Sermon and Worship Resources

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2 Samuel 11:1-15

Sermon

Donna Schaper

David gets in trouble the way many other men get in trouble. Some women do also but often in a less adulterous way. Women get "twitterpated" by beauty but often think of themselves as the one who should become beautiful. I think of the movie, The Devil Wears Prada, which is the story of fascination with fashion — the women are all hooked deeply on how they look, so deeply that they think a size si...

2. Boasting and Praying for You

2 Thessalonians 1:1-4, 11-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Recently, I was asked to give a prayer at the area chamber of commerce meeting, with these instructions: "Make it brief, and don't mention God too much." How am I supposed to do that? I can't stop boasting about God. God's work is so impressive to me that snowflakes don't even describe it. Nor do hummingbird's nests. Nor fireworks. Nor breakfast. God is so grand to me that I have to boast. What ...

3. Dedicating Temples

1 Kings 8:1- 6, 10-11, 22-30, 41-43

Sermon

Donna Schaper

So much is happening in chapter 8 of 1 Kings that we almost want to get dressed up for an amazing celebration! The Ark of the Covenant is moved into the new temple, the temple is dedicated, a cloud of glory arrives, people have a mystical experience, and Solomon explicitly takes on the mantle of his father David. Then he begins to "preach" a kind of wisdom that is just amazing. While I am tempted ...

4. Do Not Be Quickly Shaken

2 Thessalonians 2:1-12

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Several years ago, Lyle Schaller made the observation that ministry, once a "high status, low stress" vocation was now just the opposite: "high stress and low status." Why? Clergy have a double calling, both to secure and to shake people up. They need to be prophetic and pastoral at the same time. Most people want ministers to stabilize their lives, to keep them from being shaken. The goal many pa...

5. Falling Short

Romans 3:19-28

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Sam Goldwyn, the great picture maker, said of one of his movies, "I don't care if the picture makes money. I just want every man, woman, and child in America to see it." Goldwyn has the same relationship to small and large, short and tall, that many of us have. We want both. We don't want the money — we just want what goes with the money, which is the freedom. We don't want to win the argument; w...

6. Finding the Good Woman Part in Us All

Proverbs 31:10-31

Sermon

Donna Schaper

A good woman is a superwoman, or so it appears to me as I read the list of things she can do. In this famous passage from Proverbs, we read that a good woman is precious and that her husband trusts her. A good woman is a good marketer and bargainer, buying fields, trading wool and flax, finding good food from far away. She makes her arms strong! There is certainly no picture of twenty-first-centur...

7. Flying Coach to Nirvana

2 Timothy 3:10--4:8

Sermon

Donna Schaper

A good friend of mine, Bob Frederickson, is writing a travel book called Flying Coach To Nirvana. I stole his title for this sermon because I want to do simply what he took 400 pages to accomplish. His book is a collection of essays about visits he has made to Gabon in Africa, the West Indies, and on and on. He thinks of his trips as simple, populist, and personal; his point is that anyone can tra...

8. Having a Good Name

Proverbs 1:20-33

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Proverbs is right: Having a good name is a terribly important thing. It is important in business, it is important in society, it is important at home, in a family. When we lose our good name, we have lost our trustworthiness. Sometimes it cannot be replaced. How do we know if we have a good name? What is the measurement? Is it the absence of gossip? Or the presence of trust? Is a good name someth...

9. Itchy Ears

2 Timothy 3:14-4:5

Sermon

Donna Schaper

As usual, the epistle is a little more graphic than we can quite grasp. Itchy ears: what a concept just in physical terms. Experience it for a minute. You itch, you scratch, you sort of know you shouldn't scratch because it will only make the itch worse. But still you scratch, while wondering how the itch ever got started in the first place. What a concept: itchy ears as a vehicle for spiritual tr...

10. Job Is for Real

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Sermon

Donna Schaper

We find Job on the edge of town, his money gone, his children dead, picking at his innumerable sores and scabs. In the Joni Mitchell version of his sorrow, Job speaks of how the children of the wicked frisk like deer while his are dead and gone. In her version, we are also told that Job sees the diggers waiting, leaning on their spades, at the site of his grave. Job's three friends, Eliphas, Bilda...

11. Joy Is for Leaping

Song of Songs 2:8-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

This ode to spring and to love is almost always used at Passover. It is part of the most ancient of Passover liturgy. The language dances, like the lover, over the mountains. Imagine a human leaping upon mountains. Imagine a human like a gazelle or a young stag. I saw two men just yesterday on Broadway. I was about to pass out from the heat — they were racing each other to the hot dog stand. I cou...

12. Small Sin, Large Grace

2 Samuel 11:26-27, 12:1-13a

Sermon

Donna Schaper

This pericope is in two parts. First there is the testimony of Nathan against David. A little trap is laid about another man who has stolen a lamb. David answers without self-consciousness. Nathan has to tell David, "You are the man who has stolen the sheep." "You are the one who should be punished." We are reminded of that wonderful part of the Lord's Prayer, "Forgive us our sins — debts — trespa...

13. The Gospel Is Unchained

2 Timothy 2:8-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

I went to the store to buy a new pair of blue jeans. The clerk asked if I wanted slim fit, easy fit, or relaxed fit, regular or faded, stone washed or acid washed, button fly or regular fly ... and that's when I started to sputter. Can't I just have a pair of blue jeans, size fourteen? Then I went to the grocery store and found 85 varieties of crackers, 285 kinds of cookies, and thirteen differen...

14. The Place beyond Punishment

Sermon

Donna Schaper

You can tell a lot about a family by finding out what happens if a child spills something. In some families, spilling your milk is a capital offense. A child can get in a lot of trouble if the milk is spilled. In other kinds of families, spilling your milk is understood as an accident, a thing that happened, and a form of chance or luck. In these families, there is no additional pain or puni...

15. The Place beyond Revenge

Esther 7:1-6, 9-10, 9:20-22

Sermon

Donna Schaper

A custom is begun! Because of the vengeance that the king took against Haman for Esther, the Jews are to remember their salvation. On the fourteenth and fifteenth day of the month they are to send gifts of food to one another and presents to the poor. Oh, God, help me to understand violence! Help me to understand vengeance. I am pretty good at the other sins, like lust and greed, pride and gossip...

16. Think on these Things

Philippians 4:4-9

Sermon

Donna Schaper

In the letter to the people at Philippi, Paul wanted us to think on things that are beautiful, pure, and excellent. He wanted to teach us asset-based thinking. He wanted to teach us the art of appreciative inquiry. He wanted to limit criticism and the culture of complaint. Paul wanted us to be thankful. Oddly, being thankful does not come naturally to us. We stayed at our best friend's house whi...

17. Weary in Well Doing

2 Thessalonians 3:6-13

Sermon

Donna Schaper

What makes people weary is conflict. We are torn apart, split in two, we are challenged at our core in large and small ways all day long. We say wryly, "No good deed goes unpunished," running right into the conflict of getting weary in well doing. Biologists tell us we have two choices in most situations: We can fight or take flight or tend and befriend. The fight and flight response is most ofte...

18. When Christ Is King

Colossians 1:11-20

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Many people don't like the theological language of Christ as king. They say it is too old-fashioned: democracies don't have kings. They say it is too masculine: we all believe in gender equality. What they don't say is what it means. When we declare that Christ is king, we mean that Christ is the most important matter, the one with the most power for us, personally. On Christ the King Sunday this ...

19. When Necks Break

2 Samuel 18:5-9, 15, 31-33

Sermon

Donna Schaper

What is the point of war? Even wars of old? The horrible story of Absalom's neck breaking as he rides his horse as part of an ancient army is very hard to take — and still many of us teach it in Sunday school! One picture that I remember from my own heavily Sunday-schooled youth is of Absalom, beautiful, long, black hair, riding along on a white horse, with a branch straight at his throat. Chapter...

20. Whose Inheritance Is It?

Ephesians 1:11-23

Sermon

Donna Schaper

The Holy Spirit gives us our inheritance. It does not come from our parents or grandparents, our nation or our race. Our inheritance is a gift from God. We have it as a dominion and domination. Domination — when we get first things absolutely first — is not a bad thing! Once we know the source of our inheritance, no other gods can rule us. Saints are the people who know this. Saints know who gave ...

21. Wise Leadership

1 Kings 2:10-12, 3:3-14

Sermon

Donna Schaper

Solomon asks for the right thing: He asks for wisdom. He asks for it from a very humble place, the place of knowing that he is but a child and still he has been put in charge of large things. Leadership is a treacherous thing. How can we possibly know so when we are but children? That is what Solomon knew. He knew, even as a child, just how much help he was going to need to be a leader. He already...

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