Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. There's A Better Way Than Shooting Somebody

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

King Duncan

... is a shotgun," answered Sunday, "but it blows everything to bits." It simply will not work for us to blow off steam in every direction whenever something annoys us. It is childish. Sometimes it is very destructive. Equally as destructive, however, can be suppressing our anger. Anger turned inward produces depression, ulcers, high blood pressure, maybe even a susceptibility to cancer. The analogy of a pressure cooker is a valid one. You cannot sit on that steam forever without it seeking an outlet. It's sad ...

2. Step Eleven - Spirituality

Mt 26:36-46 · 1 Thess 5:12-22 · Ps 25:1-15

Sermon

John A. Terry

... a glass of wine will help you relax and become more social. But for others it has the opposite effect. It causes them to become belligerent and anti-social. One of the effects of excessive consumption of alcohol is the suppression of our capacity to reason and the suppression of the basic moral standards we have developed. Do you remember the song from "Jesus Christ Superstar," which is a kind of irreverent song the disciples sang after their last supper with Christ? It portrays them as having gotten drunk ...

3. The Importance of Unity

1 Corinthians 1:10-17

Sermon

Hubert Beck

... Democracies are much harder to sustain than dictatorships, and that is part of what makes America such an amazing model for the world. Yet one constantly hears voices suggesting we should silence a given group, we should jail dissidents who openly oppose public policy, we should suppress the unions or the laborers, the poor or the wealthy, the government or the people. Always the urge is present to have our way at the expense of others, to divide the house so that we can re-unite it again - in our own best ...

4. Freedom Can Be Frightening

Leviticus 25:8-55

Sermon

Louis H. Valbracht

... and rape and exile on a colossal scale. He has to face in his morning paper the news of bloody rioting in many kinds, and in some places led, with a high degree of inconsistency, by Buddhist monks. New nations in Africa threaten to suppress internal opposition by methods very reminiscent of the old days of tyranny. He faces the fact that diplomats traveling around the world are often much more impressed by what they see in the Soviet Union than by what they see in America. Newly enfranchised nations ...

5. Faith As Healing Energy

Sermon

Robert G. Tuttle

... down. We have been giving our "desires and whims priority over the truth," and nothing real sustains us. Smith continues, "Standard man is a man of faith; and negative secularity is a strange and sometimes fierce asceticism directed against the spirit, which it can suppress but cannot eliminate." Faith "offers us the power to become what man was intended to be." Faith is "the essential human quality." "Faith is normal: but to abnormality man is naturally prone." And Christ weeps as he says to us, "O, ye of ...

6. Getting Your Attention

John 2:12-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... us get angry. And sometimes the worst thing we can do is hold that anger in. In a study of 139 patients with chronic headaches, researchers at St. Louis School of Medicine found that depression usually accompanies frequent headaches. Moreover, suppressed anger amplifies the depression and this, in turn, magnifies the pain. "It's a vicious circle," notes Paul Duckro, associate professor of psychiatry, "Patients with chronic headaches get depressed because they're in pain and the pain interrupts their lives ...

7. Victory Over Darkness

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... and kept the doors unlocked, that Mary and Joseph, looking for a place to stay, would find their way to their home and be welcomed with open doors and open hearts. The English authorities, finding this Irish "superstition" harmless, did not bother to suppress it. The candles in the windows have always remained a cherished practice of the Irish, although many of them have long since forgotten the earlier significance. (4) Think of that. All year long they hoped and prayed that on this one night a priest ...

8. A Converting Presence

1 John 2:28--3:10

Sermon

Maxie Dunnam

... with our human nature. Now that’s good news. Put it down. Jesus is not at war with our human nature. He does not say that our instincts were born of evil or that the only hope is to cast them out, or to beat them down or to suppress them way down inside. But rather Jesus understood perfectly in the realm of human nature, what Luther Burbank understood in the realm of plant nature, that every weed is a potential flower, and that the very qualities which make a weed could make a flower. Great sinners and ...

9. Where's the Fire?

Exodus 3:1-22

Sermon

Mark Trotter

... on his ship, unable to speak, bursts forth in rage and strikes Claggart and kills him. It is like Moses. Pent up anger and resentment, without a means of expression, will in time explode. The same lesson has a social dimension, as well. You suppress any class of people, you suppress any race, deny them a voice, and in time that rage will build up and explode in violence. The same thing happened with Moses, who in the face of the suffering of the Jews, instinctively strikes out in anger, and now must face ...

10. In the Waiting Room

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... know the story of writer Anne Lamott. When she was twenty-five, her father died after a long struggle with brain cancer. Over the next few years Anne herself began to suffer from an overwhelming sense of desperation and fear which she tried to suppress with alcohol and pills. Although she was managing to write and publish successful novels at the time, it was clear that her life was spinning out of control. In her memoir, Traveling Mercies, she writes about this dark period of her life. And most importantly ...

11. Let's Get Together

Acts 2:1-21 · Genesis 11:1-11

Sermon

Will Willimon

... . ''This is a time to unite against those who are evil.'' The letter was unnecessary, for we were already solidly united behind our leader. War does that to people. Even as we Americans were uniting behind our President, dissident Libyans were reported to be suppressing their differences and uniting against the American enemy. War may seem a heck of a reason to bring a people together, but sometimes it’s the only thing we have in common. For when you're feeling lonely, fragmented and isolated (as many are ...

12. You Are My Witnesses

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Harry N. Huxhold

... and forgiveness of sins is to be proclaimed in his name to all nations." What God has revealed makes repentance possible. We can face up to how life really is and we can confess our part in how sinful and flawed the human condition is. We do not have to suppress how bad it is with us. We do not have to play games about how bad it can be. All that calls to mind a work by Helmut Thielicke, Death and Life. Like Luther, Thielicke urged that we not set aside the contemplation of death and its reality. Luther ...

13. The Crux Of Being A Christian

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Richard Patt

... relationships" is the devil's theme. Environmentally and socially speaking, our world stands at the precipice of destruction because some people stubbornly insist upon their rights, not caring what is destroyed in the process. In contrast, the mind of Philemon is to suppress, painfully, if need be, any rightful behavior and to surprise others with the hand of fellowship. But again, don't always expect others to encourage such a stance. Do you remember the time when Jesus was talking with his disciples about ...

14. God's Passionate Concern

Luke 14:25-35

Sermon

Richard Patt

15. Who's In Charge Here, Anyway?

Genesis 45:1-28

Sermon

Tony Everett

... , the prime minister of Egypt. The rich and successful brothers became hopeless victims of a terrible famine which forced the entire family to flee for survival. And their flight for food took them directly to Egypt, and Joseph. We cannot suppress the pain of broken relationships forever. We cannot escape the increasing, energy-draining pressure that results from living in conflict. We cannot escape our desperate need for the nourishment and wholeness that comes through being reconciled with our sisters and ...

16. When Wisdom Cries Out

Proverbs 8:1-36

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... in its fight against evil and injustice. Helmut Thielicke warns against having our "proclamatory power" domesticated and sunk into a customary piety. Wisdom cries out for the people of God to vault those spiritual inanities and ecclesiastical insanities which bind and suppress our verse and verve and which transmute our concern for truth and wisdom into liturgical quagmires of mediocrity and silence. If wisdom cries out anywhere, it cries out in the church, in the practice of spirituality, in the undaunted ...

17. Nowhere To Run, Nowhere To Hide

1 Kings 9:1-9

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... deeds pierces us at the core of our being and we cry out for help and mercy. We are suddenly alone in our realization that what we have done has adversely affected others and their lives will forever be impacted because of it. We can no longer suppress the grim reality of what we have done. We can no longer run from the truth. Second, we can run from our actions but we can't hide from their consequences. For every action there is a reaction. For every action there are consequences for those actions. Elijah ...

18. The Intersection Of The Cross

Matthew 5:31-32

Sermon

Mark Radecke

... compassionate, caring person. He knows there is hardly a family or an individual in his congregation that has not been touched by divorce or its long, long shadow. For many, the wound is still gaping; the guilt still being carried about; the hurt more suppressed than healed. The marriages of some other members, he knows, exist in name only, the couples long since having rent asunder what God once joined together until all that remains is a legal contract, two people sharing little more than an address and a ...

19. When Life Seems Out Of Control

2 Samuel 18:1-18

Sermon

Timothy J. Smith

... was the son of one of his advisors, who told the king the news from the front. "Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delivered up the men who raised their hand against my lord the king." It was a military victory, the rebellion was once and infinitely suppressed. David would return to power. David would be the one rightful king. That was great news, but David wanted to know if his son was well. The first messenger told him he did not know; he was fearful of what the king would do if he told him his ...

20. The Lamb of God

John 1:29-34

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... . Traditional ways of doing things are questioned. Demands are made. Changes are planned. People don't like what's happening. Maybe they all didn't want Dr. King dead, but those who didn't still wanted to construct obstacles enough to suppress the dream and silence the dreamer. One minister surrounded himself at the church chancel with children during worship and began to talk to them about the upcoming holiday. When asked whose birthday would be celebrated, the well-informed group responded, "Martin ...

21. The Peacemakers

Sermon

John A. Terry

... the wounds of my people lightly, saying, 'Peace, peace' when there is no peace" (Jeremiah 8:11). It is like the illusion of peace that occurred during the time of ancient Rome's power, the Pax Romana, a peace achieved only through ruthless military power and the suppression of all dissent. It is like Germany in the early 1930s when Hitler came to power. People said things like "I don't know anything about Hitler's politics, but I do know it is safe to go out in the streets again." Dealing with peace in ...

22. The Peacemakers

Ephesians 2:11-22

Sermon

John A. Terry

23. Investing God's Gift

Luke 19:11-27

Sermon

Larry R. Kalajainen

... emphasis on the "wideness in God's mercy" is a point which cannot be overemphasized. But even more telling is what follows it. For what follows is not the account of a king who received royal power and lords it over his subjects, brutally suppressing dissent and slaughtering his opponents. Rather, Jesus' journey into Jerusalem, the place where he is to receive royal power, or so his disciples presume, culminates in his own slaughter. Far from being the kind of king who acts as kings have always acted -- as ...

24. The Politics Of Love

Luke 10:25-37

Sermon

W. Robert McClelland

... leaders, not to mention their constituents, find any difference of opinion, and certainly conflict, to be very threatening. They seek to avoid it at all costs, either by denying it or burying it. Consequently we have successfully screened out the differences or suppressed them in the name of peace and unity. The result is counterfeit love because it lacks political dimension. The point to be gained is crucial. The unity of the church is not found in the oneness of our agreement - political or religious ...

25. Paradoxes Of The Christian Faith

Matthew 10:1-42

Sermon

Carlyle Fielding Stewart

... , and action: Glory out of suffering, victory out of defeat, and gain out of loss. The first, glory out of suffering, is really strange, for I can hear you saying, "Preacher, how can one obtain glory from suffering? For suffering is humiliating. It suppresses, represses, and oppresses. How can you claim 'hallelujah' glory out of 'woe is me' suffering?" I think time and again how Christians claim it. How the great writer George Friedrich Handel claimed it in writing his Messiah in those 24 grueling, poverty ...

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