Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: thirstiness, dryness, parched, craving, strong desire, longing, yearning, avidity, hunger, voracity, keenness, eagerness, lust, appetite, passion, love, crave, want, covet, desire, hunger for/after, lust for/after, hanker for/after, have one's heart set on

Antonyms: aversion, distaste, apathy, dislike, hatred, antipathy, disgust, disregard, abhorrence, acrimony, wet, animosity, animus, antagonism, bad feeling, bitterness, be averse to, detestation

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1551. Let's Go Fishing

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... intensity in the water changes or when they are in clear water vs. darker water.[5] Good lesson for those who “fish for people” as well. Be sensitive to the changes in people’s lives that might make them hungry for a word of good news. Speaking of hunger, that brings to mind another basic: bait. You have to have something to attract the fish. It might be a flashy lure or some mouthwateringly scrumptious worm (gag), but to expect the fish to just jump in the boat for no reason will not work. If you ...

1552. Heroines of the Faith

Mark 1:29.39

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... saint of foreign missionaries.[11] From what has been called a “life-changing encounter with the Living Presence of the Will of God” on a train journey in September, 1946 came a unique ministry to the poorest of the poor in India. “There is a terrible hunger for love,” she wrote. “We all experience that in our lives — the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them. Put your love for them in living action ...

1553. Praying the Lectionary: Lent 5

John 12:20-33 · Hebrews 5:5-10 · Jeremiah 31:31-34 · Psalm 51:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson

... disciplined people of prayer. Rooted in prayer, you teach us the deeper meaning and purpose of life. God of mercy: C: Hear our prayer. P: Covenant-making God: We are your seeds, O Lord; help us to grow and produce much fruit. Grant us a never-ending hunger and thirst for your gospel, that as we are fed and filled full-to-overflowing, we might share this heavenly food with other hungry and thirsty people. Help us to be your productive seeds. God of mercy: C: Hear our prayer. P: Covenant-making God: Our world ...

1554. Is This All There Is?

Revelation 21:1-6

Sermon

Will Willimon

... who has not pined for a radically new world. Whether it be Marx sitting at his desk in the British Museum sketching the ideal economic state, or Lennon, John Lennon, urging us to “imagine all the people living for today,” with no war, no hunger, and no tears, there is no hope unless it's hope for something different--and better. Every visionary social theorist, every scientist in the laboratory, or revolutionary soldier is united in the belief that, “If that's all there is…” Two thousand years ago ...

1555. The Christian Mother

John 15:9-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... what you can see. Look way down deep." The little girl got real close and looked intently into her mother's eyes. Then she said, "Mommy, I can see way down and the only thing I can see is myself." That is the kind of love for which every child hungers. And make no mistake about it, such selfless concern is ultimately rewarded. In his book AN OPEN ROAD, Richard L. Evans writes: "A certain woman was heard to say as she observed a manly young man, ˜I would give twenty years of my life to have such a son.' And ...

1556. The Feast of Leviathan

Luke 24:36b-48

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... Holy Communion, we acknowledge the sacrifice and bodily resurrection of Christ, Messiah and Lord. Through his blessing of the flesh, we of flesh and blood continue his mission in a real world of material things, proclaiming that out of our woundedness and hunger comes resurrection and abundant grace, and knowing that someday, we and all those we touch with Jesus’ hand of healing will be transformed and changed. Someday, we know that our bodies will rise. The earth will reconstitute itself into a redeemed ...

1557.

Psalm 146:1-10

Understanding Series

Craig C. Broyles

... upside down: in his economy, princes are devalued and the marginal in society are given value. The divine name chosen in verse 5 may aim to awaken the memory of how Yahweh proved to be the God of Jacob, the patriarch who similarly experienced “famine” or “hunger” (Hb. rāʿāb, Gen. 42:5; 43:1) and whose son Joseph was a “prisoner” (39:20; 40:3, 5). When Jacob blessed Joseph, he called Yahweh “your father’s God, who helps you” (49:25). 146:10 The closing verse addresses Zion directly with ...

1558. Yada, Yada, Yada!

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... . We have statistics to show how many people are seeking spiritual sustenance and direction and don’t know where to find it. They look in all kinds of places to find that kind of fullness, that personal relationship, that ability to be seen. It’s a hunger in our world for relationship. “To know and be known” is everyone’s greatest need. Healing begins when people are seen. Being an apostle of Christ does not just mean to share the good news in words. Part of being Christ’s apostles means seeing ...

1559. The Loaves

John 6:1-21

Sermon

David Coffin

... eat at one of those restaurants for over ten years. I would make a bologna sandwich and bowl of soup instead. The restaurant meal is not the loaves of bread I desired. Jesus offers loaves of bread that point to a divine reality beyond any time of hunger or chaos we can ever experience here on this world. In Bible times, before that of refrigeration and electric food storage technology, a typical family spent half of their day getting enough food for meals for just that day. The food had to be consumed at ...

1560. AAA=A

John 6:35, 41-51

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... of Life, we recognize that the “Bread” is a metaphor for the incarnation, God manifested in human form as Jesus, Son of the Father, come down from heaven for the benefit, sustenance, and saving of God’s people from their unfulfilled spiritual hunger deficit. Ever since humankind thought to go without God beyond the Garden, something has been vitally missing. Jesus has come now to finally fulfill it, to return us to the fold. The gospel of John emphasizes Jesus’ divinity more than any other gospel ...

1561. But, Why?

Titus 3:4-7

Sermon

Scott Bryte & Kimberly Miller van Driel

... , who is beyond space and time and our imaginations, come to us and live in our dirty, earthy world? It doesn’t really make sense. We talk about it like it’s the most normal thing there is, that God would choose to live among us where there is hunger and pain, where this is joy and disappointment. We think of it as inevitable. We act as though it were logical for far off and powerful God to suddenly change tactics and close the distance between heaven and earth down to zero. But it’s just not. It is ...

1562. In the Mirror

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... his way, the wastrel became waste. Only an outcast immigrant farmer would pay him a few cents to do the dirty work every Jew thought reprehensible. He slopped the hogs and crawled up next to them at night. In the wee hours of one restless morning, gnawing hunger in his belly and snorting hogs grunting their noisy dreams, he knew he had to head home. Not, mind you, as the proud son of his privileged family. He had lost that perch many types of bacon ago. No, he would grovel back, whimpering and crawling. His ...

1563. Faces at a Funeral

John 18:1-19:42

Sermon

Wayne Brouwer

... ,” he told me, and I was left to imagine his cosmic, spiritual aloneness, a void where both heaven and hell were silent and he was left in awful communion with only his inadequate self. There was no dream here, only an incessant heart hunger kept awake by an unrelenting nightmare. But Jesus’ life among us, and his awful, horrible, scandalous, beautiful death somehow bound heaven to earth, God to humanity, eternity to time. We are not forgotten. For the one who thought us into being has become fully ...

1564. Living Through Hard Times

2 Corinthians 5:20b-6:10

Sermon

Bonnie Bates

... condition almost as long as human beings have been on the earth. As Paul wrote this second letter to the church in Corinth, he was reminding the people that he, too had struggled: “in beatings, imprisonments, and riots; in hard work, sleepless nights and hunger” (2 Corinthians 6:5). His life, as follower of Jesus and as evangelist had been difficult, more difficult in some ways than our Christian lives have been. We, in the United States at least, are rarely beaten or imprisoned for our faith. We may ...

1565. Fox in the Henhouse

Luke 13:31-35

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... through and through, and he’ll let nothing threaten his goals, his status, and his cushy, yet precarious, situation. Herod is all about Herod. And given the chance, he’d eat Jerusalem alive, if it meant saving his own skin –or his hunger for power and prestige. Luke’s reference to fox and hen would bring up exactly these connotations for his predominantly Greek readership. Just as Paul would work beside those immersed in other traditions and cultures, acknowledge their religion, but then tell about ...

1566. Famine of the Heart

Luke 15:1-3, 11b-32

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... above/override our baser instincts in the name of the greater good.[1] We are not merely physical and territorial beings. Humans are complex creatures. While we may compete for basic needs, power, and status, at the same time, we harbor a deep spiritual hunger and yearn to find meaning and purpose in our lives, build relationships and community, and find fulfillment and peace within our hearts and souls. If we are Jewish or Christian, we turn to find solace and guidance in God’s direction for our lives ...

1567. God Is Like...

Isaiah 40:18-31 · John 1:1-14

Sermon

Kenneth L. Gibble

... breeze and roaring thundercloud Grace us with awakened eyes and hearts open to humility and wonder O Bread of Life, Daily Provider, remind us that your gift of energy and sustenance is not for us alone but manna to be taken and shared with all whose hunger calls us to respond. Empower us to feed a hungry world. O Holy Wind that sweeps unseen across the sprawling landscape of our lives, blow away the fences we erect to preserve and perpetuate our lengthy list of selfish needs and wants. Whisk them out of ...

1568. Against All Odds

Luke 14:25-33

Sermon

Lori Wagner

... God and God’s promise and purpose. He did not mince words however when it came to the “costs” of discipleship or aligning with his vision. He clearly laid out the risks and the dangers that a Jesus disciple would likely encounter: Persecution, Hunger, Long Days of Travel, Disappointment, Pushback, Anger, even Death. So, why would anyone sign on to a mission like that? The answer is simple. Because they believed with all their hearts, minds, and souls in the vision that Jesus presented. Their faith in ...

1569. A Sad Fact about Life

Illustration

Frederick Buechner

Frederick Buechner once looked back at his high school class and observes a rather sad fact about life: "In my class, as in any class, at any school, there were students who had a real flair, a real talent, for something. Maybe it was for writing or acting or sports. Maybe it was an interest and a joy in working with people toward some common goal, a sense of responsibility for people who in some way had less than they had or were less. Sometimes it was just their capacity for being so alive that made you ...

1570. One Life Will Do Fine

Illustration

Staff

In one of his books, noted Presbyterian author Frederick Buechner tells about a trip to the grocery store. He and his wife were in a hurry, so when they entered the small New England general store, they tore their shopping list in two. He took one half of the list and she took the other and they set off down separate aisles. The store was mostly empty so they talked with each other from one aisle to the next. Standing by the shelf of breakfast cereal and cake mix, Buechner called out, "Don't forget the ...

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