I had finished my hospital calls one day, and I could not help noticing a sharp-looking, late-model sports car which stopped at the traffic light alongside me. Visually, it was a thing of beauty! It sat there in sleek elegance, testifying by its design and engineering to its exclusive price tag - undoubtedly some where in at least the $55,000 to $75,000 range. Its driver’s identity lay hidden behind shaded windows. But the mere presence of it bespoke a certain air of individuality and distinction for its ...
Jesus is making his way to Jerusalem. As he makes his way through the towns and villages, he pauses from time to time to teach those who have come out to see him and to listen to him. In the middle of this journey someone poses a question. We don’t know the identity of this questioner. Was he a scribe or Pharisee? Was he a Jew or a Samaritan? We don’t know? His question is an interesting one, though. “Lord,” he asks, “Are only a few people going to be saved?” We don’t know anything about this person, but I ...
Zack had seen the movie. You know, the one with Jim Carrey and Jennifer Aniston — Bruce Almighty. Zack thought it was a pretty cheesy movie ... so predictable ... God helps the guy get the girl. But Zack was thinking, who wants a girl who wants commitment and kids? And who really wants a job? Zack didn't want a job; all he wanted was money. Even oil company executives probably had to do something to make money other than raising prices every time some Middle Eastern king had a toothache. Zack didn't want ...
Let's think about skin for a minute. Skin is something very precious to us. It is in many ways the toughest organ of the human body, the primary line of defense, seemingly capable of renewing itself almost endlessly following cuts, bruises, even surgery and skin grafting. It can adjust to sunlight, making subtle changes in response to prolonged exposure. Skin is fundamental to our thinking about what is or is not beautiful. Creamy skin is thought to be beautiful, while leathery skin is not so desirable. ...
Psalm 33:12-22, Isaiah 1:1, 10-20, Luke 12:32-40, Hebrews 11:1-3, 8-16
Bulletin Aid
Julia Ross Strope
Call To Worship Leader: We’ve come here from a variety of places; each of us for our own reasons. Each of us has a perception of the Holy and we anticipate having that perception satisfied. People: We experience God as judge or as storm or as fire or as gentle voice or as creative friend. Leader: One thing we know is that God is Creator of the world and invites us to be responsible caretakers for the earth and its creatures. People: The Holy One does not ask us to appease divinity by killing animals and ...
Encouragement to Fidelity After the Christ hymn, and reinforced by its contents, the apostolic exhortation is resumed. 2:12 Christ’s obedience has been stressed; his obedience should be an example to his people. Paul has no misgivings about the Philippian Christians’ obedience: unlike the Corinthians in the situation reflected in 2 Corinthians 10:6, they had always shown obedience, not so much to Paul as to the Lord whose apostle he was. If it is felt to be strange that obedience should be mentioned at all ...
In his famous hymn to love in 1 Corinthians 13 Paul says, “if … I have not love, I am nothing” (v. 2). In Romans 13 he says that “love is the fulfillment of the law” (v. 10), and he enjoins Christians to owe no one anything except the debt of love (v. 8). In the latter half of Romans 12 Paul provides insight and guidance concerning the nature of love. Love is defined at the outset (v. 9), middle (v. 17), and end (v. 21) as a commitment to good, and especially the victory of good over evil. This section is ...
All of you know “The Blabber!” You know, the guy or gal who always “by mistake” blurts out the news about the “surprise party” planned for your friends. Or the one who gives away what’s inside of the large box with too many unsubtle hints. Or the one who deliberately guesses the gift you got and ruins your surprise. Or what about the smart aleck older kids who snidely remark about the identity of the one and only Santa Claus right in front of your toddler! The Blabber is less interested in honoring you or ...
College students have an innate sense of fairness. They may not always practice it, but they usually have it lurking around somewhere. And so they often ask ministers questions like, “Why should Christianity claim to be the one true religion? What is God going to do with all those millions of people who are not Christians, and who never heard of Jesus Christ? Aren’t they as sincere as we are? Aren’t all religions, after all, basically alike?” Those questions usually arise after they have had their first ...
The problem with promises is that you have to trust them. You have to believe that they will be fulfilled, and live as if you believe that they will be fulfilled, before they can do you any good. We don't like to do that. We are cautious people. We want something to be thoroughly proven before we will believe that it is true. We want to investigate an enterprise thoroughly before we will invest in it. But that doesn't really work with believing in God. There is a limit to what we can know about God without ...
Do you ever have moments in your life when you feel that God must have decided somehow not to be on speaking terms with you anymore? Maybe you haven’t seen him answer your prayers for some time, or perhaps you haven’t sensed his presence in your life for a while. For some reason, you have been led to wonder if he’s giving you a cold shoulder. You begin to think that he has stopped talking with you altogether. If you can say that such a thought has crossed your mind, then you can probably identify with the ...
Ming Kuang Chen, a delivery man from a Chinese restaurant in the Bronx was making a delivery one Friday evening to a thirty‑eight story apartment building. He took an express elevator to his customer’s apartment. That meant there were no stops, and no exit doors for the elevator, between the second and twenty‑first floors. At least, there were not supposed to be any stops. Chen had made his delivery and was on his way down when suddenly the elevator halted just below the fourth floor. Suddenly he realized ...
Monday Week FiveDaniel 13:1-9, 15-17, 19-30, 33-62John 8:1-11 The God Of Forgiveness Humans love to tell stories about others. We tell many humorous stories which bring out the beauty of one's personality. We tell stories of heroism, bravery and significant accomplishments. Sometimes we even hear and tell stories of unconditional love and kindness shown to another. These are the types of stories we like to hear, ones that pick us up and make us feel good. Humans are far from perfect and thus there are ...
King Ahaz has a real problem: he's worshiped about everything but the one true God; a blunder of cosmic proportions as we shall see. Could you be making the same mistake? (Please read 2 Chronicles 28) King Ahaz King Ahaz sits outside heaven with a few other people. They are all waiting for something to happen or for someone to come and tell them something. King Ahaz stands up. He walks back and forth. He clasps his hands together and unclasps them. He peers over the shoulders of the others who wait. ...
Comment: Hostages had been part of everyday news for all of the decade of the 1980s. It seemed appropriate to look back into the scriptures to see if there were any materials that might have meaning in that kind of historical context. While Paul was not a hostage in the classic sense, he was under house arrest a number of times, thus separated from his family and friends, and from his task as ambassador for Christ. I decided to drop the hostage notion and just concentrate on the way things were for the ...
Notes: Hostage issues always appear to be before us. It seemed appropriate to look back into the scriptures to see if there were any materials that might have meaning in that kind of historical context. While Paul was not a hostage in the classic sense, he was under house arrest a number of times, thus separated from his family and friends, and from his task as ambassador for Christ. I decided to drop the hostage notion and just concentrate on the way things were for the story line. Storytelling can do ...
"Fear not!" Jesus says. These are the same words spoken by the angels to the Bethlehem shepherds on the occasion of his first coming. Now they are used to speak of his second coming. The reason why we need not fear is because God's good pleasure is to give us the kingdom. We cannot earn it. We cannot build it. It is a gift of grace. Despite all the evidence to the contrary and all attempts to oppose it, the promise has been made. The kingdom of God is on the way. We are to wait for it and be ready. The ...
Although He was a Son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. (Hebrews 5:8) Note: This sermon was preached in the midst of a long summer heat wave which afflicted much of the nation. In the early 1960s in the deep South, when the backlash against the civil rights movement got especially severe and the violence of white racists got especially brutal, Martin Luther King, Jr. spoke to a packed church one night and said, "We have entered into a season of suffering." Scripture says that "To everything ...
Israel was a nation who knew what it meant to be defeated in their own land. Their people had been exiled to another land. They had seen their land occupied by another people and their harvest reaped by others. They feared for their identity. Their sense of national pride was gone. They wondered if they would finally become a dying race and a lost people. Where was their God? Where was the God who had called and chosen them to be his people - who had promised them this land? They knew they needed a ...
My friend Mary Jane had just picked up her little boy from kindergarten. She was in a hurry, so she eased through a stop sign instead of coming to a complete stop. A city policeman saw it all and pulled her over. He was very abrupt and stern. She tried to offer a word of explanation but he interrupted and said, "I'm going back to my car and write you up." Mary Jane sat there seething with anger. She said out loud, "That turkey! That guy is an absolute turkey!" She forgot that her four-year-old son was ...
It was a Saturday morning and I recall it all well. I was at my grandmother’s house when a call came from my mother that there was a policeman who wanted to see me at home. I could hardly believe what she was relating! I couldn’t imagine why a policeman would want to see me. Home I went and there sitting in a chair in the living room was a great big hulk of a sargeant! I still remember his opening greeting - "Hello, Bob!" It seemed that a woman two doors down the street had sent a letter to the Rochester ...
Pentecost VII "Come to me, all who labor and are heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me; for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." [Matthew 11:28-30] In his book, The Greening of America, Charles Reich claims that we are living during a transition from one age to another, from Consciousness II to Consciousness III, from the quantity of life to the quality of life, from things to values, ...
Setting The private sitting room in the palace in which Herod is staying in Jerusalem. A throne-like chair, perhaps with a gold or violet throw covering it, should be provided for Herod; this chair should face the audience. A simple chair or stool should be placed in front of the chair so that Jesus, when he sits down, may face Herod but not the audience. Other appointments to the room may be added for effect: potted palms, a small table with a wine carafe and fresh fruits, and anything else appropriate to ...
When I discussed the third Commandment, "Remember the Sabbath," I said that it was perhaps the most ignored and least thought about "Word" in the lot. In sharp contrast to it this guide for living, along with the one that follows it, is among the most thought about, discussed, and argued over of our time. For killing is going on around us continually, or so it seems. Just look at the newspapers, the television screen, or listen to the radio any day, and there killing is front and center. Who isn’t aware of ...
An old, old story has a fellow coming to the most famous and expensive doctor in town. From the very beginning the patient admitted that there was no way he could afford the physician's $500 fee, but he happened to catch the Doc on a generous day and the fee was reduced to $400. "But Doctor," pleaded the man, "I have a wife and six kids to feed." The fee was reduced to $250. "But Doc, that's a month's rent." Eventually, the fellow's begging and poor-mouthing got the fee down to $100 then $50 and finally to ...