Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 32 results

1. A Relationship Changed by Baptism

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Let us pretend that you are a young lieutenant, part of the military, part of a presidential honor guard. Every day the President walks into his office, and you snap to attention, click your heals and salute the President. The President nods. Every day, this same procedure occurs. The President walks in; you snap to attention, click your heals and salute. The relationship is stiff, formal, technic...

2. A Vision of True Love

Matthew 17:1-13

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Visions have great clarity. One of the oldest members of his church, Al was at the retirement center, the Good Samaritan, with his wife Cora, demented through Alzheimer's. Old Man Lunde, as he was affectionately called, would go to the retirement center every day with a bowl of ice cream to give to his wife of many decades. By the time that Al drove from his home over to the retirement center, the...

3. A Visionary Moment

Mark 9:2-13

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

One of my favorite stories about the United Nations is the story about Dag Hammarskjold, who was Secretary General of the UN many years ago in about 1961. Many of us like his book entitled, MARKINGS. MARKINGS is Hammarskjold's notes of his life as Secretary General of the United Nations but it is also a spiritual diary of his spiritual journey. Hammarskjold was a mystic, believing in the mystery o...

4. All Night Long

Matthew 22:1-14

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Many years ago, a friend of mine from church pulled me out into the parking lot to listen to a tape in her car. Darlene Malmo wanted me to hear her favorite Lionel Ritchie song. There was this song about life being like a party, "all night long." She said, "I am going to party all night long with God." That is what being a Christian is. Some Christian say that it is not right to have such a mood ...

5. An Example of God’s People

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Dr. Mark Jacobson, as I recall, was valedictorian of his class at Harvard, and then he went to the University of Minnesota Medical School where again he was the top student in his class. Again, he was the valedictorian and gave the valedictorian address. He is an incredibly brilliant man. Then he went to Arusha, Tanzania, there with immense suffering. He used his brains and resources to work in ...

6. Christianity Involves a Struggle

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

There was this amateur naturalist who saw a cocoon. This amateur naturalist saw a butterfly struggling to get out of that cocoon. The butterfly was struggling to get out of the cocoon and was just about ready to break out of that cocoon. The amateur naturalist was closely watching as this miracle unfolded. Then, the amateur naturalist did a very dumb thing. He took out his pocket knife and he slit...

7. Forgiveness Is for Heroes

Matthew 18:21-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Sometimes people say that forgiveness is intended to speak to individuals but not to nations. I feel differently about this. I see the cycle of violence and revenge repeated between ethnic groups and nations. We clearly see this escalating cycle of violence and revenge between the Palestinians and the Israelis, between the nations of Pakistan and India, between the USA and Russia during the Cold W...

8. Giving Your Life to the Mission

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

I have been thinking about people who have been obsessed with mission. Scott Carpenter was one of the great citizens of the United States of America. He was one of our seven first astronauts. He was truly a great man. Scott Carpenter was a man who had a sense of mission. Let me read what Scott Carpenter had to say, "This project of being an astronaut and going to the moon, gives me the possibility...

9. Gladdening the Valleys Below

Luke 9:28-45

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

God never meant us to live on the mountaintop. We don't often read the Transfiguration and include the story immediately after it, but we should. Because the next story is the key to the transfiguration story. The disciples and Jesus came off the mountain, and they came right down to the bottom of the valley. They came off the mountain and they came down into the valley and they found a boy who wa...

10. Gloria! Christ Is Our Own

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

It doesn't seem that long ago. It is as clear as yesterday. It was in the morning, 6:30, a Sunday morning, and I heard the patter of little feet. And the patter of the feet came into the kitchen, and it was dark in our kitchen except for the light above the kitchen table. I was putting the finishing touches on the Sunday sermon, and the little child came in half asleep, and he said to me, "Whe...

11. In the Quiet of the Wilderness

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

The wilderness is silence and quiet. It is the elimination of the sounds of television, the radio, the stereo, the iPod, the cell phone. It is the elimination of the voices of mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, friends. It is the elimination of the racing tape of your own mind that absorbs your thoughts. The wilderness is quiet. It is utter stillness. It is being alone with God. It is for a mom...

12. Jesus Always Makes Us Better

John 13:31-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

This past week, I again read a quotation by Morris Niedenthal, who teaches and preaches at the University of Chicago. He says that Jesus accepted people just the way they were, but he never left people just the way they were because he loved them. Jesus always made them better. So often on Sunday morning, I say to a child at the communion rail as I bless them and trace the sign of the cross on the...

13. Let the Gospel Run Its Course

Mark 4:26-29

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

For me, one of the classic interpretations of this Biblical passage about the seed growing automatically (Mark 4:26) was written by Martin Luther when he said about this text: "After I preach my sermon on Sunday, when I return home, I drink my little glass of Wittenberg beer and I just let the gospel run its course." I like that. Luther said that after he pounded on the pulpit and expounded the go...

14. Live in the Light

John 14:15-31

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

I love Martin Luther's statement: "Can a rock that has been in the sun light all day not fail to give off warmth and heat at night?" Can a rock that has been in the warmth and heat of the sun light all day not fail to give off warmth and heat at night? Can a Christian who has lived in the sunlight of God's love not fail to give off warmth and love? No. That is why you have to have first things fir...

15. Love Still Asks the Question

Matthew 25:31-46

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

In Matthew's Gospel where the judge asks the question at the end of history, "What have you done?" What a question. It's a way of asking, "Do you really believe in Jesus Christ?" They are the two sides of the same question. When we are asked that question, "What have you done for the least of these, my brothers and sisters," this does not contradict the grace of God, that salvation is a pure gift....

16. Miracles Are Part of Our Lives

Matthew 14:22-33

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

The word, "miracle," and the experience of the miraculous, is in no way confined to Biblical times or the first century. The word, "miracle," and the experience of the miraculous, is very much part of our modern world and our everyday lives. In spite of all the technological advances and scientific sophistication that is part of the modern world, the word, "miracle," is still very much part of o...

17. One Way Out

John 14:1-14

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

The year was 1275 BC, before Christ. The land was Egypt. The ruler was Pharaoh. The leader of the Jews was Moses. The Jews had been in slavery for four hundred years to the Egyptians, building their cities and pyramids. But God had sent the plagues, and now the Jewish nation was beginning their exodus from slavery. And at this particular moment, they were stopped by a body of water, the Red Sea,...

18. Poor Saint Nicholas

Luke 2:1-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Christmas was and is the feast for the poor. Christmas is a festival for the poor, a banquet for the poor. We are reminded that at Christmas time (and all times), the poor are to be clothed, the hungry are to be filled, the handicapped and blind are to be nourished. These values are at the heart of the original Christmas pageant in the gospel of Luke, and these same values are found then in the ...

19. Rooted in the Scripture

Mark 4:26-34

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Many of the values of Western civilization are rooted in Jesus and the Scriptures. Where did our concept of democracy come from? Most people say off the top of their heads, that it came from Greece and the Greek senate. Yes, but not totally. Where did our concept of democracy originate? From the Magna Carta. It came from the Magna Carta and England in the year 1215. Who was one of the primary auth...

20. Sanctity Stinks

Matthew 18:15-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

There is almost nothing worse in the world than religious people who think they are holier or better or less sinful than other people. I love the limerick which says, "The power of hell is strongest when the odor of sanctity creates the smell." Yes, the odor of sanctity does stink. Martin Luther, the single man responsible for all of Protestantism, said a similar thing when he wrote: "O Lord, de...

21. Send Workers Now!

Matthew 9:35-38

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Have you ever been down to the bank on late Friday afternoons to deposit a check? Are the lines long on Friday afternoons? Yes. Do you enjoy waiting in those lines? No. And you are pleased when you hear the voice of the bank manager echoing through the bank: 'Tellers to the front window please." And you want those tellers to come immediately, when the line is long. Not in five minutes or ten minut...

22. Taking Up the Cross

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

A man by the name of Harold Luccock, a pastor and theologian, wrote the following words about this passage. I found his words illuminating. “Taking up the cross of Christ is a deliberate choice of something that could be evaded. To take up a burden that we are under no compulsion to take up except for the love of Christ living inside of us. It makes the choice of taking upon ourselves the burdens ...

23. The Energies of Love

John 13:31-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, the Roman Catholic theologian, once wrote: "Sometimes after the mastery of the winds and the waves and the tides; after the mastery of the sun and the sea and the laws of gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love. And when we harness the energies of love, for the second time in human history, we shall discover fire." … What if we harnessed atomic fusion? Wo...

24. The Ideal Congregation

Matthew 13:24-30

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

When I was a young man, during my seminary days of training to become a pastor, my ideal congregation was The Church of Our Savior’s in Washington, DC. Among my peers and friends, that congregation was the ideal, the inspiration, the model to which we aspired. It was a small congregation of 200 people who renewed their spiritual vows each year. Their vows were to tithe, to attend Bible study every...

25. The Poverty in the Christmas Story

Luke 2:1-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

The gospel story for today could be entitled, "The Original Christmas Pageant." In both the first two chapters of Luke and in the rest of the gospel, we hear of God's special concern for the poor. Both in the whole gospel of Luke and in the first two chapters of prelude, there is a preoccupation with those who live in poverty. I would like to suggest to you that the forgotten element of Luke's or...

Showing results

Showing 1 to 25 of 32 results

1. A Relationship Changed by Baptism

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

2. A Vision of True Love

Matthew 17:1-13

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

3. A Visionary Moment

Mark 9:2-13

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

4. All Night Long

Matthew 22:1-14

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

5. An Example of God’s People

Matthew 28:16-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

6. Christianity Involves a Struggle

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

7. Forgiveness Is for Heroes

Matthew 18:21-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

8. Giving Your Life to the Mission

Luke 12:49-53

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

9. Gladdening the Valleys Below

Luke 9:28-45

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

10. Gloria! Christ Is Our Own

Luke 2:1-14 (15-20)

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

11. In the Quiet of the Wilderness

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

12. Jesus Always Makes Us Better

John 13:31-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

13. Let the Gospel Run Its Course

Mark 4:26-29

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

14. Live in the Light

John 14:15-31

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

15. Love Still Asks the Question

Matthew 25:31-46

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

16. Miracles Are Part of Our Lives

Matthew 14:22-33

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

17. One Way Out

John 14:1-14

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

18. Poor Saint Nicholas

Luke 2:1-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

19. Rooted in the Scripture

Mark 4:26-34

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

20. Sanctity Stinks

Matthew 18:15-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

21. Send Workers Now!

Matthew 9:35-38

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

22. Taking Up the Cross

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

23. The Energies of Love

John 13:31-35

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

24. The Ideal Congregation

Matthew 13:24-30

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

25. The Poverty in the Christmas Story

Luke 2:1-20

Illustration

Edward F. Markquart

Showing results