Sermon and Worship Resources

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Exodus 12:1-30

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Lambs! More lambs! We need more lambs! Let the blood from each lamb flow into a pool and the pools into streams and the streams into rivers! Bring trains to take it to the cities! Ready ships to carry it across the world! What did the scriptures say? Blood on the doorposts and on the lintel? And those in that home shall be spared? Then take paintbrushes to the doorposts of the homes where the li...

2. All The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise

Acts 10:34-43

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Is it tomorrow, or is it still yesterday? In the cartoon, Dennis the Menace is tugging at his dad's covers, and Mr. Mitchell is trying to lift one eyelid. Dennis wants to know, "Is it tomorrow yet? Or is it still yesterday?" It's a profound question. Something like that -- some 2000-year-old Aramaic version of it anyway -- must have been in the minds of the women on their way to the tomb. In fact...

3. Down A Garden Path

Genesis 2:4-25, Genesis 3:1-24

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Imagine being set in a lush garden with all kinds of flowers, plants and trees. There are lemon trees, fig trees, olive trees, date palms, oranges and apples. Thhe Lord says, "You may freely eat of every tree in the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat." How hard could it be? All those trees, boughs lush with so many succulent and delicious choices. How could...

4. Free! Free! Free!

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Gerald Whetstone

They say that when the slaves in Jamaica knew they were to be set free on a certain day, they spent all night getting ready. While it was yet dark they began moving by twos and threes out of their huts into village lanes, joined by others coming from the forests and the plains. They streamed toward the highest hill, climbing through the darkness and crowding together at the top, waiting for the da...

5. From the Vine

John 15:5-6

Illustration

Gerald Whetstone

Recently we experienced severe thunderstorms with very high winds. My neighbor had a tree which the winds tore off several large limbs. Because the limbs were large it took him several days to get them cut up and removed. There was one very noticeable thing about the limbs that lie there on the ground tore from the trunk of the tree. They died. This may sound very trite and you may be saying, "wel...

6. God Works Wanders

Genesis 12:1-8

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"God works wanders." I read again the Christmas letter from an old friend of the family, typed in this computer age on some ancient typewriter. Surely it was a typo. Looking back over his life, he meant to say, "God works wonders." And surely God does work wonders. But he works wanders too. I found myself reflecting, as our elderly friend had done, on the changes of the years. God works wanders. A...

7. God's A Catcher

Exodus 17:1-7

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Amid all the exotic sights and excitement of a circus there's one moment which for me holds more daring, beauty and grace than any other. A moment when the clowns cease their pratfalls, while tigers pace and snarl in their cages, elephants shift their bulk from side to side, the ringmaster hushes the crowd, and cross-pathed spotlights illumine upturned faces in scattered circles around the arena ...

8. In The Eyes of God

Isaiah 20:1-5

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Consider how differently you've felt before another person's eyes. Think how you may have withered under the stare of an angry teacher. How your head may have begun to swim in the dreamy gaze of a lover. How belittled you felt as your boss seemed to look right through you without seeing you. Or how you could have burst with joy in the proud eyes of your parents. How differently we can feel in anot...

9. It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over

Ezekiel 37:1-14

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Masada is a massive rock, rising from the south Judean desert. Walking round the edge of its flattened height, there is no life to be seen anywhere. All around, only the expanse of the dry, rocky desert. Except for the Sea to the west. Yet this is the salt-soaked Dead Sea whose water is lifeless, absolutely lifeless. On this mount Herod had built a fortress for escape. Later, nearly a thousand Jew...

10. Not Independence, But Freedom

Acts 2:42-47

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

In a brochure about an AIDS hospice, one of the residents who had recently died was quoted as having said, "The hardest thing about having AIDS is asking for help, but this house is nice for that sort of thing." A dying man's childlike affirmation of a place to seek and receive help describes one of the deepest needs we bring to our lives in the church. Like the AIDS victim, we've always found tha...

11. Now, Even Now....

Joel 2:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

I can imagine castles in the air and kingdoms under the sea. I can picture a phoenix rising from an ashy fire or elves riding crickets on the forest floor. I cann imagine a thousand fanciful things better than I can imagine my own death. I've always seen the world only through my own eyes, comprehended it with my own mind, loved it with my own heart. How can I conceive of the world without me in ...

12. Our Champion Rides Into Battle

Isaiah 50:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

From the battlement, the watchman sees a knight riding from the forest and ascending the hill. He is in full armor, a long lance in one arm, a great shield in the other. His powerful black charger wears a coat of bright red and paws the air and snorts as the rider reins him in at the castle gate. The knight bangs his lance on the mighty doors and shouts his challenge: "Who will contend with me? Le...

13. Our Defense In A Stone-littered World

Acts 7:54--8:1a

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"Jesus loves me, this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones to him belong. They are weak, but he is strong." The children will sing their hearts out, joining in this beloved song. But stand in the midst of a bunch of young children and ask, "Who here is weak?" You'll be barraged with denials, protests, and muscle flexings. The bravado of children is difficult to exaggerate. An image...

14. Paring Down Our Pantheons

Acts 17:16-34

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"Tell me a story," said the little boy to his dad at bedtime, "tell me a story and put me in it." There are no stories to which children pay better attention than those in which they play a part. Even as the years go by, and the eager child becomes one of those cool, disinterested teenagers, watch how she perks up when you say, "I remember the time that you...." Adults will follow the same patter...

15. People With A Mission

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

"What I have here is really going to turn things around in this country," he said. "Maybe even the world." Actually, he didn't have very much to say. He just kept eating, trying not to seem famished, and all the while never letting a bulging, tattered briefcase off his lap. It wasn't the Sunday noon dinner I had pleasantly anticipated. But there had been a knock on the front door just after noon....

16. Sometimes Goodbye Is Hello

Acts 1:1-11

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

Goodbye, even with someone you deeply care about, isn't always sad. At least it isn't only sad. Sometimes it can be like saying hello. Some of us have said goodbye to children. We bundled them up and coaxed their little eyes and hands to say "bye bye." Soon we waved them off to the neighbor's and school and camp. And at some point along the way we said goodbye to our children for the last tim...

17. Standing and Understanding with the Apostles

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

The word for "stand" in the language of signing is to place your index and third fingers upright on your palm, held flat, as if standing. When I first learned some signing years ago, the father of a deaf boy in my parish was amused to point out that even signing has its slang. There's a proper sign for "understanding," which derives its origin from the learning process it describes. But he note...

18. The Gift of Wisdom

Acts 2:14-41

Sermon

Gerald Whetstone

It's a miracle that you're here this morning! I suspect, though, that what I mean is not the first thing that came to your mind. I sense someone thinking, "The first Sunday after Easter! You bet it's a miracle. They don't call this Low Sunday for nothing!" Someone else is thinking, "Any morning I get up after a busy week and can still get the kids going and fed and dressed and to church, I've ...

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