Sermon and Worship Resources

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1. A Personal Question Deserves a Personal Answer

Matthew 16:13-20

Sermon

Roy Howard

One warm August night and only two of us standing on our neighbor’s deck. The others had gone inside to escape the heat and eat the dessert waiting in the cool kitchen. Alone on the deck in the descending darkness of early evening my neighbor asked, “So, how did you find the Lord?” It was not a question I was expecting at a neighborhood dinner party, or any party for that matter, where politics, r...

2. Beyond Fairness

Matthew 20:1-16

Sermon

Roy Howard

I’ve run enough long-distance races to take joy in this passage — including the 200 mile Ragnar Relay; not the first shall be last; that has never been my burden, but the last shall be first. Now that gives me hope! As well it should even though I’m confident this parable has absolutely nothing to do with running or any other athletic endeavor, unless one considers gardening to be such. It should ...

3. House Rules, Forgiveness, and Why Rat Poison Is not Good for You

Matthew 18:21-35

Sermon

Roy Howard

I have two public school elementary teachers in my family. I’ve learned a great deal about what goes on behind the scenes long before the students arrive and long after they have left: the seating chart, the reading corner, the attractive posters, imaginative strategies for teaching difficult concepts, and much more. There is a lot to teaching. The same can be said for those people who teach congr...

4. One Feisty Woman

Matthew 15:21-28

Sermon

Roy Howard

We could begin by noting that this is one feisty woman. Or, at the risk of irreverence, we could begin by noting that Jesus is one rude man. Rather than focus on one or the other, I suggest we explore the relationship enfolded in this remarkable gospel story and then ask about the implications for us. That the encounter between Jesus, the Jew, and this woman, a Gentile, even occurred was remarkab...

5. Stepping into Liminal Space

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Roy Howard

When Peter stepped out of that boat, he stepped into liminal space to walk on water. Some of you may be wondering what is liminal space? Liminal space is a term used by cultural anthropologists to describe in-between or transitional passages of communities. It describes those times when the past is no longer sustainable, and the future is not yet clear. The present is a time of unsettledness, una...

6. The Stop-and-Think Chair

Matthew 18:15-20

Sermon

Roy Howard

Schools opened here last week, and I remembered something from one of the teachers. Like all good teachers, she has certain expectations — norms of behavior — for her students. The students agree to these community norms for the classroom that are posted in the room. That’s not new. What I find intriguing in her classroom is the consequence if someone breaks the norm. When a community rule is brok...

7. What Are We Protecting?

Matthew 21:33-46

Sermon

Roy Howard

To say this parable is difficult to hear, much less interpret, is an understatement. To those who have ears to hear, it will make you wince and perhaps wish to throw up at the ending. But, listeners take heart: that very human reaction should not deter us from the considerable challenge of listening to this parable with the hope that we will be sufficiently unsettled to learn from it. In fact, Amy...

8. Who Are You Following?

Matthew 16:21-28

Sermon

Roy Howard

“If any want to be my followers, let them deny themselves, take their cross and follow me.” The first thing that needs to be said is that this is a difficult teaching of Jesus. We should not fool ourselves. It’s better to confess this at the beginning than to pretend otherwise and lose our way in the end. The honesty with which we hold our lives before God is the measure of our desire to be follow...

9. Words Are Not Enough

Matthew 21:23-32

Sermon

Roy Howard

It may be helpful when considering this text to remind ourselves that each of the gospel writers had a purpose in mind when writing the good news. They all shared a common purpose in telling the story of Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection, but each had a particular community to which they were writing, and they shaped their gospel in ways peculiar to their listeners. That means we have to discer...

10. You Feed the Hungry

Matthew 14:13-21

Sermon

Roy Howard

One Friday while Congress was arguing over how to manage the debt crisis, the Washington Post drew our attention to another crisis much more severe than the one we were facing as a result of our leaders’ inability to find a common ground for the common good. That was bad enough. But much worse was the fact that “more than twelve million people were at risk of death and starvation in the Horn of Af...

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