Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 72 results

1. Earthquakes, Tsunamis, and Disaster: Why do the Innocent Suffer?

Psalm 69:1-36

Sermon

James W. Moore

... God blesses us when we are good, and punishes us when we get out of line. But then came Aaron’s undeserved illness... diagnosed when he was three years old, and then Aaron’s death two days after his 14th birthday. And out of that came for Harold Kushner a new understanding of suffering. For, you see, deep down in his soul, he could not blame that on God. God doesn’t do cruel things to innocent children. He knew that God loved him and was suffering with him. Then he remembered that the psalmist didn ...

2. Before You Start Ripping Your Clothing

Joel 2:12-17

Sermon

King Duncan

... him for doing the right thing. What was happening to his son contradicted everything he had been taught. Tragedies like this were supposed to happen to selfish, dishonest people. How could it be happening to his son? (2) Many of us wept with and for Harold Kushner as we read his story, and with him we came to confront the shallowness of our understanding of why bad things happen to good people. In the pre-scientific world in which the prophet Joel lived there was no understanding of the forces in nature ...

3. If You Are Willing

Mark 1:40-45

Sermon

King Duncan

... do. That makes sense, doesn’t it? If God is all loving and people are suffering, then God’s power must be limited somehow. Otherwise God would have set the world right long before now. And that’s what some conscientious Christians believe. Rabbi Harold Kushner wrote a best-selling book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People. He wrote this book after watching his young son, Aaron, suffer from one of the most heart-wrenching conditions which a human being can confront. The boy had progeria, a disease in ...

4. Don't Be Stupid

Jeremiah 4:5-31

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

... be? To live a life that's less than it could be, instead of a life that's more than you ever dreamed it might be. God's not calling names; he's calling us to life! That's the name of a new book by Rabbi Harold Kushner, To Life! L'chaim! To life! Kushner writes: "The uniqueness of the human being is captured in the phrase that we are 'created in the image of God.' We have a moral dimension. We can be good or bad, where animals can only be obedient or messy. (He says) "When Charles Darwin shocked the ...

5. Being Good ... for Nothing

Job 23:1-9, 16-17

Sermon

Mary S. Lautensleger

... calamity strikes, his words remind us of an expression we use when we are in desperation and pain: "I wish that I had never been born." As Rabbi Harold Kushner so famously noted, "bad things do happen to good people."1 When Kushner's son, Aaron, died from progeria, or rapid aging, he had believed that God was a God of retribution, a God of rewards and punishments. Kushner struggled with the question, "Why do the righteous suffer?" or, as he put it, I have tried "to do what is right in the sight of God. How ...

6. Blessed Are Those Who Mourn

Matthew 5:1-12

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... . It is much easier to deny the pain than to speak honestly about it. Perhaps there is value in mourning. Perhaps there is something good that comes out of mourning, even before we get to this promise that those who mourn will be comforted. Rabbi Harold Kushner, in When Bad Things Happen to Good People, tells of families asking him if they have to observe shiva, which is the memorial week after death when family and friends come to be with those who have lost a loved one. It is similar to visitation ...

7. Beautiful Words Of Life

John 6:60-71

Sermon

King Duncan

... this world has meaning, if our lives have meaning, if it is true when the smallest sparrow falls from the sky the Father is aware of it, doesn't that say that who we are and what we do is important--no matter what our limitations? Many years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner and his wife lost their teenage son to a rare disease. We grieve all the more deeply over the death of a young person because he or she never got to reach their full potential. But their son's death was not the end of his influence. Many years ...

8. The Way to Happy Endings

Genesis 24:34-38, 42-49, 58-67

Sermon

James L. Killen

... out physically a weaker person than she went in. But she went through the whole experience in prayer and in relationship with God. She came out grateful to be alive and wiser and stronger in many ways. Her story had a happy ending. Rabbi Harold Kushner and his wife had to live through the heartbreaking experience of seeing their bright young son progress toward an early death from a condition called progeria, or rapid aging. They learned of his condition when he was three years old. They loved him through ...

9. What's The Point?

Jeremiah 1:1-19

Sermon

Richard L. Sheffield

... than we could be. It not only seems normal; it feels secure. The primary job of the therapist is to help us realize our mistake. Kushner says: "There is an old Yiddish saying, 'to a worm in horseradish, the whole world is horseradish.' That is, if we have never known an ... Communications, 1976) p. 7. 4. Donald T. Kauffman. The Treasury of Religious Verse (Fleming H. Revell, 1962). 5. Harold Kushner. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough (Summit Books, 1986) p. 28. 6. Ibid., p. 29. 7. The Shaking of the ...

10. Does God Give Out Blank Checks?

John 15:1-17

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

... questions. God is not interested in doing parlor tricks. There are far more important, more serious questions to be asked. One of the most popular books of recent years is Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad things Happen to Good People. I heartily recommend it to anyone who is undergoing a crisis of faith as a result of personal tragedy or loss. Rabbi Kushner says that as a young man he had come to understand God as a Father who rewarded people when they did what was right, and punished them when they did ...

11. The Underlying Mercy

Job 1:1, 2:1-10

Sermon

Stan Purdum

... of attention, called When Bad Things Happen to Good People. It was written by a rabbi named Harold Kushner, who was also a grieving father. His son had died at age fourteen from progeria, a rapid-aging disease that essentially turns the bodies of ... God! He needeth not The poor device of man. If there is no answer to the question of why bad things happen, what is there? Kushner offers us one thing: His struggle to understand led him to remember that while we often take "answer" to mean "explanation," it also has the ...

12. Ready for the Big Date?

Matthew 25:1-13

Sermon

King Duncan

... celebrations. That is why weekly worship is necessary to our lives. That is why daily reading of the Scripture and time spent in prayer is required of us. We are preparing ourselves for whatever may come our way. Bestselling author, Harold Kushner, wrote a book titled, Who Needs God? In that book Kushner tells the story of the Greek mythological figure of Atlas after whom our maps are called. Because of an offense to the king of the Greek gods, Zeus, Atlas was condemned to hold all the weight of the earth ...

13. Behold The Man Who Takes Away Sin

John 1:29-34

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... there is something wrong, something which must be set right at some point along the way. And we want someone to set things right. Yet, many times we have the feeling that we cannot break through, cannot make the connection, cannot find the right formula. Harold Kushner, in his book Who Needs God, tells about a television drama in which a man dies and finds himself standing in line. There is an usher there telling people which way to go, through one door or another. One door leads to heaven and the other ...

14. Behold The Man Who Turned Toward Jerusalem

Mark 10:32-34

Sermon

Thomas A. Pilgrim

... . That is what Jesus did. He shows us how to take up the cross. And he calls us to meet him on the way to the cross -- the way that leads to life. Will you meet him there and become a follower of the way of the cross? 1. Harold Kushner, Who Needs God, Summit Books, New York, 1989, p. 28. 2. Charles L. Wallis, Editor, A Treasury Of Sermon Illustrations, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, New York-Nashville, 1950, p. 165. 3. Carl Michalson, Faith For Personal Crises, Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 1959, p. 151.

15. Hope For The End Times

Luke 21:5-38

Sermon

King Duncan

... things, encouraging things, He has called us to do in His name. 1. Lewis Grizzard, CHILI DAWGS ALWAYS BARK AT NIGHT (New York: Villard Books, 1989), p. 52. 2. THE INTERPRETER'S DICTIONARY OF THE BIBLE (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 1962), pp. 551-553. 3. Harold Kushner, WHO NEEDS GOD? (New York: Summit Books, 1989), p. 137. 4. Bruce E. Olson, "Mission to the Strangest Place," SNOWFLAKES IN SEPTEMBER, (Nashville: Dimension for Living, 1992), pp. 22-26. 5. Bob Greene, HE WAS A MIDWESTERN BOY ON HIS OWN (New York ...

16. The Shepherd's Song

Psalm 23:1-6

Sermon

John E. Harnish

... 's presence, to praise God for his faithfulness, to proclaim God's goodness to the world. But when we walk through the valley of the shadow, we need to know God walks with us—intimately, personally, in the first person singular, with me. Some years ago, Harold Kushner wrote his well-known book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, while dealing with the tragic death of his own son. He followed it with another book called Who Needs God? When I am resting in green pastures, beside still waters, I may not ...

17. Troubling Humbling Questions

Matthew 5:1-12

Illustration

Rabbi Harold Kushner

A friend came to Rabbi Harold Kushner, and said to him: "Two weeks ago, for the first time in my life I went to the funeral of a man my own age. I didn't know him well, but we worked together, talked to each other from time to time, had kids about the same age. He ...

18. But God...

Genesis 50:15-21

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... ,(2) in which he claimed that modern people no longer believe in a purposeful, intervening, directing God. What we believe in is luck. Luck has become our way of explaining ourselves and what comes our way. Do you remember Harold Kushner's phenomenally popular, When Bad Things Happen to Good People?(3) Rabbi Kushner says that in life, God does not WILL bad things to happen to people. When bad happens, it is the result of lousy luck. The world is a great spinning roulette wheel. When your number is up, it is ...

19. Is Suffering Punishment for Sin?

John 9:1-12

Sermon

Donald B. Strobe

One of the most helpful books of recent years has been Rabbi Harold Kushner’s When Bad Things Happen to Good People. In the opening pages he writes, “Like most people, ... atheist, then, the problem is not the presence of evil in the world, but rather the presence of good in what is otherwise an absurd universe. To turn the title of Rabbi Kushner’s book on its ear, I think that the real problem is not why bad things happen to good people, but precisely the opposite: why good things happen to bad people. ...

20. Running over the Cat

1 Thessalonians 4:13--5:11

Sermon

King Duncan

... . Jesus knew the hurt that Lazarus’ sisters were experiencing. Jesus hurt for them. And he wept (John 11:35). Never apologize for tears shed in grief. Rabbi Harold Kushner in his book, When All You’ve Ever Wanted Isn’t Enough, tells about a business associate of his father who died under particularly tragic circumstances. Rabbi Kushner accompanied his father to the funeral. The man’s widow and children were surrounded by clergy and psychiatrists trying to ease their grief and make them feel better ...

21. Going Ahead Anyway

Matthew 2:1-12, Matthew 2:13-18

Sermon

William B. Kincaid, III

... Who knows, maybe those things are the will of God, but if they are then we are left to explain why a loving God wills for those bad things to happen. A number of people mistakenly refer to Harold Kushner's best-selling book as Why Bad Things Happen to Good People. That's the question everybody wants answered, but that is not the title of Kushner's book. Nor is that the point of his book. The correct title of the book is When Bad Things Happen to Good People. Isn't that the best we can do? We can spend years ...

22. Remembering Charlie

Job 38:1--41:34

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... spread your word and I did your work. To hell with your punishments. To hell with you." The scene ended with Bartlet, in a gesture of contempt, lighting a cigarette in the chancel then crushing the butt on the cathedral floor. Powerful. Twenty years ago, Rabbi Harold Kushner, in his hugely popular When Bad Things Happen to Good People(2), concluded that God is a "God of justice, not power." Elie Wiesel responded, "If that's who God is, why doesn't he resign and let someone more competent take his place?"(3 ...

23. When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough

Ecc 2:1-26

Sermon

David E. Leininger

... unto me, all you that are weary and are carrying heavy burdens" - all you old Teachers who finally have learned that all you've ever wanted is not enough - "come to me...and I will give you rest." Amen! 1. New Line Cinema, 2002 2. Ecclesiastes 1:2, NIV 3. Harold Kushner, When All You've Ever Wanted Isn't Enough, (New York: Summit Books, 1986), pp. 47-48 4. Genesis 2:18 5. Quoted by Martin Marty in Context, June 1, 1990 6. New York: Villard Books, 1990, p. 6 7 ...

24. Grace in the Midst of Guilt and Shame

Ephesians 1:1-14

Sermon

Glenn McDonald

... spirits of heaviness. Let's begin by considering God's grace in the midst of unresolved guilt. Author and rabbi Harold Kushner tells of visiting two families deep in grief. Each home had lost an elderly matriarch who had died of natural causes. At the first home the ... son of the deceased woman confessed to Kushner, "If only I had sent my mother to Florida and gotten her out of this cold, she would be alive today. It's ...

25. Against All Hope

Romans 4:1-25

Sermon

King Duncan

... a matching control group who didn’t get the encouraging messages. They also had fewer illnesses. Their attitude about their lives seemed to have made a difference. It’s similar to the experience of Major F.J. Harold Kushner, who was held by the Viet Cong for five and a half years. Among the prisoners in Kushner’s POW camp was a tough young marine, 24 years old, who had already survived two years of prison-camp life in relatively good health. Part of the reason for this was that the camp commander had ...

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