Sermon and Worship Resources

Showing all results

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Thanksgiving • Thanksgiving • Thanksgiving A complete list of the things for which people today have to be thankful would be impossible, but we can identify a few items through which modern people are heirs of the goodness of God. God has been good in caring for the physical needs of people. Norman V. Pearce, a blind person, reminded in a subtle way those who have sight that for which they have to...

2. A Parent’s Debt

Romans 13:8-14

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Family Week • First Sunday in Family Week • Most parents try to pay their debts to their children. They try to do the best for their children. Yet what parent would say, “There is no way for me to improve.”? What do parents owe their children? In writing to the church in Rome Paul said, “Owe no one anything, except to love one another.” Parents can dominate their children’s lives. They can over-...

3. A Pause That Refreshes

John 1:1-18

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

In the Christian year are kept the major events surrounding the life of the Christ. For the four weeks preceding Christmas, Advent is kept to celebrate that the Word of God has become flesh. In the spring, Palm Sunday is kept to celebrate the entry of the Christ into Jerusalem. On the Thursday before Easter, Maundy Thursday is kept to celebrate the Last Supper of Jesus with his disciples. The foll...

4. Beyond Bread and Butter

Luke 12:42-48

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Sunday • Labor Sunday • Labor Sunday • Labor Americans generally recognize the right of labor to enjoy a decent standard of living, including leisure time, the privilege of owning one’s own home and financial security. With the growth of unions, cultural respect for labor has grown. Labor has moved a long way since Sarah Cleghorn wrote: The golf links lie so near the millThat almost every dayThe...

5. Beyond Denominationalism

John 13:31-38

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Unity • Week of Prayer for Christian Unity • On October 31, 1517, an event occurred which changed the course of Christian experience. On that date Martin Luther tacked ninety-five theses for debate on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany. That action eventually led to the Protestant Reformation. Although in 1517 the church was already divided between east and west, the Reformation ...

6. Christian Faith in the Holy Spirit

Luke 11:1-13

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

•Pentecost • Pentecost • Pentecost • Pentecost • Christians are baptized in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. They are blessed with the benediction, “The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all.” (2 Corinthians 13:14) Christians know who God is and who the Christ is, but what of this Holy Spirit? The doctr...

7. Dapple Gray

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

** For Rural Life Sunday *** I had a little pony His name was Dapple Gray; I lent him to a lady To ride a mile away. She whipped him, she lashed him, She rode him through the mire; I would not lend my pony now For all the lady’s hire. “Dapple Gray” is one of our finest nursery rhymes on the subject of stewardship. The lady to whom Dapple Gray was “lent” was a steward, a poor steward to be sure, bu...

8. Don’t Be a Mama Bear

John 8:31-41

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Race Relations Sunday • Race Relations Once upon a time there were three bears, a mama bear, a papa bear, and a baby bear. After stirring up their world-renowned porridge, they set off for a walk in the woods. As they returned, they observed marked changes in their home. After appropriate comment, they bounced a blonde into the alley. The three bears represent three types of people. First, there...

9. Doors to God

Mark 12:28-34

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Sunday • Christian Education Sunday • Christian One door in the church school class room opens to God. That door, the most important, is the teacher. Whatever else they teach, church school teachers should teach the central message of the Christian faith. What is that message? Albert Schweitzer, after making a life study of the message of Jesus, has concluded that: The essential element in Christi...

10. Finding Oneself in the Wilderness

Matthew 4:1-11

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

In the narrative of the temptations, Jesus is seen in the wilderness, where he attempts to answer difficult questions regarding the shape and substance of his future ministry. The temptations of Jesus occurred in the wilderness following his baptism. Is that not true to all human experience? In our best moments evil stalks our trail. He was alone. Is that not true to experience, too? People face m...

11. Let Freedom Ring!

Luke 4:14-30

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Reformation Sunday • Reformation Sunday When Jesus returned to his home town he attended public worship as “his custom was.” (Luke 4:16a) As was the practice in those days he stood up to read the Scriptures and sat down to preach. For his text he read this passage from the book of Isaiah: “He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives… to set at liberty those who are oppressed.” (Luke 4:18) S...

12. Light for Uncertain Paths

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Universal Bible Sunday - Universal Bible The traveler tied the last strap of a sandal around his bare ankle. Tonight’s journey was to be a long one and there was no moon. It was not common to attempt a seventeen-mile hike over rough hill country on a night like this. As he threw his outer robe about his shoulders his hand reached for the latch. Flinging open the heavy door, he stood in the thresho...

13. Says Who?

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Freedom and Democracy Sunday • Freedom Sunday Of all God’s creatures, only humans can make free judgments. Only we can change our basic natures; only we can rebel against ourselves; only we can choose. Herein lies both our greatness and our misery. Thus, only we can question and choose our authorities. Only we can ask, “Says who?” Where did that idea come from -- that the consciences of human bein...

14. The Churches and Higher Education

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Christian College Sunday • Christian College What do the churches have to do with higher education? For this sermon “churches” shall mean organized groups of worshipers claiming faith in Jesus Christ. “Higher education” shall mean “the practice of teaching and learning above the high school level.” Traces of institutions which can be called “schools of higher education” can be found in history as ...

15. The High Cost of Christian Living

Matthew 16:24-28

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Youth Sunday • Youth Sunday • Youth On a cliff overlooking a river in India stood a woman with two children. As the missionary doctor canoed down the river to the trading post, he noticed that the child who stood by her side was strong and healthy, while in her arms she held a tiny lad with twisted limbs that he would never use. When the missionary returned from the trading post again he saw the ...

16. The Highway to Peace

Luke 2:1-7

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Christmas Eve/Day • Christmas Eve/Day Only the bleat of a lamb could be heard through the quiet of the night. Across the treeless grazing land a soft breeze kissed the warm earth. Within a secluded nook a herd of sheep were dozing while on a mound only a few feet away a group of men slumbered calmly. The ruddy faces, hands and sandaled feet of those men betrayed the fact that they had long been ex...

17. The King of Life

Luke 19:28-44

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Palm Sunday • Palm Sunday • Each person has a king. Restated, each person has something that they hold to be most important in life. Some people make money the king of their lives. In the United States money is the king for many. Alexis de Tocqueville said in 1835: I know of no country, indeed, where the love of money has taken stronger hold on the affections of men.1 Ogden Nash, with tongue in...

18. The Strength of the Master

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Sunday • Laity Sunday • Laity Sunday • Laity Some people think of Jesus as a soft, weak person. Many artists have had this idea. Those who painted the pictures of Jesus in “Christ Weeping Over Jerusalem” and “The Shepherd and the Sheep” portrayed Christ this way. Even Da Vinci, when he painted “The Last Supper,” gave his own mother’s eyes to the Master. Sallman has painted the Master with soft, wa...

19. This Is My Body

1 Corinthians 11:17-34

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Sunday • World-Wide Communion Sunday • World While Americans were sleeping, Christians in Zaire left their homes for places of worship to see their pastors take bread in their hands and declare, “This is my body.” In Saint Sophia’s Cathedral in Istanbul were heard the words, “This is my body.” In Saint Paul’s in London a hush fell across the congregation as the pastor declared, “This is my body.”...

20. Trumpets on the Other Side

John 11:17-37

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

Easter Sunday • Easter Sunday • Easter Whatever one’s view of death, death will come to each person. Shakespeare was right when he wrote: Golden lads and girls all must,As chimney-sweepers, come to dust.6 Many people face death with some misgivings, as they face any new experience. Some do not want the subject mentioned. However, to refuse to face death realistically is as ridiculous as it is to r...

21. What Children Can Teach Adults

Luke 10:1-24

Sermon

Thomas Slavens

• Children’s Day • Children’s Day • Children’s Day It is the usual thing to think in terms of what adults can teach children. Adults have much to teach. They teach children ways to develop their bodies, personalities and their relationships with God. At the same time children can often teach adults. Adults sometimes become so proud, skeptical or self-righteous that they need to recover some of the...

Showing 1 to 21 of 21all results