Sermon and Worship Resources

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Acts 17:22-31

Sermon

Schuyler Rhodes

... as well as we had hoped. The Romans, being not only polytheistic, but practical as well, came up with an empty seat sort of option. This way, any gods who might be wandering about wouldn't take offense at not having an altar, and the Romans ... of deities, even ones who haven't shown up yet? Doesn't it make sense to cover all the bases? Isn't it just practical in a spiritual sort of way? It reminds me of a fellow I once knew who took it upon himself to convince me that the church should be an interfaith center ...

152. So, Explain It to Me

Sermon

Steven E. Albertin

... the Trinity to our young people, what we are essentially telling them is "Shut up and believe it!" The Trinity is really something altogether quite different. We miss the point of the doctrine of Trinity and what it is to accomplish when we treat it as some sort of ideology or doctrine that we "have to" accept and believe. Rather, the doctrine of the Trinity is the result of our experience of the gospel. The Trinity is the way we talk about a God whose love we experience and encounter in the gospel of Jesus ...

153. Thankful

Ephesians 5:20

Children's Sermon

Marti Kramer Suddarth

... times and for everything in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.” God wants us to be thankful for everything, even little things that we might take for granted. The woman in this story is the woman who wrote this book. She bought more clothespins and finished sorting her socks. Whenever she puts on a pair of socks in the morning, she clips the clothespin to the edge of the basket so she’ll know where they are when she does the laundry. And whenever she sees the clothespins on the edge of the basket, she ...

154. Moving Day

John 14:23-29

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... to help make that happen: Preparing, Welcoming and Honoring. I. Preparing A. The first key is PREPARING: You really can't do anything without some preparation can you? Well it's especially important when you move. After all the moves that Mary and I have made, we've sort of developed a certain method. And the very first thing we do is sift through everything and get rid of all the junk. You CAN take it all with you but why would you want to? In PREPARING to move, you have to weed through everything because ...

155. No Cleansing, No Refreshment

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Temple site itself - kind of a 7-11 convenience store for sacrifices. Likewise the money-changers took in coins of all sorts, from all regions, and exchanged them for the only accepted currency for the Temple, Tyrian money, so that the pilgrims could ... of God’s new plan and purpose. When the Jews who witnessed Jesus’ rowdy righteousness demand he back up his actions with some sort of miraculous “sign,” his response is cryptic — but so unusual that it stayed in the minds and hearts of those who heard ...

156. Joshua's New Diet

Joshua 5:9-12

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... age of the table grace, and more recently it has been designated as the official state photograph of Minnesota (where it was taken). This morning I'm picturing another man bowing his head to pray before he eats. He, too, is an old man, with perhaps the same sort of white beard and weathered face as the subject of the famous Enstrom portrait. This man's prayer is not original with him; rather, it is a customary prayer of his people. "Blessed art thou, O Lord our God," he begins, but then he pauses. He says ...

157. Table Manners

John 2:12-25

Sermon

Craig MacCreary

... deal of time in the kitchen trying to cook up something that will win the plaudits of all the invited quests. I remember one church I served where the committees rotated meeting in various homes. The process seemed to dictate that we were all in some sort of perpetual game of topper. By the end of my first year, we were eating full-course banquets before we got down to business. This was not a good formula for doing business. In a church in Pennsylvania Dutch country, the plan was often for the hostess ...

158. True and False Discipleship

Luke 6:46-49, Luke 6:43-45, Luke 6:37-42

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... this is not strictly true: there may be rotten or malformed apples among a good crop, and good people sometimes do bad things. But the focus is on the crop as a whole, and thus on a person’s whole lifestyle. The way one lives testifies to what sort of a person one is. Disciples should stand out as different by the way they live. Christian profession must be validated by Christian living. For the metaphor of “fruit,” see John the Baptist’s message in 3:8–9 and its practical elaboration in 3:10–14 ...

159. “Unless You Repent . . .”

Luke 13:10-17, Luke 13:1-9

Teach the Text

R.T. France

... 15 untie your ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water. “Tying” and “loosening” were among the acts forbidden on the Sabbath (see the sidebar “Rules for the Sabbath” at 6:1–16), but there was debate about what sort of knots were intended (m. Shabb. 15:1–2). There was, however, specific provision for cattle to “go out” on the Sabbath (m. Shabb. 5:1–4) and therefore presumably to be untied. Rabbis later formulated the principle that the necessities of looking after ...

160. Signs of the End of the Age

Mark 13:1-31

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... and famines (vv. 5–8), and then with persecutions of Jesus’ followers (vv. 9–13). The events mentioned in verses 5–8 are very much the sort of troubles that seem to have been expected in the final stages of the world (cf., e.g., Rev. 6:1–8; 2 Tim. 3: ... that something important is coming, but do not indicate how long the painful wait will be. In short, Jesus confirms that the sort of events described here are part of God’s plan and do not indicate its interruption but its advance; at the same ...

161. Before the Sanhedrin

Mark 14:53-65

Understanding Series

Larry W. Hurtado

... and the denial by Peter was done for purposes of contrasting them, and not to give a chronological description of the events. It is possible that there was some interrogation of Jesus at the house of the high priest and that the actual trial or some sort of quasi-formal hearing took place early the next morning, as Luke’s account suggests. The chief priests, elders and teachers of the law: Again, we note the same figures mentioned in the passion prediction in 8:31 (cf. 14:43). These groups made up the ...

162. Job's Reply to Bildad

Job 9:1–10:22

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... message of Job. 9:3–4 What Job desires more than anything else is for God to publicly declare him righteous. However, as convinced as he is of his own innocence in this matter, he is pessimistic about his chances of gaining public recognition from God. Any sort of dispute with God begins on a decidedly unequal basis. Job fears he would never be able to get a “word in edgewise” with God (he could not answer him one time out of a thousand). God’s understanding is so profound, and his words so divinely ...

163. Job's Third Reply to Eliphaz

Job 23:1--24:25

Understanding Series

Gerald H. Wilson

... v. 4, along with the orphan and widow in v. 3). In their eager exploitation of the poor and defenseless, the wicked—like murderers—bring their victims’ lives to an end with callous disregard. The first phrase of in the night . . . like a thief forms a sort of merismus, in which the whole of a matter is suggested by the listing of its parts, with the initial reference to “daylight” at the beginning of verse 14. The wicked get up early to pursue their evil plans and they continue their ways into the ...

164. Judgment and Hope

Isaiah 66:1-24

Understanding Series

John Goldingay

... down by God creates a division between two types of people—those who recognize it, and those who do not. People who enthuse about the temple (v. 1a) and offer all the right sacrifices can be no different in God’s eyes from people involved in all sorts of worship abominations. Verse 4b then takes up 65:12b when it says for when I called, no one answered and implies that the reason for this is that they are indeed involved in traditional religion as well as temple worship, and this is probably also the ...

The young Cambridge group, the group that stood for "freedom" and flannel trousers and flannel shirts open at the neck, and a well-bred sort of emotional anarchy, and a whispering, murmuring, sort of voice, and an ultra-sensitive sort of manner.

D. H. Lawrence

166. Here

Luke 2:1-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... but our problem is with these stories, so concrete, particular. Like Martha, we are concerned about others in the broadest, most general sort of way, concerned when standing in the voting booth rather than standing on their front door stoop bearing a basket of ... particular and the specific that our lives are engaged. Here. "I am sending flowers to a person, who is a representative, in a general sort of way, of the highest and best human aspirations." No. When we're in love, one of the reasons why our love so ...

167. For the Love of God Is . . .

1 John 5:3-4

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... 262 of those appear in the New Testament alone. There are well over 600 variations on the word love and over 750 words that can be associated with various kinds of love. It's all rather mind boggling isn't it. So what is this thing called "Love?" That's sort of the question I asked at one point in time. What is love and what is the difference between God's love and our love? How does that effect our lives and our faith? A couple of months ago, this passage rolled around in the Lectionary, a three year plan ...

168. Rejoice: Hints Of Heaven Are Here On Earth!

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Mark Ellingsen

... worship service. All who have a role in the life of this congregation and the wider church are giving this kind of service. And in offering that service you and I are doing the same sort of thing Peter did in the first lesson (Acts 9:36-43). We are all doing the same sort of thing that the saints in heaven are doing right now, the same sort of thing all of us will be doing at the end of time. In serving God in this way, in worshiping him like we are now, you and I have a little hints of ...

169. Preachers, All!

Acts 2:1-13, Acts 2:14-41, Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Will Willimon

... much, and because he has helped me through so many crises in my own life, I believe he can help you through these crises. Would you like to pray together?'' And she did. And she said that the prayer helped, and you helped. Isn't that amazing? You were sort of shy and unassuming. You couldn't recall when you had ever talked to somebody about your religious faith so freely. What was that? ''The Spirit of the Lord is upon you, to preach... '' And so dear congregation, be open to the Spirit, be ready to give an ...

170. Let's Get Together

Acts 2:1-21 · Genesis 11:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... that the same God who scattered us at Babel, now unites us on his own terms -- as diverse and different people who are made one in Christ. The one who told us to scatter at creation, now bids us to come unto him at Pentecost, to a very new sort of community, the church -- a people who know no boundaries, distinctions, under the towering love of God. Every Sunday, we relive that story of what happened at Pentecost. He says ''Come unto me,'' and we do, so that we might ''Go ye into all the world and make ...

171. Immediately, They Followed

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

... man, then another man; still she wasn't happy. She had a child. She drank this poison. I thought this was a very good book." I was the sort of student tree who, when told to draw a tree, drew a tree, a small dog, a boy on the end of the dog, a red and blue ... on the basis of a simple invitation, "Follow me," and a promise, "And I will teach you to fish for people"? Could this sort of thing happen the way Mark tells it? You see we fill in the blanks, speculate on motives, possible psychological dynamics, not ...

172. A Good Name

Proverbs 22:1-2, 8-9

Sermon

Will Willimon

... name." But this is typical of Proverbs. Here is ethics done the old-fashioned (600 B.C.) way -- an older person telling a younger person how to live in order to have a good life. The book of Proverbs is, among other things, a great collection of this sort of wisdom - practical advice on how to get along in the world. Some of it, like any parents' advice, is valuable. Some of Proverbs, you can get along without. "A soft answer turns away wrath." Okay. "Fine speech is not becoming to a fool." "A fool take no ...

173. Us Against Them

Exodus 4:21

Sermon

Will Willimon

... into line behind the flag, and fight as one. Nothing brings a people together like a common enemy. Any religion is bound to be popular which does a good job of identifying an· appropriate enemy. Reality is so ambiguous. If our lives are to have coherence, we must sort out the world, so to speak. Is not this the goal of all religion, to identify on which side God stands and to get on with the business of getting ourselves over to that side? Of course, most of us need no help in identifying on whose side ...

174. Teach Us to Pray

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Will Willimon

... needs help. After all, Jesus tell us to “pray for our enemies and bless those who persecute us.” The man looked a bit baffled for a moment. He thought, then said, “I never heard us pray for our enemies before on Sunday morning.” It was me. What sort of example had my prayers been for him? “Oh Lord, we thank you for the sun, and the birds, and the bees, and blah blah blah…” Lee Keck, of Yale, who preached here last spring has called the “Pastoral Prayer” a “bowl of wet noodles dumped on ...

175. Taking the Long Way Home

Mark 7:31-37

Sermon

Will Willimon

... , a friend of mine, a friend who has had a really tough time in life said, “I really believe that everything that happens to me, does so because God wants it that way.” “You can't really mean that,” I said. “Well, I don't mean it in any Pollyanna sort of way,” he said, “I mean that, looking back, even looking back on some of the very worst events in your life, it's amazing how well it all turned out. It's beautiful where it all led. It’s as if some unseen hand has guided, through the most ...

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