Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1576 to 1600 of 3160 results

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... York: Oxford University Press, 1954, p.127) Anyone who has struggled with French irregular verbs can sympathize. But his remark is paralleled by an admission which might be made by all too many Christians: Our religion is excellent - all except the verbs. We have all sorts of wonderful adjectives: holy sacred, divine, etc., We even have some pretty good nouns to go with them. But we are short on verbs. Mark is filled with the great verbs of our faith: Come! Repent! Go! In Mark, we are faced with a choice ...

1577. Angels in the Wilderness

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... there is some Persian or Essene influence in John’s Gospel, but more probably, all of these groups were reflecting some common thoughts of the time. Whatever the source for the idea, it does reflect our experience, doesn’t it? We seem to be involved in some sort of cosmic conflict. There does seem to be some Adversary working against God in the world. A residue of evil which is more than the sum total of its parts, more than merely the evil which individuals do. “Satan” is the word for all that is ...

1578. Wining and Dining with Jesus

Mark 2:18-22

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... sinners.” Jesus tended to be inclusive, rather than exclusive. That is what got Him into trouble. Some churches practice “closed communion.” That is, only those who are bona fide members of that particular church may partake. That has always appeared to me as sort of a spiritual snobbery. I am glad that for Father Wesley, the “Holy Communion was not a self-congratulatory meal for saints, but rather a life-changing meal for sinners.” (Willimon, op. cit., p.5.) Wesley spoke of the Lord’s Supper as ...

1579. On Talking to Oneself

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... has made us for one way of life-God’s way. All other roads are blind alleys. Sooner or later we come to realize that. For instance, we live in a diseased, sick world, sick unto death. The cancer of war continues to spread. We have tried all sorts of quack remedies...and our world is no better, but rather has grown worse. One wonders whether we will wake up before shipwreck and come to Christ the Great Physician. “She had heard the reports about Jesus,” Mark tells us. One could preach a whole sermon on ...

1580. On Getting the Gospel Out

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... it: “They went out, and preached that people should repent. And they cast out many demons, and anointed with oil many that were sick and healed them.” (Mark 6:13) Wow! We could certainly use a few more folk like that today! There are all sorts of demons and sicknesses all around us that cry out for cure. “HE SENT THEM FORTH TWO BY TWO” Some of us can remember when we Methodists took that literally. During the early 1950’s we developed a plan for reaching new members called “Visitation Evangelism ...

1581. When Compassion Overcomes Irritation

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... but from the godly trappings that go with the job of being a minister. Killinger writes: “Sometimes being a minister is almost more than I can bear, because it tends to limit one to religious associations and to being around piety all the time. You sort of get ‘altar burn,’ if you know what I mean. Everything in life becomes restricted to religious consciousness, and there is a stained-glass pallor about the people you meet. People open their mouths to talk, and you see little balloons coming out and ...

1582. When Tradition Gets in the Way

Mark 7:1-23

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... for everybody to follow. Facing God’s terrible demand for ALL, they turn away from the Sermon on the Mount and set up another set of less demanding rules: “Don’t smoke, don’t drink, don’t dance, etc.” Methodists have fallen easy prey to this sort of thing over the years. The view of most non-churchgoers is that Methodists are defined by what they don’t do. Bishop Kennedy once described someone who did not drink, did not smoke, did not dance, and asked a layperson if that designated that one a ...

1583. A Sign for a Sign

Mark 8:11-13

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... and the dialogue was added later.) Then he would say to his assistant: “I don’t like that red brick building in the background. Get rid of it!” At which, on cue, the building would come tumbling down with a mighty crash. That’s just the sort of sign the Pharisees were seeking from Jesus in our Scripture lesson of the morning. William Barclay says: “The whole tendency of the age in which Jesus lived was to look for God in the abnormal. It was believed that when the Messiah came the most startling ...

1584. Knight of the Woeful Countenance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... our lives are so spiritually weak and unrewarding. We give our first-rate loyalty to second-rate causes, and then wonder why we are so spiritually empty. Note: Jesus expresses no outrage and makes no denunciations. This man is sincere. He is a very good man—the sort most any minister would be delighted to have in a congregation. And Jesus doesn’t denounce him for being wealthy. Wealth, by itself is neutral. It is neither good or bad; it all depends upon the use to which it is put. Jesus does not frown ...

1585. On Claiming One’s Inheritance

Mark 10:17-31

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... me that you do not show your reverence for the sanctity of life by killing people!) My point here is that mere EXISTENCE is not enough. There must be some meaning, some purpose to that existence. Can you think of anything worse than mere duration, the sort of existence suggested by a famous epitaph on a tombstone: “Don’t bother me now; don’t bother me never, I’m going to do nothing forever and ever.” (Never mind about hereafter, I know some folks who have adopted that as their philosophy here and ...

1586. Are We Able?

Mark 10:35-45

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the church” (as Cardinals are called). I confess that I have some difficulty with the phrase “Senior Minister.” If minister is taken for its literal meaning, “servant,” the words mean “Senior Servant.” That sounds like an oxymoron if ever there was one. Sort of like “Boss Slave.” I recall the story of the Dominican monk who said that, “The Jesuits are known for their learning, and the Franciscans for their piety and good works, but when it comes to humility, we’re tops!” We all find ...

1587. The Lord Has Need

Mark 11:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... , and mounted on an ass, and on a colt, the foal of an ass.” But even Matthew, like many of us, did not know the difference between poetry and prose, and has Jesus riding into town on TWO donkeys! I’d like to see how that was done. Sort of “Palm Sunday in Stereo.” “The Lord has need.” Only here in Mark is Jesus referred to as “Lord” - the usual name for God. By saying, “The Lord has need,” Jesus is telling the disciples that the colt is needed for a sacred purpose. And Mark is saying ...

1588. God’s Greatest Gamble

Mark 12:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... discontent went hand in hand with nationalistic feeling. From time to time, nationalistic leaders would rise up and urge the people to cast off the yoke of political and economic oppression. This “parable” or allegory of St. Mark may well be taken as evidence of just the sort of thing that went on in Galilee during the century preceding the general revolt of 66 A.D., which culminated in the destruction of the Temple in 70 A.D., and the fall of Masada in 73 A.D Jesus may have gotten the story right out ...

1589. Jesus and the IRS

Mark 12:13-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... Lasswell, Northwestern Christian Advocate, Feb. 10, 1927) Some forty years later I watched those words come true. While serving First United Methodist Church in Grand Rapids, a fellow pastor in that community, the late Rev. Donn Doten, found himself the target of all sorts of criticism and hate mail because his son had chosen not to register for the draft. He opposed the war in Vietnam. Like many young men of that day, he became guilty of what some have called “premature morality.” He saw the wickedness ...

1590. Only the Abba Knows

Mark 13:32-37

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... “Apocalypse,” because that is its first word in Greek: “Apocalypse.” I. YOU DON’T HEAR MUCH ABOUT THESE THINGS IN MAINLINE CHURCHES THESE DAYS. The reason, of course, is that the Book of Revelation has been the happy-hunting ground for all sorts of lunatic fringe movements from the first century until today. Mere decades into the atomic age it isn’t difficult to make a case for the imminence of doomsday. “We’re on the eve of destruction,” headlines a national Roman Catholic weekly in ...

1591. On Doing Beautiful Things

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... UNNAMED WOMAN, ALMOST IN THE SHADOW OF THE CROSS. In the darkening days between Jesus’ “triumphal entry” into the Holy City on that first Palm Sunday and His arrest, it is believed that Jesus spent His evenings among His friends in Bethany, which was sort of a “bedroom community” for Jerusalem, located about two miles East, just over the Mount of Olives ridge. One of these evenings as He was dining with His disciples in the house of a man named Simon, a woman entered the room with an alabaster ...

1592. On the Singing of Hymns

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... . Singing in the shadow of the cross. Hymns have been a source of strength to millions over the centuries. II. THAT HELPS US TO UNDERSTAND ALL OF THE FUROR OVER THE NEW HYMNAL. During the past four years we have been hearing all sorts of things about the trials and tribulations of the Committee charged with the awesome responsibility of producing a new hymnal for United Methodists. The secular press had a field day with us disUnited Methodists! At times we United Methodists looked anything but “united ...

1593. What the Maid Said to the Fisherman

Mark 14:66-72, Mark 14:53-65

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... ago...and a very strange thing happened. Just as we arrived at the church, we heard the sound of a cock crowing in the background! I must confess that, with my skeptical mind, I wondered at first whether the Assumptionist Fathers had rigged the whole thing with some sort of recording device. But no; this was the genuine sound of a cock crowing. The church is located in a place where all the sounds of the valley below come wafting up upon the ear. And we heard a cock crow. Some said they heard it three times ...

1594. On Keeping Quiet about Easter

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... to find that the article is “continued on page 7, section C”.... and then turn to page 7, Section C., only to find that someone has either torn off that page or cut an article from the other side and thereby wiped out the conclusion of the story? That’s sort of the way it is with the Gospel of St. Mark. I. SCHOLARS HAVE KNOWN FOR A LONG TIME THAT MARK’S GOSPEL IS CUT SHORT AT THE END OF VERSE 8. They know this for a number of reasons: the primary one being that the oldest and most reliable ...

1595. The Unfinished Story

Mark 16:1-20

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... that when I pray I have more “coincidences,” than when I do not. But picking up serpents? Deliberately drinking poison? That’s downright scary...and sounds hazardous to one’s health. Unfortunately, this odd ending to Mark has opened the door for all sorts of weird things: snake handling cults, for one thing. An article in “People” magazine I chanced to read in a doctor’s office awhile back told of a Saturday night service in a tiny clapboard church in West Virginia, where mountain folk dance ...

1596. Good Friday

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... gold crosses. Do you want a plain one or one with a little man on it?” To an outsider, the cross must seem like a very strange thing to have at the center of our worship. It was a particularly gruesome instrument of torture and death. It is sort of like having an electric chair or a hangman’s noose at the center of our attention. Outsiders may wonder at the Church’s almost ghoulish pre-occupation with one single atrocity committed twenty centuries ago. We now know that Christ’s cross was only one of ...

1597. Bread for Everyone (I am the bread of life)

John 6:1-15, John 6:25-59

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... times in chapter six--verses 35, 41, 48, and 51. Bread is a good word. Bread is a word we use a lot around the church house. Bread is important to life. It is a universal food for our bodies. You can go around the world and some sort of bread is found in every culture. We have Italian bread, New York rye, Matzah crackers, scones, white bread, whole wheat, English muffins, etc. In years past, even prisoners in jails were entitled to at least bread and water. Jesus knew the needs of the human body. Remember ...

1598. The Lord's Prayer: Hallowed be Thy Name

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... cigarettes down and grind them into the ground; they carefully placed them in the proper containers. People arrived on time and stayed until it was over. If a player had trouble moving along, they stayed with him until he had completed his round. There was a sort of holy hush over the entire tournament. "The next day we returned to our church, where we had just completed a new sanctuary. People came late and left early. They ground their cigarettes into the turf of God. Where are we in America, we wondered ...

1599. The Lord's Prayer: Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done

Matthew 6:5-15

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... do. "Well, the Zoad scratched his head and his pants and said to himself, I am taking a chance if I go to place one, it may be too hot, and how do I know if I will like it or not? "On the other hand, I will be some sort of fool if I go to place two and find it too cool. In that case I might catch a chill and turn blue. So maybe place one is the best, not place two. "On the other hand, if place one is too high I may get a terrible earache ...

1600. The Lord's Pryaer: Our Daily Bread

Matthew 6:5-13

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... list for groceries is compiled as we run out of them. I am sure that at the top of every list in every household today is the word "bread." It is a universal food and need for our bodies. You can go around the world and some sort of "bread" is found in every culture or country I have been fortunate to visit and experience. We have Italian bread, New York rye, Matzah crackers, white bread, whole wheat, English muffins and my waistline continues to expand. Even in years past, prisoners in jails were entitled ...

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