Sermon and Worship Resources

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2 Corinthians 5:6-10 (11-13), 14-17

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... and God would look amusingly like a senile grandfather with the grin of a benign Cheshire cat. No-fault religion? Is this what Paul had in mind in this text where he says God does not hold our faults against us? Hardly. What then does he have in ... religion of which Paul speaks promises the power of re-creation. "If any person is in Christ, he is a new creation, a new being," says Paul (2 Corinthians 5:17). Very often when people are in a pessimistic mood they will ask. "Do you think it is possible for people ...

2. Someone Greater Than a Prophet

Luke 1:26-38

Sermon

Maurice A. Fetty

... into our image of who we want him to be for our convenience. When we don't really know his name, "anybody can call him anything," says Shea. But Gabriel and John and Mary saw him as anything but a curiosity piece and legitimizing authority for our pet causes, however noble. He was ... "if it feels good, do it." Judgment reassures us that God is more than a benign grandfather grinning like a Cheshire cat with Alzheimer's at all the world's tawdriness, vanity, and hypocrisy. Judgment is the bitter end knot in the ...

3. The Promise of Hope

Matthew 3:1-12

Sermon

Billy D. Strayhorn

... panel, "Garfield has this huge grin on his face. And in the third panel, still grinning like the Cheshire cat, he says: "That's exactly what that means." (2) And today we hear from our friendly neighborhood New Testament prophet, ... her favorite ornament. But she's heartsick because the ornament is broken. It's obviously Mom's favorite too because Mom is upset as well and she says: "You know, my Dad made this for me, when I was six. And he was so careful. He put so much time into every little piece. This ...

4. Some Said It Thundered

John 12:20-36

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... was rather what you might call the faint echo of a voice, sort of like the famous smile of Lewis Carroll’s Cheshire Cat. By Jesus’ time people had come to believe that the days of the prophets were over, that God no longer spoke ... heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.” (Heb. 1:1,2) When Jesus began His ministry there came a voice from heaven, saying, “This is my beloved Son...listen to Him!” But the world did not listen to Him. And the world’s blindness and deafness made a ...

5. Sixth Sunday After the Epiphany

Sermon

Russell F. Anderson

... ahead of time, before they cross the river, God's way, the pathway of life. Half the battle is knowing what you are going to say and do when the crisis arises. The way of death is not something we choose up front, but by default. We get sucked into the ... the path through the forest in Wonderland when it divided in two different directions. As she stood there wondering what to do, the Cheshire Cat suddenly appeared in the crotch of a tree. Alice asked him which path she would choose. "Where do you want to ...

6. Finding Our Reason For Being

Luke 4:14-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... the Looking Glass, Alice wanders aimlessly through a strange kingdom until she comes to a fork in the road. She looks left, she looks right, then exclaims, “Which way shall I go?” That’s when a Cheshire cat with a broad grin inquires “Where are you going?” Alice replies, “I don’t know.” “Well,” says the cat, “then it doesn’t matter. If you don’t know where you are going any road will get you there.” Disciples know where they are going. They are following Jesus. They are on the ...

7. A Memorial Forever - Memorial Day

Proverbs 1:1-7

Sermon

Eric Ritz

... in history. Let us not allow some of our fondest hopes and dreams to be frozen in the past for our own lives, our church, our nation. Let them help us to distinguish between the real thing and the false. Lewis Carroll, in Alice in Wonderland, had Alice saying, "Cheshire-Puss, would you please tell me, which way I ought to go from here?" The cat replies, "That depends a good deal on where you want to get to." As Dr. Stanley J. Menking taught us at Drew Seminary, every road takes you nowhere when you do not ...

8. Which Way You Go

Illustration

Michael P. Green

In Alice in Wonderland, at one point Alice says to the Cheshire Cat, “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?” “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to,” said the Cat. “I don’t much care where,” said Alice. “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go,” said the Cat. As with Alice, so with us and the church. Without objectives, we will have nowhere to go, and we’ll just keep wandering aimlessly.

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