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Showing 1301 to 1325 of 2844 results

1301. Sacrifice - Hannah and Mary, the Mother of Christ

Luke 2:41-52

Drama

Martha L. Leach

Characters: Hannah Mary, the Mother of Christ Narrator: This week the second attribute of Lent - sacrifice - will be highlighted in the dialogue. There are many in the Scriptures who made sacrifices for God and his purposes. Two women Hannah and Mary, the mother of Christ - are tonight's examples of sacrifice each in her own way. The setting is a garden. (Mary is weeping. Hannah approaches.) Hannah: Greetings! What a beautiful garden! My name is Hannah. May I come in? Oh! Why are you weeping? Mary: Come in ...

1302. The Sound of Everlasting Joy

Luke 15:11-32, Matthew 28:1-10

Sermon

Wallace H. Kirby

The telephone rang last Thursday morning. The caller identified himself as a reporter for The Raleigh Times. "We are doing a feature article on preparations ministers make for preaching on Easter Sunday," he said, "and I would like to ask you a few questions." With my consent, the questions were asked: How much time are you spending in preparation? What are you going to say? Are you using last year's Easter sermon? Where did you get your idea? How does it all tie in with what you have been preaching prior ...

1303. A House Or A Home?

Joshua 24:1-27

Sermon

R. E. Lybrand

"Now then," Joshua continued, "honor the Lord and serve him sincerely and faithfully. Get rid of the gods which your ancestors used to worship in Mesopotamia and in Egypt, and serve only the Lord. If you are not willing to serve him, decide today whom you will serve, the gods your ancestors worshiped in Mesopotamia or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are now living. As for my family and me, we will serve the Lord." A family moved to a new city where the father's company had transferred him. This ...

1304. The Cross And Our Shadows

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Carl Jech

Many of us grew up singing the hymn "Beneath the Cross of Jesus" with it's memorable line: "I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place ..." This image of "the shadow of the cross" has been used in many different ways by poets and writers. In the hymn, it refers to a place of refuge and rest "from the burning of the noon-tide heat and the burdens of the day." The hymn also refers to the strength-giving character of the cross by comparing it to "the shadow of a mighty rock within a weary land." Surely ...

1305. What Makes Us Human?

Isaiah 6:1-13

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

Text: Isaiah 6:1-5 - In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and his train filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim; each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. And one called to another and said: "Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory." And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. ...

1306. The Friend At Midnight

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Brett Blair

Paul Harvey told about a 3-year-old boy who went to the grocery store with his mother. Before they entered she had certain instructions for the little tike: "Now you’re not going to get any chocolate chip cookies, so don’t even ask." She put him in the child's seat and off they went up and down the aisles. He was doing just fine until they came to the cookie section. Seeing the chocolate chip cookies he said, “Mom, can I have some chocolate chip cookies?” She said, “I told you not even to ask. You’re not ...

1307. The Lord's People Together

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

"... 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 ...

1308. Emancipation Proclamation

John 8:31-41

Sermon

These are slippery words that Jesus used when, fifteen centuries ahead of Martin Luther, nineteen centuries ahead of Abraham Lincoln, he issued the emancipation proclamation: "If you continue in my word, then you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." Slippery words, I said, for when we think we have these concepts, truth and freedom, neatly boxed and wrapped with pretty ribbons, they begin to slip away. The usual baggage we have stuffed inside of them is ...

1309. Formula for Life

Amos 5:1-17

Sermon

A great old hymn asks, "And are we yet alive?" Last Sunday we saw in Luke’s marvelous record of Jesus’ teachings and in the prophetic injunction of Joel the contrast between life and death, and we were confronted with the challenge to live. Today as we continue with Jesus in Luke’s record and hear the powerful voice of Amos speaking we discover the simple formula for living the life of faith. For those who want life that is real, Amos says, there are two directions for their quest to take. They must seek ...

1310. The First Sunday In Lent

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Kendall McCabe

The old songs may be the best songs, but you can't always believe them. I have in mind, particularly, that mountain spiritual, "Jesus Walked This Lonesome Valley." The first part of it is true enough. Jesus walked this lonesome valley, Had to walk it by himself. Oh, nobody else could walk it for him; He had to walk it by himself. Those lines could almost describe what we heard in the Gospel reading for today - the story of Jesus alone in the wilderness, enduring the temptations of the devil. It is with the ...

1311. Breath for Dry Bones

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

One of my favorite spirituals for as long as I can remember is "Dem Dry Bones." I enjoy the rhythm and the beat of it. It makes even my dry bones want to move and to get into the action of the music. I also like the imagery of the song in its lesson of anatomy, "the toe bone connected to the foot bone, the foot bone connected to the ankle bone, ..." and so on until "the neck bone connected to the head bone and we hear the Word of the Lord." God said he could do it and he did, so we sing the Word of the ...

1312. Epiphany 2

Jn 2:1-12 · 1 Cor 12:1-11 · Isa 62:1-5

Sermon Aid

John R. Brokhoff

COMMENTARY Isaiah 62:1-5 The Lord marries his people. Picture the situation: The Exiles have returned from Babylon and find their capital city in ruins along with the temple. The prophet brings comfort and assurance that Yahweh will remedy the situation. The analogy of marriage is used. The Lord will re-marry his people and give them a new name as a bride gets a new name from her husband. Israel is the bride and Yahweh is the groom. Married to Yahweh, the bride-Israel will no longer be desolate or forsaken ...

1313. Micah’s Orders

Micah 6:1-8

Sermon

On Baltimore’s near West Side, there is a winding hilly way which may have been a deer trail long before the Europeans settled in this land. Along that road stands a fine grey stone fortress, with a steeple stretching to the stars. In 1875, the members of First English Lutheran Church, who had been burned out of their church home on Park Avenue, built that fortress. I was near there a few weeks ago, returning from a visit with one of our members who worshiped in that church as a girl. From a stop light, I ...

1314. Pilgrimage of Faith John M. Cobb

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

To begin, let me just note that some of what follows is quoted.2 "In 1817 a group of 1,400 families, consisting of about 9,000 souls, set out under the leadership of [one] Johann Koch, a miller of [the town of] Schluchter in Wuerttemberg"3 (i.e., in Southwest Germany) to emigrate to the Caucasus region of Central Russia. From studies in the Book of Daniel and the Revelation, they were convinced that somewhere there in the east, " ‘near the original cradle of the human race’ ... the Savior would [return and ...

1315. The Gift That Claims Our Response

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Some of the gifts we receive have a way of dramatically altering our lifestyles. Remember the day a well-meaning friend gave your children that cute little puppy? No household can just accept a new puppy and go on with life as usual. Certain changes are inevitable. Or to consider even more profound lifestyle changes, think of what happens when a baby is born into a family. Long gone are the nights of eight hours of uninterrupted sleep; soon the refrigerator is filled with jars of strained beets; and you ...

1316. The Shepherd King

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

On those Sundays when I am able to attend worship services in the parish to which I belong, I am confronted, upon entering and taking my place in the nave, with an artist’s attempt to transport the image of the oldest Christian representation into the twentieth century. It is a painting of the risen and ascended Lord, obviously sitting upon a throne in the heavens, surrounded by a half-halo of angel faces amid the clouds. The pastor and building committee, who commissioned the piece of art, knew what they ...

1317. Running for Jesus

Romans 5:3-4

Children's Sermon

Object: Some strenuous exercise, such as pushups, or fast running in place. Good morning, boys and girls. Today we are going to do some hard work so that we can learn something about the teachings of Jesus. How many of you like hard work? (Let them answer.) Good, I knew our church was filled with hard workers. Now, the kind of work I am going to ask you to do is sometimes considered to be fun. For instance, I want some people to run in the same place for a few minutes. (Give a quick demonstration and show ...

1318. Settling Our Differences

Matthew 5:21-26

Sermon

Joe Pennel

On the surface "Tribute" is a motion picture about a man who is diagnosed with cancer and about his response to that disease. But at a much deeper level, "Tribute" is about a man who is not reconciled to his own son. "Tribute" is about a father and son who needed to settle their differences. Like those characters in "Tribute," one of the persistent needs of our life is to settle our differences. There are many ways that we try to settle our differences. Some of us try to settle our differences by taking ...

1319. Proper 8 & Pentecost 6

2 Kings 4:8-37, Genesis 32:22-32, Psalm 89:1-52, Psalm 17:1-15, Isaiah 2:6-22, Jeremiah 28:1-17, Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon Aid

THEOLOGICAL CLUE Beyond the natural progression of the Pentecost cycle/season, with its eschatological emphasis, there is no clear and definitive clue from the church year. The insertion of these particular readings within the theological framework of the church year does, however, tend to emphasize realized eschatology as much as it does any future eschatology. The latter, of course, is always present, if only in the Eucharist with its "as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the ...

1320. The Fashioning of Christians

Ezekiel 36:1-38

Sermon

My earliest memory of church is a rather traumatic one. My earliest memory is that of being attacked by a fox. That’s right, a fox! The year was 1950. We had just moved to Minneapolis where my father had become an associate pastor in a large, urban congregation. Of course, everyone was anxious to meet the new pastor and his family - at that time, two little boys. This was a fashionable congregation, full of the 50s version of Yuppies. That year, the women of the church were all sporting boas, not a la ...

1321. Don't Let the Parade Pass You By

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

America’s great child-philosopher, Dennis the Menace, offered this observation as his mother washed his dirty hands: "Margaret’s Mom must like me. I heard her say, ‘I just wish he was my child for five minutes.’" The people of Jerusalem had a similar kind of love/hate attitude toward Jesus. They cheered him on the first Palm Sunday as he entered Jerusalem, but then shouted "Crucify him" the following Friday. The Palm Sunday crowd was enthusiastic but fickle. As the politicians would say, Jesus’ support was ...

1322. Father Damien

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Carroll Gunkel

Leprosy is no longer the scourge of humanity it once was. This is mainly a tribute to the drug penicillin, which has practically eliminated leprosy from this earth. Before that miracle, however, men and women stricken with the disease were subjected not only to the reality of great suffering, slowly leading to death, but also to the tragedy of exile from their communities and separation from those whom they loved. Lepers were the living dead. Ancient Egyptians called leprosy "death before death." In the ...

1323. Facing Up to a Power Problem

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

Today we have a power problem. Before Pentecost the disciples had a power problem; they were helpless. There’s all the difference in the world when the power is turned on. Jesus said to his ineffective disciples: "Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you." Then it happened. The air was charged with change. Against their souls in strain A furious wind was hurled. Down some invisible wire, Exploding into fire, God’s lightning came; And their night Was burned away. (a parody on ...

1324. The Spiritual Fitness Demands of the New Age

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

It is possible to be overweight spiritually: groggy, sluggish. Perhaps we need to work out on the weights or to start jogging. The story goes that when a man was asked how he was feeling, he answered: "I just feel medium." "What do you mean by medium?" "Well, I feel worse than I felt yesterday; but not nearly as bad as I’m going to feel tomorrow." Or it’s like an old song I heard last night: "I’m down in the depths on the ninetieth floor." These people need some spiritual calisthenics. Even Paul admitted ...

1325. Journey To The Cross II: Jesus And The Hemorrhaging Woman

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

James W. Moore

One of my favorite authors today is a professor at Loyola University in Chicago. His name is Father John Powell. In addition to being a best-selling writer, he is also a highly popular lecturer, teacher, and counselor. In his book entitled Through The Eyes of Faith, he tells about his prison ministry. About once a month, he visits a prisoner in the state penitentiary. He describes how difficult that is for him personally… the atmosphere is dismal, dark, depressing… and charged with suspicion. However, on ...

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