Sermon and Worship Resources

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Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

There's nothing like a week with two funerals, a wedding, Halloween celebrations, a community farewell party, a church tea, and several pastoral crises to make a body realize that none of us is an island. Mind you, just now, I'd kind of like to be an island for about three days! But only for three days. For the truth is, we are profoundly connected with and dependent upon each other ... and on the...

2. Dressed for the Banquet

Matthew 22:1-14

Sermon

Chris Ewing

When Vince Lombardi was hired as head coach of the Green Bay Packers in 1958, the team was in dismal shape. A single win in season play the year before had socked the club solidly into the basement of the NFL, and sportscasters everywhere used it as the butt of loser jokes. But Lombardi picked and pulled and prodded and trained and discipled the players into become a winning team. They were NFL ch...

3. In Whose Likeness?

Matthew 22:15-22

Sermon

Chris Ewing

Okay, teacher, you think you're so smart — is it lawful to pay taxes to the emperor? Talk about your loaded question! If we're talking about the law of Rome, the law of the imperial government, the law of this part of the world, of course it's legal to pay taxes to the emperor — it's illegal not to! And just in case Jesus was hoping to fudge a bit on the answer, there are among his questioners m...

4. Investing in God’s Future

Matthew 25:14-30

Sermon

Chris Ewing

(Note: At the time of reading this passage to the congregation, explain that a single talent was worth more than fifteen years' wages of a laborer [per NRSV footnote to Matthew 25:14] — in other words, easily a cool quarter of a million dollars in today's terms!) "I was afraid," quavered the third servant, "because I knew that you were a ruthless businessman, expecting profit even when it is impo...

5. Kiss The Chef! Thanksgiving Day

Luke 17:11-19

Sermon

Chris Ewing

Years ago, during summer vacation, I took a whole pile of books out of the library and spent days and days just reading. Today I'd have trouble telling you what most of those books were, never mind what they were about. But there's one little snatch of dialogue from one of the books that has stuck with me all these years — the bit of dialogue, in fact, that gave the book, and later the movie, its ...

6. Masks

Matthew 23:1-12

Sermon

Chris Ewing

There are going to be a lot of people running around out there with masks on this week. People pretending to be something they're not — or maybe trying on something that in part they are, or want to be. (put on mask)1 Masks are interesting things. We all wear them, you know, and not just on Halloween. We put on the brave smiling mask when our hearts are breaking. We put on a gruff mask to keep pe...

7. Nations on Trial

Matthew 25:31-46

Drama

Chris Ewing

A Readers' Theater for Five Voices A few suggestions for staging this.... It probably makes sense for the minister to be Voice 1, and an "ordinary layperson" to be Voice 2. Voice 3 (Christ) is probably best read by a respected adult male, in order to avoid confusion or dissonance. When Voices 4 and 5 bring in quotes from news stories, other parts of scripture, and prominent contemporary thinkers...

8. Ready for God’s Reign

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

Chris Ewing

This parable has to be one of the least liked in the whole Bible. It speaks stern words to those who are not ready for the moment of truth — and it leaves uncomfortably vague just what "being ready" might entail. To understand what Matthew interprets Jesus to mean by readiness for the final judgment, we have to read his whole gospel, and in particular the final third of this chapter, that famous ...

9. Testing, Testing

Matthew 22:34-46

Sermon

Chris Ewing

Sometimes things happen that push us back to our deepest questions and force us to answer. A marriage breakdown, loss of a job, kids leaving home, or simply the midlife re-evaluation that all of us go through — any of these can push us back to asking what it's all about, what we really want in our lives, what matters and what doesn't ... what we want our life to count for. Sometimes the question ...

10. Unwanted Freedom

John 8:31-36

Sermon

Chris Ewing

The trouble with words is that they can mean so many different things, depending on who is using them. And the bigger and more important the word, the more this tends to be true. Take, for instance, the word "freedom," or "free." That is a very important word to North Americans — to most of the world, in fact — and it appears to have been a very important word to Jesus. But I really wonder if we'r...

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