Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 4:35-41

Sermon

Dean Feldmeyer

... our problems are being solved at rates never dreamed of. But none of that has changed our perception that the world is more dangerous today than it has ever been. We live in a culture of fear. Julie Hanus, writing for the Utne Reader in 2009, put it this way: “The dangers of modern life have a stranglehold on people’s imaginations. Sociologists call the phenomenon ‘risk society’, describing cultures increasingly preoccupied with threats to safety, both real and perceived. And while the human species ...

2. Eleven Plus One

Acts 2:1-13

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... Jesus is resurrected that any semblance of a disciple community is once again formed. The first chapter of Acts introduces the reader to this new infant community, as it first attempts to regain its feet. But it isn't until the Pentecost experience – ... , those personalized expressions by which even small children can at once discern the make and model" ("Perambulate to Paradise," Utne Reader; originally published in Resurgence). In 2000, U.S. Americans will spend a half-trillion dollars on cars. We'll ...

3. Christmasize Your Life

Isaiah 11:1-16

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... or height, for that matter) for the past 39 years. Ergo, his size remains the same. But in the same amount of time, his T-shirt size has gone from small/medium to medium to large to extra large." (Ray Nedzek, "A Truly Outstanding Article," Utne Reader, May-June, 2002, 33.) Have you been listening to how people describe the news? It's not good or bad, it's wonderful or devastating. How's the weather? Either beautiful or horrible. Despite cultural appearances to the contrary, the Christmas season is NOT about ...

4. Yellow Wind

Mark 13:1-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... of the special ones to be here at The End of the World? You may be that special, I suppose, but I would develop a plan B if I were you." To this philosophical observation the son simply grinned and replied, "You're weird, Dad." (Utne Reader May/June 1991:113) This brief father/son conversation demonstrates a number of the fears and foibles that populate apocalyptic thought. For some the whole literature and tradition of "end times" is part of such an ancient and obscure mythology that it has virtually no ...

5. ...More...

Luke 16:19-31

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... more" then comes from the middle-class, which is not so much "shrinking" as it is being sucked dry by the appetites of the upper echelons and the needs of the lower echelons. Ralph Whitehead, Jr., in "Class Acts: America's Changing Middle Class," (Utne Reader, January/February 1990, 50-53) has sketched out a frightening new social ladder to define American economics. The old ladder, Whitehead explains, was composed of a small group of rich at the top, a larger but dwindling group of poor at the bottom, and ...

6. Dr. God

Matthew 9:18-26

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... where their pain is spending over $10 billion a year on these alternative healing practices and procedures, about the same amount spent each year on hospital care, or half the total spent on traditional medical doctors' treatments. (See Utne Reader, [September/October 1995], 51.) Medical doctor, author and alternative healing advocate Larry Dossey has spent years studying the positive effects that prayer seems to have on the healing process. Dossey and other scientifically trained physicians have actually ...

7. A Community of Practice, Not a Community of Perfection

Romans 7:7-25

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... material indulgence are rarely sated. No yacht is so super, nor any wine so expensive, that it can soothe the soul or guarantee that one’s children won’t grow up to be creeps.” (As quoted in “It’s Not Easy Being Filthy Rich,” Utne Reader, July-August 2011, 27). All the fake tuning forks can’t “soothe the soul.” Then there are those who never give a single thought to their spiritual life — to “tuning” the instrument that God has implanted within them. These people are “live for the ...

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