Showing 1 to 25 of 72 results
1. A Restless Spirit
1 Samuel 28:1-25
Sermon
Lori Wagner
... A “ghost” can also indicate an inner struggle, an emotional turmoil, something that “haunts.” When the past inserts itself into our present, it alters our state of mind, state of soul. We must remember our past in order to go into our future. Hamlet is called upon by his father to remember him and to promise to “tell [his] story.” In the theatre re-enactment (remember that Shakespeare was King James’ court dramatist), the metaphor of “ghost” helps observers to see the inner workings of the ...
2. The Long Lonliness
Romans 13:8-14
Sermon
Maurice A. Fetty
... with the early Christians that we are dealing with a God who confronts us personally within history and assures us of life and communion and fellowship beyond history. "There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will," says Shakespeare, in a more helpful mood (Hamlet, V, ii. 10). Are we alone and afraid in a world we never made? Not so, says the Bible. Not only has the Christ of God come to us, he has also given us his Spirit to empower us and to encourage us toward the end of time and ...
Sermon
John E. Harnish
... , The bird of dawning singeth all night long: And then, they say, no spirit dare stir abroad; Then no planet strikes, nor witch hath power to charm, So hallow'd and gracious a time. Shakespeare promises that even in the darkness, the foreboding, the fear of Hamlet's day—even then, "'gainst the season of sorrow...the bird of dawning singeth all night long." Those who stumble in darkness have seen a great light. Those who dwell in the land of deep darkness, on them the light has shined. One of the most ...
4. Overwhelmed
Revelation 1:4b-8
Sermon
Will Willimon
... wonders if it is better to take up the sword against, "a sea of troubles," or whether it is better simply to pull the covers up over his head, to end his life, to sleep, perhaps even to dream, and end it all. Young Hamlet is faced by a sea of troubles which has become a veritable flood. Overwhelmed. Where to get the strength to take up arms against a "sea of troubles" when that sea has become an overwhelming flood? Here, at the end of the church's year, when we traditionally celebrate the " ...
5. Ordinary Tragedy
John 13:1-17, 31b-35
Sermon
Will Willimon
... floors of this university. Nobody who's noble works the night shift. Jesus plays out his own drama with Pilate, in the courtroom above. But down here, in the dark, hunched around a fire, in the cold courtyard, is our drama, our tragedy. Peter is no King Lear or Prince Hamlet. He is us. His fall from his perch will not be far, but it is a descent each of us knows and full well. It may not be much of a play, this exchange between Peter and the maid, not the stuff of Shakespeare or Euripides, but it is our ...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
... out in the desert who is the last one we would ever imagine at this time of year when we raise our voices with “Hark, the herald angels sing.” Remember, “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamed of...” Hamlet (1.5 167-168) Angels. Amen! 1. Waco, TX : Word Publishing, 1975 2. Rev. Dr. David E. Lenninger, “Angels,” The Presbyterian Pulpit, October 22, 1995. http:// www.leiningers.com/angels.html 3. Eileen Elias Freeman, Touched by Angels, (New York: Warner Books, 1993 ...
Sermon
Helen Keller
... attend theatrical performances of all sorts, but the action of the play must be spelled into my hand by a companion. But how I should like to see with my own eyes the fascinating figure of Hamlet, or the gusty Falstaff amid colorful Elizabethan trappings! How I should like to follow each movement of the graceful Hamlet, each strut of the hearty Falstaff! And since I could see only one play, I should be confronted by a many-horned dilemma, for there are scores of plays I should want to see. You who have ...
Sermon
Larry Powell
... appearances or impressions. Hasty judgments are like smoke in the fist. There is always more to a story than the first paragraph. THOUGHTS FROM A CAVE Were it not for Blanchard Caverns, few of us would know the actual whereabouts of the little mountain hamlet, Fifty-Six, Arkansas. It is one of those abrupt, unimposing little places along the road appearing to be a mile long and seventeen inches wide. But, a mile to the south of Fifty-Six lies the entrance to Blanchard Springs and the much-heralded Blanchard ...
Sermon
... model ship in a bottle. Hagar frowns and proceeds to lecture the boy on how he should be more industrious in seeking solutions to his problems, how he should read and reason and not wait for the answers to his problems to be handed to him. Hamlet mumbles, "Thanks, Dad." Then, in the next room, he tells his mother, "Dad didn't know how, either." Now in one sense, Hagar is right. Guidance and encouragement, when coupled with self-reliance, can often be more valuable than those easy solutions to our problems ...
10. Minute Accounting
Matthew 12:22-37
Sermon
Herchel H. Sheets
... hold over our tongues? What about our impulsive speech, the words we utter before we stop to think? What about our words spoken in confidence? It is ourselves which we are uttering with these words, our spirits which we are making audible. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the King is writhing in guilt, and he says: In the corrupted currents of this world Offence’s gilded hand may shove by justice, And oft ‘tis seen the wicked prize itself Buys out the law: but ‘tis not so above; There is no shuffling ...
11. Saved!
Mark 10:17-31
Sermon
Warren Thomas Smith
... What a piece of work is a man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a god! The beauty of the world! The paragon of animals! And this line, spoken by Hamlet, closes: and yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?1 Said Jesus, "You lack one thing; go, sell what you have, and give it to the poor." It was a grieved, sorrowful young man, "for he had great possessions." Do we not have a portrait of so ...
12. The Inconcealable Christ!
Mark 7:31-37, Mark 7:24-30
Sermon
Robert Leslie Holmes
... birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins'" (Matthew 1:20-21). Before Jesus was born, he was the inconcealable Christ! In His Birth ... It is no exaggeration to say that God put the little hamlet of Bethlehem "on the map" that night when an angel pointed some terrified field shepherds to the baby Jesus with these words. Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the ...
13. A Literal Tragedy
Illustration
Harry Blamires
... , at the end of which the stage was littered with corpses. And suppose you had difficulty comforting the child afterward, so distressed was he at the spectacle of the deaths. "But the man who played Hamlet is not really dead," you explain. "He is an actor. He also lives a life outside the theater. He has a wife and family and, far from being dead, he is probably now at home with them enjoying a late supper." If there is one word the Christian secretly wants ...
Eulogy
Alfred Lord Tennyson
... most; ‘Tis better to have loved and lost Than never to have loved at all. XXVIII The time draws near the birth of Christ: The moon is hid; the night is still; The Christmas bells from hill to hill Answer each other in the mist. Four voices of four hamlets round, From far and near, on mead and moor, Swell out and fail, as if a door Were shut between me and the sound: Each voice four changes on the wind, That now dilate, and now decrease, Peace and goodwill, goodwill and peace, Peace and goodwill, to all ...
Teach the Text
Robert B. Chisholm Jr.
... God’s face on behalf of the lost, too many of us are immobilized by the grip of a passive spirit. I am not talking about the level of energy in our bodies, but the level of fire in our obedience.5 Literature: Hamlet, by William Shakespeare. This enduring work (1599–1601) is Shakespeare’s (1564–1616) longest play and one of the most influential and most discussed English tragedies. The play shows the consequences of not taking action thoughtfully and wisely. While the play is variously interpreted ...
16. The Weak and the Strong
Romans 14:1--15:13
Understanding Series
James R. Edwards
... as Jesus (normally, “Christ” or “Christ Jesus”); his doing so here may indicate that he is recalling the authority of Jesus on this matter (Mark 7:15–23 and parallels). The grounding of his authority in both Christ and conscience spares him from Hamlet’s subjectivism, “there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so” (Act 2, Scene 2, lines 255ff.). The issue here is not one of morality, but of things in their created state. In themselves they are neutral, although they become ...
17. The Narrow Door
Luke 13:22-30
Drama
Robert F. Crowley
... and I'll be covering the entire race from the finish line right here at St. Luke's Episcopal Church. The contestants are warming up and preparing for this grueling granddaddy of runs. This race is so difficult because of the hilly terrain surrounding the sleepy little hamlet of Bath, Ohio. Let's catch some of the runners as they are warming up, and see if they have some time to talk to our audience. (SHE MOTIONS TO A RUNNER WHO APPROACHES) This is Rahab, a favorite in this long distance race. Rahab, I know ...
Sermon
Robert Noblett
... select just the right story for each question. What, may I ask, is your secret?” He smiled impishly and replied, “That reminds me of a story:” Once a young soldier was traveling through the countryside, when he stopped to rest his horse in a small hamlet. Walking about, he spied a wood fence, and on the wood fence were nearly forty small chalk circles, and right in the center of each was a bullet hole. What incredulous accuracy, the soldier thought as he examined the fence. There isn’t a single shot ...
Sermon
Barbara Brokhoff
... , "Honey, Superman don't need no belt!" The flight attendant retorted, "Honey, Superman don't need no plane!" The self-righteous don't need a Savior. Those who think they can fix themselves don't need Christ. William Temple once said, "It is no good giving me a play like Hamlet, or King Lear, and telling me to write a play like that. Shakespeare could do it; I can't. And it is no good showing me a life like the life of Jesus, and telling me to live a life like that. Jesus could do it; I can't. But ...
Sermon
John M. Braaten
... , nearly every one of them, the flowers and the deep stack of cards stacked beside the flowers - from persons and groups within that church. "He saw me look at those cards. He took a pencil and wrote on the side of a Kleenex box a line from Hamlet, ‘In this harsh world, draw your breath in pain, to tell my story.’ "I asked, ‘What is your story dad?’ And he wrote a confession: ‘I was wrong!’ "2 We as a church are interested in persons, not causes. We are committed to introducing people to Jesus ...
21. Hostage Crisis
1 Kings 19:1-8
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
... central truth of his existence. He is a prisoner of self-doubt all along. He never comes to realize his potential and worth as a person because of the fear instilled within him at birth. He may have articulated the fear in those immortal words of Shakespeare's Hamlet, "To be or not to be. That is the question...." Or who can forget Raskolnikov in Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment, who kills the old pawnbroker and thus too becomes a hostage of his own sin, as he constantly wars with his own flesh and spirit ...
22. Shake It Off!
Matthew 10:1-42
Sermon
Carlyle Fielding Stewart
... 's East End. His pain was so deep that he fell to his knees, wailing like a wounded animal. I shall never forget this as long as I live. The pain, the memory of that dreadful deed still haunted his waking hours like the ghosts of Hamlet. While he confessed, he could not forgive himself as God had and he drank his life away unrepentantly. Alcohol became his refuge for that painful experience. Then there is the story of the great Gardner Taylor, prince of preachers, and Pastor Emeritus of Concord Baptist ...
Sermon
Richard Hasler
... cry” or “a funeral lament.” We must keep in mind that Micah was speaking to important people, rich and powerful landowners and public officials, in the capital city of Jerusalem. He was from the country. His hometown, Moreshath-gath was a rural hamlet, some 25 miles southwest of Jerusalem. When he first came to the city the prophet was appalled by the greed and the corruption that prevailed. He was especially angry with the large landowners who were seeking to buy the property around his hometown ...
Sermon
James W. Moore
... this some years ago and here’s what he said: “We all have the drum major instinct. We all want to be important, to surpass others, to achieve distinction, to lead the parade. Or – as Carl Sandburg once put it – ‘We all want to play Hamlet.’ Alfred Adler, one of the founders of modern psychiatry, names it the dominant impulse in human nature; he thinks the desire for recognition, the wish to be significant is our strongest impulse... And while we may be provoked with James and John for asking ...
Sermon
James Angell
... the Wakefield pastor became an American for a season. Fifty miles to the east just outside Berea, Appalachia begins. Here is coal country. Strangers are suspect. But loyalties, once established, are as fixed as the hills. Fascinating names of eastern Kentucky's hamlet world include Pippa Passes, Kingdom Come, Thousand Sticks, Cranks, and Crummies. Bruce Davis liked to say he was the "senior elder." And he was. He also claimed that, after finishing the work of creation, God had made Kentucky, and used it as ...
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