Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 28 results

1. A Pool in My Savior’s Hand

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

A man named Fock was a sailor in World War II. In one of his letters home he wrote, "If you should hear that I have fallen in battle, do not cry. Remember that even the ocean in which my body sinks is only a pool in my Savior's hand." There is no promise that we'll be delivered from trouble; but there is a promise that we are not alone in it. I think that's why Jesus could say, "Be not afraid." He...

2. A Strange Authority

Mark 6:1-13

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was just barely into my teens, I went through a period of time when I wanted to be someone else. I didn't like the way I looked. I was self-conscious about the spaces in my teeth. I hated that the veins in my hands stuck out. I wanted to be just like my friend, Marilyn. She was perfect — in everything — and, the boys liked her. I used to stand in front of the mirror and practice smiling lik...

3. An Uppity Woman

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was a kid, we played a game in which we would stare into each others eyes until one gave in and blinked. We used tricks to win sometimes, but above all we would refuse to back down no matter how much our eyes were hurting. Something like that is going on between Jesus and the Canaanite woman. There is a stand-off happening here. I think it is helpful to know that Jesus has just gone throug...

4. Be Not Afraid?

Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Just a short time ago, a young homemaker and mother sat in my office telling me how she was feeling about her life. She said she felt she was adrift in a tiny boat in the middle of a great and surging ocean. How she had gotten into that boat and where she was going was a mystery to her. All she could see were the huge waves towering over her frail, little boat, threatening at any moment to swamp i...

5. Being Too Generous

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Dan and I always enjoyed the summer days at the lake cabin in Minnesota. It's a noisy and happy time with grandchildren running around in wet bathing suits, adults scooping ice cream like crazy, playing our favorite game Double Cross, and swatting mosquitoes. Late in the evening we would start telling stories. Sometimes we laugh until we cry. At some point in the storytelling, our oldest child usu...

6. Beneath the Three Trees

Mark 5:21-43

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

There is a marvelous miracle described in Willa Cather's book, Death Comes for the Archbishop. In the story, Father Junipero and his friend, Father Andrea, set out on a journey through a Mexican desert with bread and water for one day. On the second day, they are beginning to lose heart when, near sunset, they see in the distance three very tall cottonwood trees. They rush toward the trees and see...

7. Captains or Parties

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

My father was not a particularly pessimistic person, but I remember one conversation we had that sure sounded like he was. I was a teenager and thinking out loud about what I might like to do with my life. My father was being the realist. I said maybe I would like to be a doctor. He said it took eight years of education after high school and we didn't have the money. I said, well maybe I will be a...

8. Courage in the Midst of Fear

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

We love stories of genuine heroes. People who perform remarkable acts of courage. Their stories thrilling, but I admit they are a bit unsettling. How do people do those things? In a real crisis, what is to keep me from running in the other direction? The best stories are the ones that talk about courage in the midst of fear. People who are scared to death and still do what needs to be done. One s...

9. Curiosity and Questions

John 3:1-7

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was sorting through household items in Minnesota, preparing for a move to Florida, I came across my old Nancy Drew mysteries. The pages were worn, some had my childhood scribbles on them, the pictures on the covers had started to fade. The question was, "Should I keep them or not?" Reluctantly, I decided not to keep them. I took the books to an antiquarian bookstore where a man offered me $...

10. Divine Tenants

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

My husband's first call as a pastor was to a small parish in North Carolina. The parsonage was on a large corner lot. The hill in the backyard was badly eroded with wide grooves running down to a little creek. Shortly after we moved in I learned that the US Forestry Service would give away 100 pine seedlings to anyone who would use them for soil conservation. I ordered the seedlings and went out ...

11. Do You Love Me?

John 14:15-31

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Nikos Kazantzakis gives us a disturbing and beautiful story in his book, The Last Temptation of Christ. There is an unforgettable scene between Jesus and John. They are sitting high above the Jordan in the hollow of a rock, where they have been arguing all night long about what to do with the world. John's face is hard and decisive. From time to time his arms go up and down as though he were chopp...

12. Family Values

Mark 3:20-35

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Last week I was reading a newspaper article on family values. The gist of the article was that everyone wants strong family values but few can agree on what they are. Then I heard Roger Rosenblatt on public radio being cynical about family values. Rosenblatt said that there are plenty of perfect families around like yours and mine. But, there are so many others that fall short, families like the W...

13. Family Values

Mark 3:20-30

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

A newspaper article on family values said that while everyone wants strong family values few can agree on what they are. Soon after this article came out, Roger Rosenblatt was on public radio being cynical about family values. Rosenblatt said that there are plenty of perfect families around like yours and mine. But, there are so many others that fall short, families like the Walker spy family or t...

14. God’s Anthills

Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Four years ago this week, I was walking through an African village in Namibia with my friend, Solveig Kjeseth. We stopped to look at a strange tower formed out of earth. It was about five feet high, crooked in shape, wide at the bottom and coming to a point at the top. I thought it looked like the top of a giant, rumpled witch's hat, only it was gray instead of black. Solveig informed me, much to ...

15. Holding Our Hand

Mark 4:35-41

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

There was a little farm boy who was taken to a neighbor's house for the day. As night came on the little boy went out on the porch intending to go home. He became frightened by the darkness and began to cry. There was no one to take him home and he was very worried. After a while, he looked out of the window in the direction of his house. Suddenly his face lit up and he exclaimed, "I'm not afraid ...

16. It’s Anybody’s Guess

Mark 4:30-34

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Several years ago, it was the week before Father's Day and the children and I were looking for a gift for their dad. As we strolled through the men's section of a department store our eyes spotted the perfect gift at the same moment. It was a bright, splashy Hawaiian style shirt with matching shorts. We giggled as we purchased it because Dan is a pretty conservative dresser. As I was handing the m...

17. Living Upside Down

Mark 2:23-3:6

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

In any list of unusual animals, you are likely to find the sloth. The sloth lives in trees, much of the time hanging from a limb by its four strong feet. The encyclopedia says, "Sloths sleep, eat, and travel through the forest upside down." It's a strange thought ... the idea of living upside down. If we did it, we would certainly see things differently. In a world where flowers grow down and ball...

18. Out of Control

Mark 5:21-43

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

19. Put God First

Mark 3:20-5

Illustration

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Some of us grew up watching the afternoon television program, "Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood." Others of us may be reluctant to admit that we sat down with our children and watched it too. I think Mr. Rogers exemplified in a gentle way what Jesus wanted to teach us about love and what it means to value each other. When Mr. Rogers changed into his sweater and took off his shoes, it was a biblical gestur...

20. Rat Poison

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When our son started kindergarten, I held my breath. I knew he would be a handful. Things were going along pretty well until the day he pulled the fire alarm, which he did during lunch hour. The whole school was in chaos. I got a vivid description from the principal. I felt awful. I'll always be grateful to the teacher who said that my son was not a bad kid and I shouldn't let the principal convin...

21. Smother Love

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

I loved my father very much. He was my security, my hero, my knight in shining armor. But he wasn't perfect. My dad had "a plan" for each of us three kids. We were supposed to go off to college, and then come back home to teach school, preferably in the same school where my dad taught. My older brother functioned pretty much according to plan. I didn't. After college I made plans to go to graduat...

22. Some Enchanted Evening

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

Last summer, a large crowd gathered at the Wee family cabin in northern Minnesota to celebrate my mother-in-law's ninetieth birthday. At one point I realized that all the relatives had gone outside and I was in the middle of a room full of strangers. It's an awkward feeling. I wished that someone would come in who would be happy to see me and make their way toward me through that crowd of stranger...

23. Stopping the Spread of Hell

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

A month ago I had a conversation with a clerk in a store on Main Street. She told me she had had an argument with a pastor years ago and got so angry she never went back to church. She said, "Don't you think I can be just as good a Christian communing with God in the beauty of my backyard as I can be if I were going to church?" I took a deep breath and said, "No. I don't. I'm not at all sure that ...

24. The Gift of Failure

Matthew 21:28-32

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

When I was an eighth grader, there was a day that was so painful I still remember it clearly. I was to give a speech about New York in an English class. I was so nervous, I decided to try my speech out on a group of friends the day before. My fear made me cocky. I delivered the whole speech to my friends calling the city Yew Nork and acting like a clown. You can guess what happened. During my spee...

25. The Unsilenced Voice

Mark 6:14-29

Sermon

Kristin Borsgard Wee

There is a book on my shelf titled Texts of Terror. Phyllis Trible, the author, has a lot of courage. In this book, she has examined the most awful texts in the Old Testament. These are the pages from the Bible we wish we could accidentally drop between our desk and the wall, lost forever. For example, there is the heart-wrenching story of Jephthah's daughter in the book of Judges. The little girl...

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