Sermon and Worship Resources

Synonyms: captured, trapped, catch, took, arrested, grabbed, taken, seized, stuck, apprehended, picked up, entangled, nabbed, jammed, abducted, acquired, got, bagged, gotten, netted, cornered, appropriated, tangled, snared, ensnared

Antonyms: free, freed, unconfined, loose, unrestrained, set free, uncuffed, emancipated, enfranchised, released, ambiguous, flaccid, let go, discharged, unbound, uncaged, unchained, unfettered, unleashed, unshackled, untied, avoided, discounted, disregarded, missed

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2226. In The Eyes of God

Isaiah 20:1-5

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Consider how differently you've felt before another person's eyes. Think how you may have withered under the stare of an angry teacher. How your head may have begun to swim in the dreamy gaze of a lover. How belittled you felt as your boss seemed to look right through you without seeing you. Or how you could have burst with joy in the proud eyes of your parents. How differently we can feel in another person's eyes. And how differently eyes can see us -- differences not dependent on optical issues, but on ...

2227. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Masada is a massive rock, rising from the south Judean desert. Walking round the edge of its flattened height, there is no life to be seen anywhere. All around, only the expanse of the dry, rocky desert. Except for the Sea to the west. Yet this is the salt-soaked Dead Sea whose water is lifeless, absolutely lifeless. On this mount Herod had built a fortress for escape. Later, nearly a thousand Jewish Zealots made their home there to keep the pure faith and to elude the Romans. On the eastern corner of ...

2228. Sometimes Goodbye Is Hello

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Goodbye, even with someone you deeply care about, isn't always sad. At least it isn't only sad. Sometimes it can be like saying hello. Some of us have said goodbye to children. We bundled them up and coaxed their little eyes and hands to say "bye bye." Soon we waved them off to the neighbor's and school and camp. And at some point along the way we said goodbye to our children for the last time. And we miss our little boys and girls. But we know that had we not done so, we'd never have had the joy of ...

2229. God Works Wanders

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"God works wanders." I read again the Christmas letter from an old friend of the family, typed in this computer age on some ancient typewriter. Surely it was a typo. Looking back over his life, he meant to say, "God works wonders." And surely God does work wonders. But he works wanders too. I found myself reflecting, as our elderly friend had done, on the changes of the years. God works wanders. Abram and Sarai must have believed that, too. Seventy-five years old, he is asked -- commanded -- to leave his ...

2230. Our Champion Rides Into Battle

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

From the battlement, the watchman sees a knight riding from the forest and ascending the hill. He is in full armor, a long lance in one arm, a great shield in the other. His powerful black charger wears a coat of bright red and paws the air and snorts as the rider reins him in at the castle gate. The knight bangs his lance on the mighty doors and shouts his challenge: "Who will contend with me? Let us face one another. Who dares to be my opponent? Let him present himself!" Day by day a giant from the ranks ...

2231. A Cross For A Doorpost

Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Lambs! More lambs! We need more lambs! Let the blood from each lamb flow into a pool and the pools into streams and the streams into rivers! Bring trains to take it to the cities! Ready ships to carry it across the world! What did the scriptures say? Blood on the doorposts and on the lintel? And those in that home shall be spared? Then take paintbrushes to the doorposts of the homes where the little children are knocked across the floor. Soak with blood the doorways of the shock trauma and coronary care ...

2232. People With A Mission

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"What I have here is really going to turn things around in this country," he said. "Maybe even the world." Actually, he didn't have very much to say. He just kept eating, trying not to seem famished, and all the while never letting a bulging, tattered briefcase off his lap. It wasn't the Sunday noon dinner I had pleasantly anticipated. But there had been a knock on the front door just after noon. Though I'd long before taken down the brass plaque identifying my home as the Lutheran parsonage, I had a ...

2233. Now, Even Now....

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

I can imagine castles in the air and kingdoms under the sea. I can picture a phoenix rising from an ashy fire or elves riding crickets on the forest floor. I cann imagine a thousand fanciful things better than I can imagine my own death. I've always seen the world only through my own eyes, comprehended it with my own mind, loved it with my own heart. How can I conceive of the world without me in it? So I persist in my illusion that I will always be here. I struggle not only with a fear of death, but the ...

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