Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing 1 to 25 of 63 results

1. A Church with Nothing to Offer

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Thomas Long

Check out the church ads on the religion page of the Saturday edition of most big city newspapers and you find some impressive sounding places of worship. There, with sleek graphics and Madison Avenue phrases, a few select churches boast of their assets -- their choirs, their friendliness, their powerful preaching, their singles ministries, their ample parking, their family life centers, their sen...

2. A Sacred Death

Illustration

Thomas Long

Pastor Thomas Long tells about the time he was a guest preacher at a church where years before he served as a student pastor: After the service, I struck up a conversation with a woman whom I had not seen in many years. "How is your dad?" I asked her. "I remember him as one of my favorite people." "I lost my dad last summer," she said sadly. "Cancer. But he lived a long and good life," she added...

3. A Sad Misunderstanding of Time

Illustration

Thomas Long

In the early '60s, at the height of the civil rights movement, a group of white ministers issued a public statement urging Dr. Martin Luther King, in the name of the Christian faith, to be more patient in his quest for justice and to relax the relentless struggle for civil rights. King's response came in the form of the famous "Letter from Birmingham Jail." In the letter, King indicated that he ha...

4. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

There is nothing more tempting than a lonely place. A lonely place where phones do not ring and loud voices all shouting at once do not compete for our attention. A lonely place where we can hear ourselves think, feel our own calmed breathing, rediscover the inner rhythms which seek in vain to regulate our lives. A lonely place where we can listen to the wind rippling through the trees or, perhaps...

5. An Introduction to John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Thomas Long

As the door to a new era swings open, John the Baptist is the ideal hinge. He is dressed like the old age, but he points to the new. His preaching style is vintage Old Israel; his message paves the way for New Israel. He appears to have wandered out of some retirement home for old prophets, but he announces the arrival of one who is even greater than the prophets. He baptizes with the water of the...

6. An Understated Masterpiece

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some people are masters of understatement. They are able to communicate the size, power, or importance of something, not by flapping their arms wildly and loudly piling one hyperbolic adjective on top of another, but by the slight arch of a single eyebrow and the deft choice of a muted phrase. Masters of understatement. There are, for example, relatives of mine in the South who still describe the...

7. Are We Brave enough to Bet It All?

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Thomas Long

In John Updike's A Month of Sundays, there is a parable about how the Christian faith is, indeed, an improbable wager on the impossible possibility. In one episode, a group of men are playing a variation of poker. In this game, each person is dealt several cards, some of them on the table face up and the others concealed in the hand. In one round, the main character, a man named Thomas, has been ...

8. Bad Timing

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

Some people are masters of bad timing. These are the people who burst into a party wearing a lamp shade and a hula skirt just as the conversation has taken a serious turn, a turn, say, toward a discussion of human rights or world hunger. Masters of bad timing buy high and sell low. They are the folks who try to rouse the hayriding young people to one more chorus of "She'll Be Coming 'Round The Mou...

9. Beauty and Grace

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Illustration

Thomas Long

In her book, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek, Annie Dillard told about seeing a mockingbird dive straight down off the roof of a four-story building. "It was an act as careless and spontaneous as the curl of a stem ..." she wrote. The mockingbird, wings held tightly against its body, descending at 32 feet per second toward the earth, spread his wings at the last possible second and floated onto the ground...

10. Country Songs and Easter Hymns

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Thomas Long

As the van rolled down the interstate, Kitty Wells' hillbilly alto rattled the radio speakers; "When you're lookin' at me," she belted out, "you're lookin' at country." In the van were ten of us, all seminary seniors, heading away from our rural South Carolina campus toward the big city of Atlanta, and Kitty Wells had it right: If you were looking at us, you were looking at country. It was not th...

11. Daylight Lasts Longer

John 11:1-45

Illustration

Thomas Long

A couple in Arkansas had given their six-year-old son strict instructions to come home from playing every afternoon no later than 5 p.m. He was allowed to play with his friends, but his parents were quite serious about his curfew. If not home by 5 p.m., they'd begin to worry and call around the neighborhood to find out where he was. The boy knew this, though, and was careful to arrive every day o...

12. Describe That Person Theologically

Matthew 17:1-9

Illustration

Thomas Long

In order to become a minister in most denominations, a ministerial candidate must be examined and tested theologically. The church has a right and an obligation to know if a person is theologically sound before authorizing ordination, so theological questions are asked. I heard recently about a veteran minister who always asks the same theological question of every potential minister; indeed, he h...

13. Facing The Unknown & Unknowable

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

"When I consider the briefness of my life," mused Pascal, "swallowed up before and behind it, the small space I fill, or even see, engulfed in the infinite immensity of spaces which I know not, and which know not me, I am afraid ... Who has set me here? By whose order and arrangement has this place and time been allotted to me?" For many, the secret remains concealed. Who am I? Why am I here? What...

14. Facing Up To Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Thomas Long

Searching the aisles of the hardware store the other day for a tube of "Super Glue," I couldn't find it, so I went up to the customer service desk to ask for help from the young man standing at the cash register. He was on the telephone and, when he saw me coming his direction, he turned his back toward me. I could tell he was making a personal call, but I just waited. The call went on and on ... ...

15. Getting Down To The Local Issues

Sermon

Thomas Long

"The landscape of politics is changing," explained the political pundit on the television talk show. His hands were outstretched in front of him, palms up, as if to say, "We may as well face it.""It's the impact of the instant, electronic media," he continued. "Two generations ago, a presidential candidate could write one speech addressing the big issues facing the nation and whistle stop around t...

16. God Remembers and Reminds

John 14:15-21

Illustration

Thomas Long

In his book, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks tells the story of Jimmie, a former sailor, now a patient in a nursing home, whose severe neurological disorder had left him with a profound and permanent amnesia. He simply had no memory of anything from 1945 on. Having no ability to retrieve the past and no ability to construct a meaningful present, Jimmie lacked the continuity th...

17. Good News, Bad News, Good News

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Thomas Long

I forget now whether it was a famous football coach, a former president, or a positive-thinking teacher who put on his wall the motto, "When the going gets tough, the tough get going" -- probably all three of them. In any case, I am aware of the fact that there are some people who pride themselves on being able to get motivated in tough situationns, to face head-on the tough issues. "Give it to me...

18. Hot Tubs and Fishing Trips

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Thomas Long

The following classified advertisement appeared in a recent edition of a major city newspaper: HOT TUB - For sale, complete w/plumbing. Will trade for pick-up truck. Call _________ after 5:00 p.m. One does not have to possess a Ph.D. in clinical psychology to suspect that, behind those few words, there lies a life in major transition. Away with the hot tub, the gold chains, the Brut, the Alfa Ro...

19. In the City

Luke 24:36-49

Illustration

Thomas Long

One cool September night at Yankee Stadium in New York, a foul ball was hit into the lower left field stands. It was heading right toward a boy of about nine who had obviously come to the game that night hoping for just such a moment. He had a pair of cheap binoculars around his neck and was wearing an oversized Yankees cap and a small Little League glove which had the hardly-broken-in look of a m...

20. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

One of the decisions every good storyteller has to make is when to tell the story’s secret to people. Every story has a secret, and the spinner of tales has to decide whether to let them know about the secret early in the story or to surprise them with it at the end. Mystery writers often hold back the secret until the last chapter, keeping us eagerly turning the pages to discover who really poiso...

21. Knowing the Secret Right from the Start

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Thomas Long

In Princeton, New Jersey, there is a legendary tale about the eminent scientist Albert Einstein walking in front of a local inn and being mistaken for a bellboy by a dowager who had just arrived in a luxury sedan. She orders him to carry her luggage into the hotel, and, according to the story, Einstein does so, receives a small tip, and then continues on to his office to ponder the mysteries of th...

22. Knowing The Voice

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Thomas Long

The dinner party had gone well. It was the kind of evening when good food was matched by rich conversation and warm cheer. As the dishes were being cleared and cream was being stirred into after-dinner coffee, the conversation took a more serious turn. The guest of honor was a church leader from central Europe, the Soviet Union had come apart only months before, and the table was filled with eage...

23. Let Us Pray

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

When the late composer Leonard Bernstein was composing his famous contemporary Mass — his rock, blues and jazz Mass — he said that he wanted it to be "an honest Mass." What he meant was that he wanted the words and music of this Mass, this worship service, to ring true even to people who didn't see themselves as particularly religious, or churchy. Well, as such, he knew that the most demanding mo...

24. Living in the Future Present

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

Back to the Future is a highly imaginative motion picture which prospered at the box office several years ago. The film features a madcap scientist who perfects a machine capable of achieving the human dream of traveling through time. A teenaged boy uses the machine to journey to his hometown as it was in the 1950s, before the boy was born. What happens in the movie from that point on is, of cours...

25. Loving Jesus, Hating The Church

John 9:35-41

Sermon

Thomas Long

Those who analyze cultural trends have known for a long time that Americans seem to like religion a lot more than they like church. Whenever pollsters, pencils sharpened and questionnaires ready, knock on the doors of private citizens to inquire about their religious attitudes, it is difficult to find anybody out there who does not claim to be a fervent believer. If people are to be taken at their...

Showing results

Showing 1 to 25 of 63 results

1. A Church with Nothing to Offer

John 20:19-23

Illustration

Thomas Long

2. A Sacred Death

Illustration

Thomas Long

3. A Sad Misunderstanding of Time

Illustration

Thomas Long

4. A Tempting and Lonely Place

Mark 1:35-39

Sermon

Thomas Long

5. An Introduction to John the Baptist

Matthew 3:1-12

Illustration

Thomas Long

6. An Understated Masterpiece

Mark 1:21-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

7. Are We Brave enough to Bet It All?

John 20:1-18

Illustration

Thomas Long

8. Bad Timing

Matthew 20:20-28

Sermon

Thomas Long

9. Beauty and Grace

John 1:6-8, 19-28

Illustration

Thomas Long

10. Country Songs and Easter Hymns

Luke 24:36-49

Sermon

Thomas Long

11. Daylight Lasts Longer

John 11:1-45

Illustration

Thomas Long

12. Describe That Person Theologically

Matthew 17:1-9

Illustration

Thomas Long

13. Facing The Unknown & Unknowable

Mark 1:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

14. Facing Up To Temptation

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Thomas Long

15. Getting Down To The Local Issues

Sermon

Thomas Long

16. God Remembers and Reminds

John 14:15-21

Illustration

Thomas Long

17. Good News, Bad News, Good News

John 13:1-17

Sermon

Thomas Long

18. Hot Tubs and Fishing Trips

Mark 1:14-20

Sermon

Thomas Long

19. In the City

Luke 24:36-49

Illustration

Thomas Long

20. Knowing the Secret

Mark 1:9-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

21. Knowing the Secret Right from the Start

Mark 1:4-11

Illustration

Thomas Long

22. Knowing The Voice

John 10:1-21

Sermon

Thomas Long

23. Let Us Pray

Luke 18:1-8

Illustration

Thomas Long

24. Living in the Future Present

Mark 9:2-13

Sermon

Thomas Long

25. Loving Jesus, Hating The Church

John 9:35-41

Sermon

Thomas Long

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