Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. Bread for the Journey

John 6:25-59

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

A young man in a marathon race kept falling farther and farther behind the other runners. Suddenly he looked as if he were talking to himself and his legs began to move with a steady stroke. He began to pick up speed. By the time he reached the finish line he had passed all the other runners and had won the race. Afterwards, when someone asked him why he was talking to himself, he replied, "Oh, I ...

2. Bread For The Journey (Bread of Life III)

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

I have talked with several people recently who have completed exciting trips. One returned from central Europe. A couple went to Hawaii, another couple to Russia. A university professor had his three month sabbatical in Jamaica interrupted by the hurricane that devastated the islands, Mexico and the U.S. coast. Most of the trips you and I take are not as sophisticated as these. But travel is a po...

3. Bread for the Party (Bread of Life I)

John 6:1-15

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

Our text is St. John’s version of the Feeding of the Five Thousand. This pericope reminds me of the child who was asked to name his favorite Bible story. The child replied, “The one with the boy in it who loafs and fishes.” I am convinced that Jesus was not loafing. He and the Twelve had tried to sneak to the mountain beside the lake for a mini “R & R,” after much work, but when the people mushro...

4. Bread of Another Kind (Bread of Life II)

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

“I am the Bread of Life,” says Jesus. “Do not work for food that spoils ... work for food that lasts for eternal life.” I invite you to consider three questions: To whom were these words spoken? Who spoke them? What do they mean? First, to whom were these words spoken? They were spoken to the people whom Jesus fed the day before, the 5,000 who ate so generously from the little boy’s lunch bag. A...

5. Bread of the Eucharist (Bread of Life IV)

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

I enjoy watching comedians we all can name our favorites doing monologues. I’m sure you’ve seen this happen. In the middle of a monologue when the mood is mounting, what is supposed to be the punch line falls flat. The comedian does a back-up motion, possibly a turn-around on the floor, and says, “Oh! I thought that one would go over big!” At that point he may try to explain it. When the audience ...

6. Bread of Unwavering Commitment (Bread of Life V)

John 6:25-59

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

There was this man who had a disability in his leg, but he was determined to walk. And so he walked, slowly, but often long distances. Once he was out in the countryside rolling hills, rough, rocky, and uninhabited. He was a couple miles from home. He felt exhausted, more than usual. He hoped someone would come along soon who could offer him a helping hand. Eventually, he saw someone riding a don...

7. Celebrating Eucharistic Time

Mark 14:12-26

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

Time is an asset and a liability. Call your attorney, physician, or clergy, and the first thing they do is block out a space on their calendar for you. Go to church or a meeting and you see people looking at their watches or waiting for the hourly chime. You take time off to be with the family or to golf and, before you know it, it’s time to do the next thing. Time keeps rolling like the waters in...

8. Celebrating the Marvel of Growth

Mark 4:30-34, Mark 4:26-29

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

‘Tis the season to plant seeds, garden seeds, love seeds, fun seeds, study seeds, health seeds, spirit seeds, all kinds of seeds. ‘Tis the season to celebrate the marvel of growth Ñ growth in our gardens, growth in our minds, growth in our bodies, growth in our emotions, growth in our spirits. We are celebrating the invisible system of growth that God has programmed into all creation.1 In this sea...

9. Choosing Your Spirituality

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

“Go and make disciples of all the nations.” The authority of those words sent the Twelve Apostles on a gigantic mission to evangelize the whole world, to share with all people everywhere the spirituality they learned at the feet of Jesus.1 The choice of spirituality was rather direct for the first followers of Jesus. One could choose Christ, Hindu, Buddha, Zarathustra, one of the Baals or somethi...

10. Even Great Hands Get Messy

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

In a Peanuts comic strip, Linus is eating a sandwich. He makes this observation: "Hands are fascinating things. I like hands! I think I have nice hands! My hands seem to have a lot of character. These are hands which may someday accomplish great things ....These are hands which may someday do marvelous works. They may build mighty bridges or heal the sick, or hit home-runs, or write soul-stirring ...

11. Healing on an Emotional Level

Mark 5:21-43

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

Dr Bernie S. Siegel, says in his book Love, Medicine and Miracles, "miracles happen to exceptional patients every day." Listen how he defines an exceptional patient. "Do you want to live to be a hundred?" If you can answer that by an immediate visceral "Yes!" with no ifs, ands or buts, you are exceptional. That doesn't mean that you expect to have all your pains relieved, your crooked bones made s...

12. Is It From Within or From Without?

Mark 7:1-23

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

The Good News Bible version of the Gospel says: "what comes out of a person makes him unclean ... from the inside, from a person's heart, come the evil ideas which lead him to do immoral things..." (paraphrase) What is inside has to come out! I saw a survey that compared the worst discipline problems in public schools in the 1940s and today. In the 1940s the worst discipline problems in public sc...

13. Just Doesn't Get It

John 3:1-21

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

The late Cardinal Cushing tells of an occasion when he was administering last rites to a man who had collapsed in a general store. Following his usual custom, he knelt by the man and asked, "Do you believe in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit?" The Cardinal said the man roused a little bit, opened an eye, looked at him and said, "Here I am, dying, and you ask me a riddle."

14. Making the Mystery Work for You

John 3:1-21

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

It’s Trinity Sunday: God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Enough said? Don’t leave me. I promise you, I won’t deliver a lecture expounding on what belongs only in the classroom for theologues. I do want to tell you a brief story. A man in a certain parish was only seen in church one Sunday a year. No, it was not Easter. It was Trinity. One leading lay person had restrained his curi...

15. Marriage: Endearing And Enduring

Psalm 128:1-6

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

For A Medical Student Life has a way of challenging us with new beginnings. Some are well planned like this marriage. But many are unplanned, even unpredictable, like an illness, a forced job change or any other unpredictable thing that requires major adjustments. But in all cases new beginnings provide us the occasion to assess and reassess where we are in life. We are here today celebrating a be...

16. Mission Ready!

Mark 6:7-13

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

Picture yourself starting a brand new project. You might want to call it mission. In a parish where most of the communicants were government workers, civilian and military, I was always hearing the word, mission. I had understood mission in a religious context. I learned that mission could have a broader meaning. Life is mission. Business is mission. Career is mission. Mission is a good word. It s...

17. Plan Your Leisure - Jesus Did His!

Mark 6:30-44

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

Our son who has a two-engine plane took his wife and two children on a three day out-of-state trip during the Fourth of July week-end. I called, expecting to hear a relaxed voice. Instead, I heard a tense and anxious voice. I said, “How was your little trip?” “Oh, it was fine. The weather was good. [Weather is a primary concern to a pilot.] We saw the people we wanted to see. I took Dave and Jim o...

18. Sometimes We Need the Thorn

Mark 6:1-6

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

Someone once asked Abraham Lincoln why he wouldn't replace a cabinet member who constantly opposed him. Lincoln told the story about the farmer who was trying to plow with a very old and decrepit horse. Lincoln noticed on the flank of the animal a big thistle caught in the animal's hair. Lincoln started to pull it off and the farmer said, "Don't remove that thistle, Abe! If it wasn't for the stick...

19. Teach Fear To Say Its Prayers

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

It occurs to me that faith and fear have at least one thing in common: both are highly contagious. You and I are delicately impressionistic, vulnerable to the contagious influences around us. And our lives are formed, conditioned, shaped by the influences to which we have the most exposure. By our very natures, we pick up the vibes from the strongest people around us. If everybody else is afraid, ...

20. The Circle Of Life

Eulogy

Charles R. Leary

Alzheimer's Victim Life has brought us full circle again! I want you to visualize a circle. It might be your ring, or the circle in the cross (pointing to the Celtic cross above the altar). I use the word, circle, because I feel that deep inside God's universe there is no real beginning and no real ending. There are continuous circles marked by all kinds of events, some natural, some traumatic, so...

21. The Shoeshine Boy

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

A certain downtown businessman became fond of the little boy who shined his shoes every day. He did such a good job that one day the businessman asked him, "Son, how come you are so conscientious about your work?" The boy felt complimented. He looked up to the man, and said, "Mister, I'm a Christian and I try to shine every pair of shoes as if Jesus Christ were wearing them." The businessman saw ...

22. There Is Healing in the Touch

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

The idea for this sermon, “There is Healing in the Touch,” comes from two sources. In the Gospel Jesus makes a house call at the home of Jairus, President of the Synagogue Council. We would call him Senior Warden. “My little girl is dying,” he said. “Will you come and put your hands on her?” When Jesus entered the room, he took the little girl’s hand and said to her in his own native language, “Wa...

23. Togetherness in the Eucharist

John 6:25-59

Illustration

Charles R. Leary

Bread suggests togetherness, care and love, hopes and dreams, fun and adventure. Let's say some new friends invite you to their house for a meal. When you are a guest in their home, they are sharing their intimacy with you. They are sharing with you some of the privacy of that place where they live every day, eat every day, love every day, work on their problems, argue from time to time, sleep an...

24. What Is The Question?

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

I have to tell you, I generally ask myself a lot of questions. And when I have the opportunity, I ask questions of others. But today I am asking, "What is the question?" What is your question? If you were offered one wish that would be granted, one question that would be answered, one priority that would be fulfilled, right now, at this time in your life, what would it be? What is the question? T...

25. What Triggers Your Panic Button?

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Charles R. Leary

***This sermon focusses on the Markan Version.*** What triggered their panic buttons? The disciples thought they saw a ghost. J. B. Phillips’ version says, “they screamed ... they were absolutely terrified ... they were scared out of their wits ... But Jesus spoke quietly to them, 'It’s all right, it is I myself; don’t be afraid!'" What triggers your panic button? Several months ago, soon after we...

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