like school children who do not want to be the one who answers the question for the teacher. Everyone is ...

1032. Much Love. Hope Sent.

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

King Duncan

I would like to ask you a question this morning: what brings you hope this Advent season? I pray that you have a reason to hope today. And I pray that you will find this place to be a community of hope that celebrates the presence and the love of God in every season of the year. But this is the Sunday each year when we light the Hope candle on the Advent wreath. And our Bible story for today is usually read as a message of judgement, but I think it is overwhelmingly a message of hope. I read this week an ...

1033. Have Your ID Ready

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

King Duncan

Think of the last time you had to show some proof of your identity. Maybe you used your library card to check out books, or you used your student ID to get discounted tickets, or you showed your driver’s license to gain admission to a concert. Most adults have some form of proof that we are who we say we are. But if you don’t have any physical proof, how can you convince people of your identity? I read a story this week that made me think about this question. Johnny Weissmuller was a 5-time Olympic gold ...

1034. What Power Fears Most

Matthew 2:13-23

Sermon

Lori Wagner

The excitement and joy of Christmas leaves many people with a strange feeling of sadness in the days after the celebration ends. The frenzied preparations, the endless shopping, the events, the guests, the food, the presents –suddenly it all ends. Everything becomes quiet. Reality sets in. The work week approaches again. Suddenly “normal” seems so…ordinary. Yet, with that sense of ordinary also comes a quiet peace. The world again becomes steady, semi-predictable, reliable. No more pulling off financial ...

1035. Sharing God's Vision

Acts 2:1-21

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

When was the last time you had trouble communicating with someone? It happens to all of us at some time. Maybe it’s because you didn’t understand the other person’s language or culture. Maybe it’s because a word can mean different things to different people. There’s an old joke that used to be popular around the Pentagon that the different branches of the Armed Forces have trouble operating jointly because they don’t speak the same language. For example, if you told Navy personnel to “secure a building,” ...

1036. The Gift of Forgiveness

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Jim Talley and Terry Benner in their book True Colors tell the story of a man named Joe who decided to take an afternoon walk through the foothills just above a lake where he had been fishing. Joe was comfortably dressed in shorts, a T-shirt, and tennis shoes. Suddenly, he felt a sharp pain in his leg as he stepped over a small log. It was then he noticed a large diamondback rattler slithering into the undergrowth beside the log. He looked down at his leg and saw that he was bleeding from two small ...

1037. Rest

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

I don’t know of a more inviting invitation: “Come to me and I will give you rest.” Jesus speaks to the woman who cannot sleep, to the child who is anxious, and to the man is bone-tired. Come ... rest. The invitation is gentle, not forceful. He speaks from a level place, a humble place. His invitation includes all: “all you,” or as they say in the South, “y’all.” There’s not a single person excluded. Everybody come, come and rest. What intrigues me is why so many people turn him down. Have you ever noticed ...

1038. Failure

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Will Willimon

The game was over. The roaring stadium was now silent, empty of fans, a forlorn place of crushed popcorn boxes and drink cups, trampled programs, spent confetti. The coach entered a sullen, utterly quiet locker room. Helmets were down on the floor, jerseys pulled off and piled in a washbin. "I just want you guys to know that I am real proud of the way you played this afternoon," he said. "Real proud. We didn't win, but we did prove to a lot of people what we could do. It was a moral victory." On the way ...

1039. A Woman Dancing

Exodus 15:20, 21

Sermon

Will Willimon

"Then Miriam, the prophetess, the sister of Aaron, took a timbrel in her hand; and all the women went out after her with timbrels and dancing. And Miriam sang to them: 'Sing to the Lord, for he has triumphed gloriously; the horse and his rider he has thrown into the sea."' (Exodus 15:20, 21) The serious, white, Western reporter commented, ''Here in South Africa, funerals of slain black South Africans begin as religious services but are quickly transformed into something like political demonstrations." ...

1040. When God Leads

Joshua 3:7-17

Sermon

King Duncan & Angela Akers

Have you ever been in a situation that needed leadership and direction before it got out of hand? Sometimes one good leader can keep a situation from descending into chaos. But that kind of leadership can be hard to find. When the COVID-19 pandemic first started, health departments around the nation organized mass vaccination clinics in every community. The challenge of vaccinating hundreds or thousands of people each day in a safe and timely manner proved to be a logistical nightmare. The health ...

1041. Knowing, and Known

Romans 4:13-25

Sermon

John B. Jamison

He leaned back against the tree and watched the crowds move past. They all looked so young. He smiled a bit as he thought about how young he had been that first time he brought his flocks here to sell. That had been, what, seventy years ago? Maybe eighty? The journey from home to the market hadn’t changed any, but it sure felt like it had. He couldn’t remember ever feeling this tired. He looked down at his campfire and wondered if this would be his last trip; the last time he would make the long journey to ...

1042. “POW!”

Luke 2:(1-7), 8-20

Sermon

John B. Jamison

Let’s remember the story together. It was a quiet night. We leaned our backs against the tree and tried to relax our aching muscles. It had been another busy day. We started the morning up on the hillside where the grass was deep, but as afternoon came and it got hotter, we led the sheep down into the valley where it was cooler and they could drink from the stream. That’s when the young one got caught in the current and we had to pull it out with our shepherd’s crook. Again. As the sun started to set, we ...

1043. For Someone Noted for Their Smile

Psalm 39 · John 6:51-58

Eulogy

Richard E. Zajac

Million Dollar Smile [Tell of the varied ways their smile impacted not only their life, but the lives of those they loved.] They conducted an interesting study some years ago as to the impact of our appearance upon the paycheck we happen to receive. They analyzed the employment data of seven thousand adults, and they came to the conclusion that those who were above average in appearance earned far more than those who were below average in appearance. And although appearance has to do with the shine on our ...

1044. God Is Like...a Potter

Jeremiah 18:1-11 · 1 Corinthians 15:20-26

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: “Come, go down to the potter’s house, and there I will let you hear my words.” So begins our morning’s reading from the Old Testament. When you hear those words, you may wonder what the Bible meant when it said, “The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord.“ How did that word come to Jeremiah? Was it written down somewhere? Did Jeremiah hear it audibly? Just who was this Jeremiah anyway and why did the word of the Lord come to him? Lots of questions come to ...

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