Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 151 to 175 of 1089 results

Romans 12:1-8

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... of the Post. The term that he used for them was pungent - "Insignificance, U.S.A." Well, most of us, I’m sure, have, in the past, found the Post covers, especially those paintings by Norman Rockwell, delightful. Yet, on the other hand, perhaps the artist had his point, because looking back, I discovered that the little, human interest scenes depicted on most of the covers were pretty much just that. They were familiar, homely, friendly stuff - pretty much the stuff that most of our lives are made of. But ...

152. Someone At the Door

Revelation 3:14-22

Sermon

Bill Bouknight

... human male figure in the world. David has his sling over his shoulder, and seems perhaps to be sizing up the giant Goliath as they prepare to engage in mortal combat. Our guide shared a surprising fact about the statue. Michelangelo was not the first artist to work on this block of marble. The Italian sculptor Agostino d’Antonio worked diligently on it but gave up, claiming that this marble was of inferior quality. But when the masterful vision and skill of Michelangelo came to bear on it, that block of ...

153. Legends Of Christmas

Drama

Georgianna Summers

... ] Scene ii (The Next Day) [Lights up. A boy comes in and draws a funny picture on the chalkboard. Labels it "Miss Hardgrader." Another boy joins him and draws a heart with "Marcia loves Danny" on it. Other students enter and go into classroom, talking quietly. "Artists" go into classroom when they finish. Becky and Katie enter into locker area, talking to each other.] Becky: Oh, I was never so embarrassed in my whole life. Katie: You were embarrassed. What do you think I was? Becky: Well, how did I know she ...

154. Waiting

Isaiah 63:7--64:12

Sermon

Thomas D. Peterson

... hillsides would grow back in yellow birch, the wood which gave the right quality to the paper they made. A lot of waiting goes into the next supply of wood. The need to wait is more subtle in the lives of people who do great things in our society. Artists take long years to do fine work and then must wait for many years more to see if their work meets the test of time. People who work in laboratories doing research on cures for diseases must wait many years for their work to be tested. Will their discovery ...

155. The Call of the Trumpet

Matthew 6:1-6, 16-21

Sermon

George Bass

... of the gifts of God may endanger our lives and jeopardize our claim to his gift in Christ. In "The Enduring Chill," Flannery O’Connor tells the story of the return of Asbury Fox to his mother’s home to die. He is a young man, a frustrated artist and intellectual, who is "above" the sort of life lived in rural America. Asbury is convinced that nothing and no one - and certainly not the town doctor - can save his life. Although he is Protestant, he asks his mother to send for a priest who, he believes, is ...

156. The Long Lonliness

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... come to know God person to person, as it were. Through the agency of the Spirit, God is at work in each of our lives as an artist at work on a fresh canvas. We are a vital part of that far-off divine event toward which the whole creation moves. If our life is ... community of faith and hope and love where God reaches out to touch his people. And poets will help, as will musicians and artists, authors and thinkers who speak to us personally as though it was God's word, person to person. And worship will help, and ...

157. Beyond Our Sight, Within Our Hearing

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

William G. Carter

... the fact that the tiny baby in the manger contained the power which created galaxies and set the stars in their courses. She concludes by saying: We are not taught much about the wilder aspects of Christianity. But these are what artists have wrestled with throughout the years.1 Perhaps an artist ought to set this story in stained glass. It is that kind of story: glossy, unreasonable, and slightly out of focus. Even then, there’s no promise that we can capture the moment. Peter tried as best he could. He ...

158. The Scattering of Lesser Figures

Acts 8:9-25

Sermon

Harold Warlick

... musician carefully laid his bow down. He carried a chair to center stage. Raising his violin over his head with both hands, he slammed it across the back of the chair. The violin smashed into dozens of pieces. The audience gasped. Walking back to the microphone, the artist said, “I read in this morning’s paper about how great my violin was. So I walked down the street to a pawn shop. For thirty dollars I purchased a cheap violin. I put some new strings on it. That’s the violin I played this evening ...

159. The Ten Commandments #2: No Idols!

Exodus 20:1-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... were nurtured, "Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image." What does it mean? Before that, we should consider what it does NOT mean. It does not mean that we should not have any paintings or sculpture or photographs (although some traditions have interpreted it that way). There were artists in the days when this commandment was given, and there were never any instructions that they should find another line of work. When it came time for the construction of the tabernacle, God said only the best ...

160. Jesus, Where Are You?

John 12:20-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... BRUSH OF AN ANGEL'S WING, by Charles Shedd, "In Which of These Faces Would a Pipe Look Good?" [ORIGINAL SERMON] A pastor was showing a painting of Jesus to a group of children. He explained, "Now, young people, you understand this painting came from the artist's imagination. He didn't really know how Jesus looked." Whereupon one youngster said, "Well, pastor, it sure looks like Him to me." And that brings us to the question of the day: What does Jesus look like? Some Greeks were attending the festival of ...

161. Ultimate Thanksgiving

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

King Duncan

... that bag in the ground. He only had the one bag when his master returned. And the master was irate. Life is not to be hoarded. It is to be lived. Blessings are not to be squirreled away. They are to be shared. There is a story of a poor artist who was regally entertained in a castle. It was one of the high moments in his life. However, he had nothing with which to repay his friends. Before leaving, however, he shut himself up in his room for some days, locking the door, and refusing to come out, or to ...

162. The Ultimate Success Formula

Mark 8:31--9:1

Sermon

King Duncan

... replied, "I've helped some people." The gentle actress, Audrey Hepburn, has been a star for many years. Ask her, though, about her most important work and she will tell you it is traveling throughout the world as a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF. "If my fame as an artist helps me get people to listen," she says, "I want to tell them that if a family gets a shovel, which UNICEF provides in its programs, they should use it to dig a well or cultivate the landand not to dig the graves of their children." You ...

163. Why Did He Do It?

Mark 14:1-11

Sermon

King Duncan

... us food for thought as we leave this service today. It seems that just before the painting of the faces of the disciples in the portrayal of our Lord's last supper with them, da Vinci had a terrible argument with a fellow artist. He determined to paint his fellow artist's face into the portrait as that of Judas Iscariot, and thus take revenge by handing down the man in infamy and scorn to succeeding generations. Thus the face of Judas was one of the first he finished, and everyone could easily recognize ...

164. A Tragic Waste

1 Corinthians 12:12-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... overdose of cocaine. Bissel's story made the headlines because all who knew him recognized the tragedy of such vast potential wasted. At age 20 Patrick Bissell had been drafted from the ranks to perform roles normally reserved for principal artists. Mikhail Baryshinikov, artistic director of the American Ballet Theatre, believes Bissel was "one of the brightest lights...in the entire ballet world." But the lights flickered out when his fiancee found him lying dead on a couch in his apartment. One obituary ...

165. Flies On The Ceiling Of The Sistine Chapel

Luke 9:28-36

Sermon

King Duncan

... themselves, and told no one at that time what they had seen." How shall we deal with these four memorable paintings from the Mount of the Transfiguration? Shall we but peruse them briefly and marvel at the hand of the artist ” then move on to other notable paintings with no thought to what the artist is trying to say? Worse, shall we be like flies on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel who see such works of art as momentary resting places, but have no powers to discern their ultimate worth? Or shall we look ...

166. More Than Meets The Eye

Luke 17:1-10

Sermon

King Duncan

... above us in what seems to us as death-defying feats. Each feat seems greater than the previous one. "Ahhs" can be heard in unison after each act. Excitement is building as we continue to watch in anticipation of the next act. A skilled high wire artist has accomplished so many marvelous feats that the audience has come to believe that he can do almost anything. The ringmaster addresses the crowd: "Ladies and gentlemen, how many of you believe that this daring man can ride safely over the high wire on his ...

167. Peace, Blessed Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

King Duncan

... I'd better notify the next of kin." We can relate to his feelings of frustration. In Rome stands the lovely Fountain of Rivers which was created by the sculptor Bernini. Bernini despised another artist named Borromini, the designer of the Church of St. Agnes, which, ironically stands opposite Bernini's fountain. To deliberately insult the artist whom he despised, Bernini carved one of the statues in the fountain group with a hand covering its eyes as though it could not stand to look at the church. Then, to ...

168. Christ The King

Revelation 1:1-3

Sermon

King Duncan

... that. Anyone who is a professional wants to get it right. Joseph Mallord Turner, an English painter, invited Charles Kingsley to his studio to see a picture of a storm at sea. In rapt admiration, Kingsley exclaimed, "It's wonderful! It's so realistic! How did you do it?" The artist replied, "I went to the coast of Holland and engaged a fisherman to take me out to sea in the next storm. Entering his boat as a storm was brewing, I asked him to bind me to the mast. Then he steered his boat into the eye of the ...

169. When The Going Gets Tough

Romans 8:18-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... recording, which it planned to use as one of its recorded messages. They wanted the tape to project both warmth and authority. Every syllable was planned. The person recorded was a professional speaker and a member of the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. Yet, because the message recorded was so important and would be heard by up to two million people daily, twenty-five takes were made before the best one was selected. (3) You can see from just these few examples that a half-hearted ...

170. Witness to the Light

John 1:1-18

Sermon

King Duncan

... child, with Joseph in the shadows in the background. Peering into the manger where the babe is lying are the shepherds, with their sheep scattered around them. They could not leave the sheep in the field, they had to bring them along. Arching above the manger the artist has painted a ladder which suggests, in the shadows it casts, the form of a cross. Rembrandt was too great a painter just to put a cross in, with no justification in terms of the picture itself, but the ladder subtly suggests it. And on the ...

171. Grace Is Not a Blue-eyed Blond

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... the same wage! That doesn’t seem fair. The union would never stand for that! But, of course, Jesus was making a point. God isn’t fair, God is merciful. A great king was having his portrait painted. He said to the artist, “I hope you can do my face justice.” “Sire,” said the plucky artist, “What your face needs is not justice, but mercy!” So do we all...and that is what I believe Jesus’ story is all about. And that is what He said that God is all about. Right here a lot of folks become ...

172. Sine Qua Non

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... as well as our God. We are to love with our minds here, as well. Christians ought not to be “sitting ducks” for every con artist who comes down the pike. In every situation, we must use our minds to ask: “What is the most loving thing I can do for ... person asks for money for a meal, perhaps the most loving thing I can do is help him find a job. There used to be a con artist by the name of “Ralph” who was a regular. He visited me in at least the last four parishes I served. I haven’t seen him in ...

173. GIVE ME YOUR SINS: The First Word

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... he left the room and said, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Yes, the cross demonstrates that God put his idea of forgiveness into action, not into a law book. The cross demonstrates that God knew exactly what he was doing. The artist William Holman Hunt once painted what I believe to be one of the most insightful pictures concerning the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work depicts a carpenter''s shop in Nazareth. Jesus is standing by a wooden trestle on which he has just placed ...

174. Titles, Credentials, or Resurrection Power

Philippians 3:1-11

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... . There are three crosses on a hill, a dark sky, Roman soldiers, and a crowd gathered to watch. What makes the canvas unusual is a figure at the bottom--John the Baptist pointing to the center cross. He rivets the attention of the viewer because the artist has enlarged the size of his pointing finger. It is all out of proportion, several times its normal size. It is the finger of a giant. The Apostle Paul concludes this portion of his Philippian Letter by pointing to the surpassing greatness of Jesus Christ ...

175. Good Friday: The First Word

Luke 23:26-43

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... Hotel in Jerusalem. I am thankful today that the Savior who loves us enough to go to the cross does not give us a cold glance and shoulder from the cross but cries out with great feeling a prayer of petition addressed to his Heavenly Father. The artist, William Holman Hunt, once painted what I believe to be one of the most insightful pictures into the mission of our Lord Jesus Christ. The work depicts a carpenter''s shop in Nazareth. Jesus is standing by a wooden trestle on which he has just placed his ...

Showing results