Sermon and Worship Resources

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John 17:1-5

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

You and I were born. We were part of a plan. Perhaps it was just a plan to make love that went awry. Perhaps, it was intentional thinking, an intentional decision, to continue the generations. Some generations have a call to have as many children as possible, others claim a responsibility to limit ourselves to one or two. In the beginning for all of us, there was a perception of a plan, even if th...

2. But What of Lazarus?

John 11:1-16, John 11:17-37, John 11:38-44

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

There is a cave. It is a tomb. There is a stone. It must be rolled away. And strips of cloth — cloths for burial. There is weeping. There is death. Jesus had come to Bethany. Lazarus was dead. “If you had been here,” Martha said, “If you had been here.” Her understanding of Jesus was such that from the very core of her being she trusted that had he been there, her brother would not have died. Eve...

3. Clearing the Eyes

John 9:1-12, John 9:13-34, John 9:35-41

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

The scripture today is one of honest inquiry but turns quickly to a realization that what the disciples have known, or thought they knew, is no longer applicable. When it comes to encountering a blind person they turn to what they have been taught. If a bad illness or disability befell a person like the one that befell the blind man, it must be because he or his parents had done something wrong. T...

4. Don't Give In

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

A colleague in ministry, nearing retirement, said something startling to me. Upon looking at his time in ministry coming to an end he shared he wanted a complete break from anything church related. He stated, “After all, I’ve been preaching the lectionary for 35 years, there really isn’t anything new left to say.” His attitude was light years in another direction from mine, even though I have serv...

5. For the Glow of It

Matthew 6:1-4, Matthew 6:16-18

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Our Ash Wednesday service is full of rich symbols. With the Imposition of Ashes and the Sacrament of Holy Communion, we are reminded that our faith, our church, and our worship life, has much outward symbolism. The scripture for our time together this Ash Wednesday is one of those passages that seems to go against the very fabric of our tradition as we understand it. We might be tempted at first ...

6. Friday

John 18:1-11

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

It doesn’t matter how many times I read, listen to, or watch a biography of Abraham Lincoln I am always surprised and newly saddened that he’s shot and dies. I have no idea why. I simply, for some reason, expect the biography to end differently, for the president to not be shot, or if he’s shot not to die. Yet every time he is shot and of course he dies, I feel again the absoluteness: he is gone.....

7. Goin' Down the Road

Luke 24:13-35

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

One of our family’s favorite films is the original Muppet Movie. It has a key song about moving down the road, being footloose and fancy free. The Emmaus road on the day of the encounter between Jesus and two disciples in our text was not a place for being footloose and fancy free. It was a road filled with people trying to make sense of the great tragedy that they witnessed in Jesus’ death. The ...

8. I've Seen the Lord

John 20:1-9, John 20:10-18

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

You and I come here for a variety of different reasons this Easter morning. For some, you come because of a deep abiding expectation that yearns to be reminded that our Lord died, but then out of death, God granted life. And in turn you know, therefore, that nothing is impossible with our Lord. For some you come because it is the thing you do... this Easter morning thing. Perhaps it is the respon...

9. Learning to Walk in the Dark

Matthew 26:14-16

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

If we take away nothing new from the Passion story this year let us take away this: through it we can learn to walk in the dark and remember that the dark is as day to God. Barbara Brown Taylor titled her 2014 book Learning to Walk in the Dark..In the introduction she pointed out, “From earliest times, Christians have used ‘darkness’ as a synonym for sin, ignorance, spiritual blindness, and death...

10. Let’s Really Know Jesus

John 14:1-4, John 14:5-14

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

I am married to a directionally challenged person. In the car if I ask her which way to go, she may say left while pointing right. After years of marriage I have learned that the pointing is always correct, not so much the words used. Thomas was a wonderfully directionally challenged person. Jesus told him there was a place prepared for all. Thomas went... how do I get there? Jesus’ response to T...

11. Listening 101

John 4:1-26, John 4:27-38, John 4:39-42

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Somewhere in my life I heard someone say something like, “The challenge with John (the gospel writer) is he is better at theatre than at writing.” The implications of this comment were about passages such as this one about Jesus and the woman of Samaria. Today’s reading is long enough that when read you begin to lose your place. But as drama (theatre) you can remember it well. You remember a woma...

12. Loving Made Real

John 13:1-17, John 13:31-38

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

The lectionary gives us two types of traditional texts for our Maundy Thursday services over the span of the three cycles. One type is before us tonight: the text of the foot washing, the text of Jesus clearly demonstrating the importance of his love for us and our call to love others. The other is what you and I call the “last supper”: how the ritual, the practice, of our meal together, whether t...

13. Nicodemus Came By Night

John 3:1-21

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Nicodemus came by night. Why by night? Why in darkness? In her book Learning to Walk in the Dark,[1] Barbara Brown Taylor describes numerous biblical images in which darkness — night’s most obvious quality — is “bad news.” Taylor notes that in the New Testament darkness stands for ignorance and, in the case of John’s gospel, darkness stands for spiritual blindness. Nicodemus the Pharisee, came b...

14. Our Strange, Strong Peace

John 14:15-31

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

Reflecting on her experiences with the Holy Spirit, pastor and educator Marian Plant once wrote, “There are times when the last thing I need in my life is the activity of the Holy Spirit. That “presence” of God which has a way of seeping into the psyche and unsettling one’s accepted ways of carrying on life. That manifestation of the Holy which alights on one with the innocence of a summer firefly...

15. Sheep? Seriously?

John 10:1-21

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

From Handel’s Messiah: “All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, everyone, to his own way.”1 From Psalm 23 (KJV): “The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.” From a hymn: Savior, like a shepherd lead us, much we need thy tender care; in thy pleasant pastures feed us, for our use thy folds prepare. Blessed Jesus, blessed Jesus! Thou hast bought us, thine we are. Blessed Jesus, blesse...

16. Tangible Tests

John 20:19-23, John 20:24-31

Sermon

David & Marian Plant

In the musical “My Fair Lady,” Eliza Doolittle challenged her suitor Freddie to the tangible test — the “show me so I can see, hear, taste, touch, or smell its realness” test. She sings to him that he should show her just how much he loves her (and quit talking about it). Poor Freddie just wasn’t up to the challenge. The church’s best moments — the church at its most believable self — is when it...

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