Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 171 results

Luke 2:8-20, Luke 2:1-7

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note Luke's birth narrative, like Matthew's, is both profound and problematic, especially if treated as an historically factual account. Taken as a theological statement, however, the story is full of meaning. Especially clear is the testimony Luke attributes to the angels: first one announces the birth itself, then a multitude proclaims the blessing of peace on earth that it will bring. L...

2. A Christ for All Nations

Matthew 2:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Matthew here artfully pieces together elements drawn from specific Old Testament texts (foreigners drawn to a divine light and bringing gold and frankincense from Isaiah 60:1-6; foreigners bearing gifts and paying tribute to a new king from Psalm 72; Bethlehem from Micah 5:2), in order to express the common belief that the salvation under the Messiah would apply to all nations. Later ...

3. A Reign Worth Any Sacrifice

Matthew 13:44-46

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes The first two parables in this selection form a pair and say essentially the same thing from two perspectives: God's coming Reign is like a treasure or rare jewel that is so invaluable that it is worth total sacrifice. Matthew's message in recording these two parables was probably an indirect exhortation to his contemporary Church to accept self-sacrifice willingly. Liturgical Color ...

4. Advent 1

Luke 21:5-38

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note This passage is a portion of Luke's version of the "Synoptic Apocalypse," and is thus based heavily on Mark 13. But Luke's omissions (v. 27) and his rendering of the fig-tree parable so as to point to the God's coming reign (v. 28) suggest that he has less interest than his source in the details of the "Son of man" motif; but his own peculiar ending (vv. 34-36) shows that he is no less...

5. Advent 1

Mark 13:32-37, Mark 13:1-31

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note Having uttered two parables that urge watchfulness, Jesus here issues an explicit exhortation on behalf of that same virtue. In so doing, he emphasizes the uncertainty of the time of cataclysmic eschatological events, and counsels, not speculation, but preparedness. Liturgical Color Blue or purple Suggested Hymns Wake, Awake, For The Night Is Flying The Lord Will Come And Not Be Slow...

6. Advent 2

Luke 3:1-20

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note Among the Synoptic evangelists, Luke goes to the greatest length to pinpoint the appearance of John the Baptist within world history (probably between A.D. 27 and 29). He also quotes more of Isaiah 40 than Mark or Matthew, extending it so as to conclude with the claim "all flesh shall see the salvation of God." The distinctiveness of Luke's account, therefore, is the universal scope in...

7. Advent 2

Mark 1:1-8

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note In this beginning to his Gospel, Mark uses (with some alteration) two Old Testament passages (Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3) in order to depict the ministry of John the Baptist, his preaching and practicing a water baptism of repentance and forgiveness, as the prophesied forerunner of the Messiah, who will bring a spiritual baptism. Liturgical Color Blue or purple Suggested Hymns Prepa...

8. Advent 3

Matthew 11:1-19

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Though John has already strongly implied (3:14) that Jesus is indeed "he who is to come," i.e., the Messiah, what he had heard in prison of "the deeds of the Christ" (v. 2) may have given him second thoughts by not fitting his own expectations of messianic might and judgment. In any case, Jesus' answer to the Baptist's question is indirect: he points to his miracles, phrasing them not...

9. Advent 3

John 1:19-28, John 1:1-18

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note These two passages are John's prose interpolations into the poetic Logos hymn and are apparently intended to make it abundantly clear that the Baptist was not the Light, nor even Elijah reincarnate, whose appearance was supposed to precede the messianic arrival, but rather a witness to the Light. In this posture, the Baptist becomes a kind of model for pre-advent activity in any age. ...

10. Advent 4

Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note This reading combines Luke's dramatic narrative of Mary's visit to Elizabeth and his lyrical "Magnificat." Central to both is the affirmation, on Elizabeth's lips as well as Mary's own, of the blessedness of the mother-to-be. Noteworthy, however, is the insistence that Mary's blessedness is not inherent, but derives from God's actions toward her in the Incarnation. After all, the adjec...

11. Advent 4

Luke 1:26-38

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note Our theme focuses on Mary's immediate, positive response to this special event, receptivity and obedience, which make her a model for human openness to the divine will. Liturgical Color Blue or purple Suggested Hymns Come, Thou Long-Expected Jesus From East To West All Praise To You Eternal Lord Joy To The World My Soul Now Magnifies The Lord What Wondrous Love Is This Prayer for Ad...

12. Ascension Of Our Lord

Luke 24:36-49

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note This version of the ascension of Jesus is not as detailed as Luke's other one in Acts 1, but gives generally the same picture. Jesus sets before them a tremendous task, namely the preaching of repentance and forgiveness to the world. But, lest they act precipitously, he counsels them to return to Jerusalem to await the divine power (in Acts it is specifically the Spirit) that will auth...

13. Baptism of the Lord

Matthew 3:13-17

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Whereas Mark's earlier version of Jesus' baptism makes the theophany more subjective (with the voice from heaven addressing Jesus as a "Thou"), Matthew (with Luke) makes it more objective, with the divine declaration from above addressed to the bystanders. By making this personal event, in effect, public, Matthew may be declaring that this baptism was an epiphany to the world. Liturg...

14. Bearing The Mark Of Christ

Mark 8:31--9:1, Mark 8:27-30

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The famous saying of Jesus about discipleship and "taking up his cross'' allows another interpretation worth exploring. Some exegetes suggest that in the pre-Easter version of the saying, stauros meant not a ''cross'' but a ''cross mark'' (a tau or chi, perhaps), such as was used to mark livestock. If that is the case, Jesus' original reference was to the Christian's taking on a mark o...

15. Beyond Nativity

Matthew 2:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes The enigmatic and eccentric figure of John the Baptist is rich and colorful in this passage and elsewhere in the New Testament, but for this Sunday the real focus of attention should be the coming One whom he proclaims. In this regard, it is noteworthy that the "coming" to which John refers is not Jesus' birth but his ministry, a helpful reminder in this season that the advent we cele...

16. Bleak Realities, But Blessed Rewards

Matthew 5:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Matthew's location of Jesus' great Sermon on the Mount is undoubtedly meant to strike a parallel with Moses and the Old Law. Here Jesus begins with the Beatitudes, which are addressed, not to a general audience, but to those -- apparently the lowliest and most oppressed of society -- who have devoted themselves to the inbreaking Reign. For them, the bleak realities of the present will...

17. Christ the King

Luke 12:1-12

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note This pericope overlaps two sections: vv. 33-38, describing the crucifixion; and vv. 39-43, dealing with the penitent thief. Luke clearly distinguishes between the people who stood watching and the rulers and soldiers who sneered and scoffed, showing the latter as universal symbols representing the enemies of the Gospel. Jesus' universal kingship is revealed by the power of divine love ...

18. Christ the King

Matthew 25:31-46

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Whether "the least" of the "brethren" (vv. 40, 45) meant specifically the disciples who were to be received as envoys of Jesus or more generally the outcast and oppressed for whom Jesus consistently showed concern is a matter of dispute. In either case, however, it is clear that those who wind up on the eschatological "King's" right hand (or "good side," in today's parlance) and inher...

19. Christ the King

John 18:28-40

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The conversation about kingship between Pilate and Jesus reported by John is a classic case of two people "talking past one another." John's Pilate clearly is looking for an excuse to execute Jesus, so Jesus' admission that he is any kind of king is sufficient for his purposes. For our purposes, however, what is important is Jesus' insistence that his kingdom is other-worldly: a Kingdo...

20. Christian Love as Bifocal

Matthew 22:34-40

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes In a sense, Jesus refuses here to play along with the Pharisee's question, which called for a singular answer. Jesus' answer, advocating a "bifocal" love, was not original in the rabbinic tradition. Others had emphasized these two Old Testament injunctions before. Jesus does, however, appear to raise the second commandment to a nearly co-equal status with the first with the word "like...

21. Christian Penance as Closet Piety

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

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes Jesus' (or Matthew's!) criticism here is directed, not at the three types of piety specified (almsgiving, prayer and fasting), but at what must have been (and probably still is) the irresistible tendency to make these public spectacles for popular approval. The sayings recorded here, therefore, commend a kind of "closet penance," built on the conviction that acts of repentance should ...

22. Christmas 1

Luke 2:21-40

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The elderly Simeon and Anna, both models of patient faith in God and God's promises, here find their deepest hopes, not just for the vindication of Jerusalem but indeed for universal salvation, at last fulfilled in the person of the Christ-child. Liturgical Color White Suggested Hymns All praise To You, Eternal Lord The Only Son From Heaven I Leave, As You Have Promised, Lord Let All...

23. Christmas 2

Luke 1:1-4

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The light-imagery that begins in v. 4 recurs throughout this Gospel (see 3:19, 9:39, 12:46), and the later references serve as commentary on this theme. Especially important for the evangelist is the Word's discerning or discriminating ability: It distinguishes the evil lovers of darkness from the good lovers of the light, only the latter of whom receive the life that the Light brings....

24. Christmas 2

John 1:1-18

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Notes It is not just the opening phrase of John's Prologue -- "In the beginning" -- that echoes the first verse of Genesis. Indeed the whole idea that the Word that is made flesh in Jesus is God's primeval creative agent, bringing both light and life, recalls the divine "fiats" of the Priestly author, whereby God, in effect, spoke the world into existence. Liturgical Color White Suggested...

25. Christmas 2

John 1:1-18

Bulletin Aid

Dennis Koch

Gospel Note The Word is God in his pre-Jesus existence and his coming in Jesus makes God a knowable and redemptive person. Liturgical Color White Suggested Hymns Let All Together Praise Our God I Heard The Voice Of Jesus Say What Child Is This Angel, From The Realms Of Glory The First Noel Prayer of the Day Lord God, we often find ourselves only looking at the surface of life. We do not take th...

Showing results