... of men, Man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, visage marred, scourged, smitten, oppressed, afflicted, bruised, forsaken - to many, he is just another thrill to behold the torture that a human can endure when dying. That gibbet of shame, holding the thorn-crowned head and nail-riven body is only a Suffering Spectacular. Some can behold him without feelings of pity, regret, grief, or remorse. On the other hand, some compassionate, tenderhearted souls identify with the pain until that’s all they see. A hair ...
... through their bodies as he called out from that cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" What lumps must have been in their throats as he cried out in agony, "I thirst." Then they heard, "It is finished," and saw his thorn-crowned head drop lifelessly upon his breast. Friends as well as enemies watched as they stabbed his side with a spear before removing that mangled body from the cross. They stood silently as his body was being carried to the tomb. They saw the enormous stone rolled against ...
... ) O perfect life of love! All, all, is finished now, All that he left his throne above To do for us below. No pain that we can share But he has felt it smart; All forms of human grief and care Has pierced that tender heart. And on his thorn-crowned head And on his sinless soul Our sins and all their guilt were laid That he might make us whole. - Henry Baker 1875
According to the three-year ecumenical lectionary, developed in recent years, the Sunday before Easter is primarily known as the Sunday of the Passion, instead of Palm Sunday. The procession with palm branches is still recommended, but the emphasis of the day has shifted to the Passion of Christ, as seen in the suggested lengthy Gospel readings appointed. In this worship service, however, we have chosen to lift up the Palm Sunday theme, and to focus on the kingship of Christ and his triumphal entry into ...
Note: This sermon is more effective if the following three things are done. First, print the words to the hymn "O Sacred Head" in the bulletin for the day so that people can follow along and meditate upon them. Second, have a choir or a solo voice, or a combination of the two, sing the phrases as they come in the sermon. And third, use plenty of pauses and times for meditation throughout the sermon. A deliberate delivery is needed. As we gather on this Good Friday, it is appropriate for us to focus on the ...
Then a cloud overshadowed them... -- Mark 9:7 The crowds were gone. Jesus was alone with his disciples. They sat around the campfire enjoying its warmth as the evening lengthened. They were gazing at the fire in silence, occasionally poking a stick at the logs in order to turn them over, causing the flames to shoot up. Jesus broke the silence: "What are people saying about me?" The disciples looked at one another, waiting for someone to answer. Peter spoke up, "What do you mean?" "Who do the people say ...
In my Father's house there are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also (John 14:2-3). In the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and indulging their own lusts and saying, "Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since our ancestors died, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation!" (2 Peter ...
Jesus might have been loving, kind, and good, but he wasn’t very practical. As he closes out this first section of the Sermon on the Mount, it is pure Gospel we hear today that supercedes the law of last week. And Jesus shows us just how impractical the Gospel actually is. He instructs the disciples and us, to... ...offer no resistance to wicked people who might hurt or offend you; ...turn the other cheek if someone hits you on one side of the face; ...give your coat as well as your shirt to anyone who ...
John the Baptizer was in trouble, and not knowing exactly what his fate would be, he suspected the worst. He was in for a long and uncomfortable imprisonment, at best, and he could expect to be executed, at worst. John was soon to lose his head, as you and I know very well, so Herod could save face. He knew he was in trouble. For some unexplained reason, he rather suddenly and unexpectantedly, after reports that his ministry was devoted to preparing the way of the Lord, became uncertain about Jesus’ ...
"And I will set up over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he shall feed them and be their shepherd. And I, the Lord, will be their God, and my servant David shall be prince among them; I, the Lord, have spoken." "And he made us kings and priests unto God and his Father." (Revelation 1:6a [KJV]) A four-year-old boy was about to have a birthday. His mother told him he could have any kind of party he wanted. He asked for a party where everyone would be a king or queen. In preparation for his big day, ...
About three centuries ago, Spaniards besieged a small French town, St. Quentin. The city walls were in ruins; fever and famine plagued the people. One day the Spaniards shot over the walls a shower of arrows to which were attached little slips of parchment promising that if they surrendered, their lives and property would be spared. The mayor of the town was a devout Huguenot. For answer, he tied a piece of parchment to a javelin and hurled it back to the Spaniards. On the parchment was the message: “Regem ...
I am astonished that so many people should care to hear this story over again. Indeed, this lecture has become a study in psychology; it often breaks all rules of oratory, departs from the precepts of rhetoric, and yet remains the most popular of any lecture I have delivered in the fifty-seven years of my public life. I have sometimes studied for a year upon a lecture and made careful research, and then presented the lecture just once -- never delivered it again. I put too much work on it. But this had no ...
Life was difficult. It always was for prisoners. Meager rations. Hard labor. Sometimes restrained and tortured by the stocks or collar. Left with festering wounds in damp, abandoned cisterns converted to maximum security dungeons. Why was he here? His only crime was criticizing the king for stealing his own brother's wife, Herodias. Herodias wanted John killed, but Herod Antipas was reluctant - he knew the people thought highly of John. John's ministry had begun in the wilderness where he subsisted on an ...
We all know that appearances matter. When officials at Williams College in Williamstown, Massachussets, wanted to advertise their college to high school students a couple years back, they found that they had a problem. It had been a snowless winter in Williamstown. However, the officials felt that snow would make their college look more inviting to prospective students. Hence, they imported 60 tons of manufactured snow and posed student models beside the "snowdrifts." A defensive director of admissions ...
A little boy in a church Christmas program, only had one line to remember. He was the Angel of the Lord and his line was: "Behold, I bring you good tidings." After the rehearsal, he asked his mother what "tidings" meant. She told him that it meant "news". When the program was put on, the boy got a case of stage fright and couldn't remember his line. then all of a sudden the idea came back and he blurted out. "Hey! Boy, have I got news for you!" Let me read you a portion of that "Good News," a portion of ...
Welcome on this last Sunday of the church year. As most of you are aware, the church calendar is not the same as the calendar we use in our normal lives. Rather than beginning with January 1, the church calendar begins with Advent which begins next Sunday. Advent is, of course, when we celebrate the coming of Jesus into the world at Christmas and anticipate his return at the end of time. After we celebrate Jesus’ birth, the church calendar follows his life--beginning with Epiphany--his baptism, his ...
A prose layout for preaching: Lent is that season of the Church's year when we as Christians dwell on the Mystery of the Crucifixion. And what the Crucifixion tells us is this: God Himself died upon a cross, to pour out His love for us, to forgive us our sins, to share His life with us now, and eternally. Most of us associate this as the theme of Lent, and yet, we also associate Lent with other things: as a time of solemnity in the Church, as a time when we should be especially more aware of our sins, as a ...
Jesus said: "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household. He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. He who ...
"Rags, rags! Give me your tired, dirty, and old rag and I will give you a new, clean, and fresh one. Rags, rags." That was the cry to which I awoke one bright sunny Friday morning. I sprang from my bed and peered out my second-story apartment window. There he was, the ragman of our town. He was 6'4" if he was an inch, youthful in appearance and strong of build. I had heard so much about him but never actually seen him. I threw on some clothes, bounded down the stairs and out the front door of my apartment ...
It was the end of the school year and a first grade teacher was saying good-bye to her students. One little boy said to her, "Teacher, I sure do like you. I'd like to stay in the first grade forever, but I've been promoted. Boy, I wish you knew enough to teach me in the second grade."1 So many people who are successful are able to look back at a person who first turned on a light inside the mind, who quickened the thinking, who first stirred the desire to learn. Behind every successful person there is the ...
In his book, The Gospel For The Person Who Has Everything, William Willimon tells of a young friend, age 4, who was asked on the occasion of his 5th birthday what kind of party he wanted to have. I want everybody to be a king and queen, Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work, fashioning a score of silver crowns – cardboard and aluminum foil, purple robes – crepe paper, and royal scepters – sticks painted gold. On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given a royal crown, a ...
In his book, The Gospel For The Person Who Has Everything, William Willimon tells of a young friend, age 4, who was asked on the occasion of his 5th birthday what kind of party he wanted to have. I want everybody to be a king and queen, Clayton said. So, he and his mother went to work, fashioning a score of silver crowns – cardboard and aluminum foil, purple robes – crepe paper, and royal scepters – sticks painted gold. On the day of the party, as the guests arrived, they were each given a royal crown, a ...
Traditionally the lesson that is to be read on this Sunday, the first Sunday in the season of Lent, is the story of Jesus' Temptation. There is a reason. Lent begins forty days before Easter, excluding the Sundays. Forty days were chosen as the length of the season because Jesus was in the wilderness during his temptation for forty days. The number has an even more ancient significance. Israel spent forty years in the wilderness, in what is called the Exodus. The Exodus and the Temptation are tied together ...
“Here are their names: Simon (whom he named Peter), Andrew (Peter's brother), James, John, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James (son of Alphaeus), Simon (who was called the zealot), Judas (son of James), Judas Iscariot (who later betrayed him). "A good tree can't produce bad fruit, and a bad tree can't produce good fruit. A tree is identified by its fruit. Figs are never gathered from thornbushes, and grapes are not picked from bramble bushes. A good person produces good things from the treasury of ...
Mary Magdalene stood at the edge of the road and cried. She knew this was going to happen. Jesus had told them over and over that he would be arrested and killed. She thought she had prepared herself for it but she was not at all prepared for what had actually happened. As she stood at the edge of the road, her eyes moving back and forth from the men lowering his body from that cross to his mother standing just behind them watching it happen. She thought about all that had happened since last night. After ...