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Showing 1976 to 2000 of 5000 results

1976. This Nation, Under God

2 Samuel 7:1-9

Sermon

Mark Trotter

The sermon for this Sunday is taken from the Book of II Samuel. If you want to look it up, it's right after I Samuel. The two together comprise one of the first histories ever written, written around 1000 years before Christ, so this is important historical stuff. It is political history, written by someone to record the reign of David. It is thought to have been written by Abiathar, who was David's companion during the wars, and when David was made king he made Abiathar his high priest. That would be ...

1977. In the Darkness of Suspicion, There Is the Light of Devotion

Matthew 2:1-12

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

It was a few days after Christmas. A mother was busy cleaning up the den, putting everything away, taking the Christmas tree down. Her son came in and saw her and said, “Mama, what are you doing?” She said, “I’m putting all our Christmas stuff away.” He asked in reply, “Why are you doing that?” She answered, “So everything will be back to normal again.” His response to that was, “Mama, I don’t want things to get back to normal again.” On this second Sunday after Christmas, we have the thought in our minds ...

1978. Disappointed in Jesus

Matthew 11:2-11

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

It was a painful experience for both of us. Jane was a young mother about my age. She had been on the pastor nominating committee that called us to New Jersey. And we had shared much laughter and friendship through the years. She also was on the session - and that cold November night she seemed edgy and distant. I soon found out why. Following the meeting, she waited for me out in the parking lot. And after I locked the church door, she simply lit into me. "How dare you!" she said. "How dare you push your ...

1979. The Rest of the Story

Matthew 2:19-23, Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

Just a few days later, the needles are falling, the poinsettias are drooping, and the cookies are stale. How do we hold onto the feeling? How do we hold onto the warmth, the wonder, the welcome of Christmas? Christmas letters - offering graceful glimpses of old friends; That rare mother/daughter afternoon, creating the most perfect Christmas of our lives; American soldiers sharing Christmas with war-scarred children; Virginia neighbors sharing love with a Pentagon widow; A Christmas pageant, so full of joy ...

1980. Lite - Or Light?

Matthew 5:13-16

Sermon

Susan R. Andrews

There is, in this congregation, a running conversation as to what to call this structural wonder that rises above my head. Is it a dome? Or is it a lantern? The answer, of course, is both/and, depending on your perspective. It is a modern dome - the 1960s version of those elegant Byzantine basilicas that grace much of Europe, reminiscent of glittery mosaics and luminous paintings proclaiming the powerful promises of God. But functionally, architecturally, it is also a lantern, transparently receiving and ...

1981. God, Or the World?

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Richard Gribble

He was a man of mystery and charm; he was a man of brokenness and faith. He was hunted down like a common criminal; his only crime was seeking God's glory. The "Whiskey Priest" lived in Southern Mexico. The time was the 1920s; the Cristero Rebellion was underway. The Whiskey Priest was not perfect - far from it. He drank too much; he had fathered a child. In those days, the Mexican government said that is was illegal to practice the priesthood, but that did not stop the Whiskey Priest. Everything he did; ...

1982. Los Posadas

1 Thessalonians 5:12-28

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Rejoice! It's the mandatory mantra of Christmas. After all, there are brightly colored lights, beautiful decorations, great sales, parties, programs, and parades. What's not to be joyful about? But the flip side of the holiday season is a dour, depressive mood that settles on Christian and non-Christian alike. For the studious and the dubious, joy become mere jocularity, praise is only uttered by those who close their minds to realty, and thankfulness is just middle-class relief that life is still going on ...

1983. Soren's Heart

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

How many of you are wearing or have in your pocket or purse some sort of talisman - a small something that reminds you of something much bigger? We often call these things we carry around with us keepsakes or mementos or jewelry. But they're really talismans. According to the dictionary, a talisman is a trinket or piece of jewelry thought to afford some protection against danger and evil. Maybe you wear a locket that holds inside it photos of loves ones. Maybe you keep a worry stone (or a rosary?) in your ...

1984. The Seven Deadly Fears

2 Timothy 1:1-2:13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Probably all of us know someone who has a phobia of some kind or another. Someone who is afraid of small, enclosed areas - they're claustrophobic. Someone who is afraid of wide open, sweeping spaces - they're agoraphobic. There are phobias named for fearing heights, depths, snakes, spiders, clowns, dirt, cats, dogs. (You might want to make this a karaoke moment and get your people talking about their own fears.) In fact, almost everything, real or imagined, has rated a phobia listing. FDR even gave fear ...

1985. Four Cornerstones

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Both Elizabeth and I hail from paper-mill towns. A few years ago the blue collar-redneck-good-old-boy logging town Elizabeth grew up in (Springfield, Oregon) found itself very interested all of a sudden in building sushi bars and trendy, high-tech fitness centers. Why? Sony Corporation seriously considered the town as a new factory headquarters site. Like every other economically struggling small town, the prospect of a large employer coming to town with deep pockets and wide wants encouraged the community ...

1986. Are You a GOT TO or a GET TO Christian?

Genesis 15:1-18

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

When I was growing up in the 60's we practiced drive-by littering. The big game was to see if you could get in front of a pick up, throw out the window a Carrolls hamburger wrapping (they were the competitor to McDonalds that went belly-up), and have it land in the lap of the pickup bed. Today kids don't do drive-by littering. They do drive-by shootings. Or in-school shootings. Do you remember the rash of in school shootings that affected areas around the country? · Jonesboro, Arkansas. · Paducah, Kentucky ...

1987. Prayer

Matthew 3:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Stephen Brown

O God who shoots forth in our gardens… grows as winter’s wheat… God who breaks through thistles and thorns… blossoms in field and forest. In the winter of our soul we long for your coming To warm our hearts and cheer our spirits. In the cold of our frozen lives we await your arrival To thaw our relationships and fire our visions. Your Spirit comes upon him: The one who bears your likeness The one who bears our flesh. The one who carries all creation. The one who carries our burdens. His understanding sees ...

1988. A Case for Living Together

Revelation 7:9-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

I did a little Googling recently. I put in the question "Why do they hate US?" and I came up with 21,000 links. One Web site is dedicated to answering this question "Why do they hate US?" By going country by country and giving specific reasons why people in that country would hate US so. In my lifetime, it seems like the United States has gone from being talked about by the rest of the world as "The Ugly American" to "Ugly America." After World War II, the US took a combination of capitalism, a new ...

1989. Learning the Three Step Faith Walk

Luke 5:1-11

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

The January 2004 edition of Trail magazine has got some 'splaining to do. Trail is a British publication that provides maps and suggests particularly beautiful or challenging hiking trials to the growing number of devoted hill-walkers throughout Great Britain. Unfortunately if anyone had followed the seemingly precise, detailed directions given by the magazine to reach the summit of Britain's largest mountain, Ben Nevis, they would have hiked straight off a sheer cliff and ended up in a broken heap at the ...

1990. Tiny Pencils

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

Richard Dawkins is one of the most respected scientists in the world today. He is also rabidly anti-religious. In his most recent book, which he proudly titles A Devil's Chaplain (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2003), he devotes 6 of his 32 chapters to denouncing religion as a malignant infection of the human mind. He condemns all religions for being dangerous and insidious illusions. "Modern theists," writes Dawkins, "might acknowledge that, when it comes to Baal and the Golden Calf, Thor and Wotan, Poseidon and ...

1991. Are You Running?

John 12:12-19

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

One of the most striking things about Palm Sunday and Easter Sunday are the big crowds. We love big crowds and we welcome big crowds. Dressed in new spring clothing (and probably freezing in it!), those who aren't quite regular attenders will swell our numbers next week as the church celebrates the spring miracle of Easter. It's exhilarating to be part of a big crowd, a great gathering of happy, expectant worshipers reaffirming our faith and refilling our spirits with the hopes and promises of the ...

1992. Weak Sauce

1 Corinthians 9:1-27

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

To survive in a small-town economy (like the one where we live), businesses must cater to as wide an audience as possible. Accordingly, THE grocery store carries both the most extensive selection of nutrition-free snack foods ever seen sodas, beer, chips, dips, candies AND a huge offering of organically grown fresh fruits, vegetables, baked goods, dairy foods, and meats. So what in the world is The Hot Sauce Shop doing in the San Juan Islands? One of the longest lived, most successful little shops out here ...

1993. John 1:43-51

John 1:43-51

Sweet

Leonard Sweet

This week's gospel reading begins on what is, according to John's text, the fourth in a series of days that mark the beginning of Jesus' public ministry. After the meeting with John the Baptist on the first day, the gospel writer notes three subsequent days (verses 29, 35, 43) in which familiar characteristics of Jesus' mission are introduced and his identity is further revealed. It's in the conclusion of today's text, the fourth day that Jesus makes his first definitive self-revelation. As potentially ...

1994. The Counter Intelligence of the Cross

1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5, 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, 1 Corinthians 1:1-9

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

This week’s epistle text is a long one: 19 verses. It faithfully follows the precise, prescribed unfolding of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, which in turn faithfully follows the niceities of proper letter composition in the first century Greco-Roman world. The genius of Paul is to work within formulaic frameworks while finding a way to add his own unique touches in order to preach the gospel. In his salutation (vv.1-3) Paul asserts his own apostolic identity, his “call,” and identifies the source ...

1995. Christmas 1

Mt 2:13-23 · Heb 2:10-18 · Isa 63:7-9 · Ps 148

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