Sermon and Worship Resources

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1 Corinthians 1:18--2:5

Sermon

John R. Brokhoff

... ." Shakespeare commented that all the perfume of Arabia could not take away the stench of the sin. Only God can cleanse the soul. David expressed this when he said, "Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean; wash me and I shall be whiter than snow." ... called, but he had heavy family responsibilities. Another young man by the name of Pratt volunteered to go for him. He was accepted and he bore the name and number of Wyatt. In due time Pratt was killed in action. At a later date Wyatt was again called for ...

2. Whether You'll Weather the Weather

Luke 6:46-49

Sermon

David J. Kalas

... same time, however, the Old Testament people of God were not naïve on this point. They cherished the stories of Joseph, David, Job, and others whose sufferings were unfair and undeserved. Many of the Psalmist's prayers are cries for justice in the midst of ... : The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 368. 2. Joachim Neander, translated by Fred Pratt Green, "All My Hope Is Firmly Grounded," The United Methodist Hymnal (Nashville, Tennessee: The United Methodist Publishing House, 1989), p. 132.

3. The Language of the Heart

Psalm 100:1-5

Sermon

David E. Leininger

Music, music, music. In the words of Carlyle, "Music is well said to be the speech of angels."(1) Or Longfellow, "Music is the universal language of mankind."(2) Shakespeare: "If music be the food of love, play on."(3) Music. Sometime back public school music teachers compiled some answers that youngsters gave to test questions:(4) • Refrain means don't do it. A refrain in music is the part you better not try to sing. • A virtuoso is a musician with real high morals. • Handel was half German, half Italian ...

4. Song of an Historian

Psalm 78:1-72

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Seventy-eighth Psalm is a person with his eye on the events that have shaped Israel. Not that he is engrossed in the bare facts of her history. He is too strongly steeped in the traditions of his people in general and the prophets in particular for that. It is rather that he sees the happenings of her past as God’s footprints in the sands of time. History: A Sacred Trust The psalmist’s approach to his country’s story takes advantage of a poet’s license regarding it. So he departs from the ...

5. A Mother · A Canaanite Woman

Mt 15:21-28 · Mk 7:24-30

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

Like the woman of Samaria the mother from Canaan whose story Matthew and Mark have preserved for us was a foreigner. Tradition calls her Justa and names her daughter Bernice. One scholar describes her as "by language a Greek, by nationality a Canaanite, and by residence a Syro-Phoenician." So, too, she was probably Greek by religion. Coming from the Phoenician coast as she did she was very likely a member of a seafaring family. I More to the point, however, the woman belonged to a race the Jews held ...

6. A Lady With A Listening Ear · Mary Of Bethany

Luke 10:38-42

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

There are as many ways to witness as there are witnesses. Not everyone can be like Andrew, who never met a stranger, or Peter, whose eloquence brought thousands to Jesus. (Acts 2:14-42) But one thing is sure. Each of us has a witness to bear. I For Mary of Bethany the witness took the form of the hours she spent at Jesus' feet. It was an act of devotion the very sight of which must have spoken as tellingly to her neighbors as anything she might have said to them. It was not that she would have been content ...

7. A Big Fisherman · Peter

Mt 16:13-20 · Jn 1:35-42

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

He came from the sea, a brawny, boisterous man, who loved nothing better than the spray in his face as he pitted his little craft against a gale, his calloused hands locked on the tiller, a defiant cry on his lips. And when the wild trick was over how he must have boasted of his feat to friends sharing his hearth! He was an impulsive man, quick to make decisions and equally quick to make mistakes. Yet he never let either stop him. Instead, he plunged straight on, rushing from one concern to another, always ...

8. A Patriot · Dysmas

Mt 27:38 · Mk 15:27 · Lk 23:32

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

To the Evangelists who wrote the first three gospels he is a nameless person, this young patriot sharing the agony of Jesus' last earthly hours. (Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27; Luke 23:32) Tradition treats him more kindly. It dignifies him with a name. "Dysmas," it whispers. Nor does tradition stop there. Instead, it presses on to portray Dysmas as a man of great compassion, deeply concerned for the distressed and the downtrodden, who "despised the rich, but did not give to the poor, even burying them" -- no ...

9. Song of a Shepherd

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the Twenty-third Psalm is quite possibly an old man who has lived the better part of a lifetime. In his day he may have been a shepherd. But now the years have siphoned his stamina. So he sits and reminisces on what used to be. And as he does so he observes another shepherd silhouetted against the sky leading a flock to a greener pasture. Instinctively, the sight turns the poet’s mind to the numberless days and nights he tended his own flocks under God’s watchful eye; and once again, as has ...

10. Song of a Pilgrim

Psalm 122:1-9

Sermon

Gordon Pratt Baker

The author of the One hundred and twenty-second Psalm is a religious pilgrim from the hinterland who delights in the quiet stateliness of Israel’s rebuilt Temple. To be sure, lacking gateways like flowing gold and with no broad, sweeping courts, it falls far short of the edifice which Solomon built so magnificently and which Nebuchadnezzar destroyed so violently in 587 B.C. Nevertheless, this rallying point of the faithful catches the poet up in visions of the grandeur that was and its heritage redeemed. ...

11. The View from Jesus' Pew

Mark 12:41-44

Sermon

David E. Leininger

There is an old story of a father going to church with his three daughters and giving them each two quarters to put in the offering. When the offering came around the oldest put in her two quarters, the next did the same, but the last held onto hers. When she was going out of church, she pulled the pastor down to her level. "Sir, my daddy gave each of us kids two quarters to put in the offering. Sally put hers in the offering plate, and Julie put hers in, but I wanted to give mine to you." When the pastor ...

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