Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 13:1-9 · Isaiah 44:6-8 · Psalm 1-12, 17-18, 23-24

Sermon

Will Willimon

We began this service of worship by reciting Psalm 139. Well, not really. For we only recited part of Psalm 139, the nice part. Our hymnal leaves out the last part of this psalm, the part that isn't so nice. After speaking of the Spirit of God, the wings of the morning, the precious thoughts of God, there is a jolt: O that thou wouldst slay the wicked....Do I not hate them that hate thee,... do I ...

152. Victorious, Victims

Luke 6:20-36

Sermon

Will Willimon

"Blessed are you that weep now, for you shall laugh." Imagine a sermon which begins, "Blessed are you poor. Blessed are you that hunger. Oh how lucky are you who weep. How fortunate are those of you whom people hate, exclude, revile. Leap for joy those of you who have cancer. How lucky are you unemployed. How blessed are those going through marital crises." The congregation does a double-take. W...

153. We Fools

Luke 12:13-21

Sermon

Will Willimon

Do you remember that scene in the movie, ''Jaws'' when they catch and kill a huge shark, the animal called ''a vast eating machine''? They take the shark into a marine laboratory, cut it open. Out of the stomach comes a bunch of half-eaten fish, an old tire, bones, a piece of a boat, a clock. A priest I know says, at that point in the movie he exclaimed, ''That's my congregation!'' We are so hun...

154. We Have Waited

Isaiah 25:1-12

Sermon

Will Willimon

It will be said on that day, “Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, that he might save us. This is the Lord; we have waited for him; let us be glad and rejoice in his salvation.” (Isa. 25:9). About the best that can be said of the church in the past days of Lent is that we have waited. Lent is the church waiting. Questions were raised that had no ready answers—questions of sin, injustice,...

155. What Time Is It?

Matthew 24:32-44

Sermon

Will Willimon

A woman of my acquaintance has thrown away her watch and decided to have nothing more to do with clocks. ''I have freed myself from the tyranny of time," she says. She has had it with bourgeoisie, middle-class punctuality. She will now live as if every day were a vacation at the beach. Something in me would like to be her, free from time's tyranny, measuring time as did my ancestors -- through the...

156. When the Small is Great, and the Great is Small

Mark 12:38-44

Sermon

Will Willimon

I am at that age when it's tough to see. A decade ago, I was forced to obtain reading glasses. Then, a few years later, came bifocals. Next trifocals. Now, it's contacts. For someone whose vision for more than thirty years was 20/20, it's tough to be reduced to stumbling about in the early morning until my eyes are in. (You parents will know of what I speak.) I have this fear of being caught out o...

157. Who Am I?

Matthew 3:13-17 · Isaiah 42:1-2

Sermon

Will Willimon

"And when Jesus was baptized, he went up immediately from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending ....a voice from heaven saying, "This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased." As a pastor on a university campus, I spend a good deal of time with people who are trying to figure out who they are and what they ought to be doing. Behind ninety-pe...

158. Who Are These?

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Will Willimon

''Who are these clothed in white robes, and whence have they come?" I said to him..."These are they who have come out of the great tribulation; they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the lamb." In Habits of the Heart, the sociological study of Americans in the Eighties, there is an interview with someone named "Sheila." When asked about religion, Sheila says, "I consider...

159. Who Could Have Commanded?

Matthew 14:22-36

Illustration

Will Willimon

"Jesus calls us o'er the tumult of our life's wild, restless sea, in our joys and in our sorrows, 'Christian come and follow me.'" Isn't that how another old gospel hymn puts it? But in today's Gospel, Jesus doesn't simply call us over the tumult. Jesus doesn't call us out of the tumult. No, in today's Gospel, Jesus calls Peter into the tumult. Jesus calls Peter out of the boat and on to the wave...

160. Why We Light the Candles

Luke 2:1-20 · Isaiah 9:2, 6

Sermon

Will Willimon

“The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light…" Never does this glorious Chapel look more beautiful than on this great night of nights. Few of us worship in the evening anymore, so the Chapel, aglow with candlelight, is a strange, beautiful, wondrous setting. We worship here in the evening every night during Holy Week. But we don't light candles then. Why, on this night, does it see...

161. You Are the Christ....Now What About Them?

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

I'm a Christian. But last week my cantankerous car was finely fixed by a Muslim mechanic. I ate food prepared by Hindu hands. A Zoroastrian solved my software problem and a Jew persuaded me to be on a citizens' committee to build a better Durham. Welcome to multi-religious America. I'm not sure that we mainline Protestant types know how to live in such a world. After all, our major project, well i...

162. You Can Talk the Game, but Can You Play the Game?

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Sermon

Will Willimon

That's the rather impudent query that sprouted on tee-shirts after Duke's back-to back basketball national championships. Talk is cheap, but can you do what it takes to get in the game? Richard Hays, in his commentary on Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians, says that sums up today's epistle, First Corinthians 9:24-27. One of you once congratulated me, during one of Duke's winning seasons for “...

163. Your Ordination

Luke 3:15-17, 21-22

Sermon

Will Willimon

My colleague, John Westerhoff, used to say, ''If you are a pastor who is spending more than fifteen hours a week working in projects outside the congregation, you are probably wasting your time. We need you in the congregation equipping the saints for their demanding ministry in the world.'' On the other hand Westerhoff said to the laity, ''If you are a layperson who is spending more than fifteen...

164. You're In the Army Now

Ephesians 6:10-20

Sermon

Will Willimon

“Therefore take the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” What did you do this summer? I don't know if they still ask school children to write essays on that subject at this time of the year. I'm sure that George Williams never asked for an essay on, “My Most Memorable Summer” in his English classes here. However, if they did, I woul...

165. You've Got Spirit

Luke 3:15-22 · Acts 8:14-17 · Psalm 29 · Isaiah 61:1-4

Sermon

Will Willimon

"Then they laid their hands on them and they received the Holy Spirit." Let us pray: "O Lord, how can we know Thee: Where can we find Thee? Thou art as close to us as breathing and yet art farther than the furthermost star. Thou art as mysterious as the vast solitudes of the night and yet art as familiar to us as the light of the sun. To the seer of old Thou didst say: Thou canst not see my face, ...

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