Sermon and Worship Resources

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Mark 10:1-12

Sermon

William G. Carter

... , "God gave us marriage for the well-being of human society." We cannot expect peace in our world unless we claim some sense of peace in our households. Working for such peace may require us to stand up against some prevailing thoughts in our culture. Wendell Berry is a Kentucky farmer and a champion of community health. He also writes award-winning articles and stories. A few years ago, he wrote a brief article for Harper's Magazine where he explained why he was never going to buy a computer. First, he ...

2. Gone with the Wind

Matthew 14:22-36

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... 're facing . . . but I can tell you as their pastor (and I don't know all the stories represented here this morning, but enough to tell with conviction) . . . I'm looking out now at people who are walking on water. Kentucky farmer and philosopher Wendell Berry is a poet who consistently invites us to look again at the everyday, common things of life. He makes the case that turning water into wine is a relatively small miracle compared to turning water (and soil and sunlight) into grapes. Many times we are ...

3. Speaking of the Spirit

Romans 8:12-17

Sermon

William G. Carter

... more loving and wise than we are. God is greater than our own conscience, broader than our own imagination, more generous than we would normally choose to be. To live into all of that is to live into the full inheritance of all God chooses to give us. The poet Wendell Berry sums this up when he prays these words: O Thou, far off and here, whole and broken, Who in necessity and in bounty wait, Whose truth is light and dark, mute though spoken, By Thy wide grace show me Thy narrow gate.1 1 ...

4. The World Needs Less Mother Goose More Mother Teresa

Isaiah 58:1-14

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... no longer charity, that really transforms the world. If you offer you food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted, then you light shall rise in darkness and your gloom be like the noonday (v.10). Arguably America’s greatest living poet, Kentucky farmer Wendell Berry, has a short story called “The Wild Birds.” The character Burly Coulter says: The way we are, we are members of each other. All of us. Everything. The difference ain’t in who is a member and who is not, but in who knows and ...

5. We Serve a Risen [and Rising] Savior

Luke 24:1-12

Sermon

Leonard Sweet

... over again. The only way that Jesus’ resurrection can continue to destroy death for each new generation is if every generation has new witnesses. Those who have seen the empty tomb must spend their lives “practicing resurrection.” In 1991, Wendell Berry, who I believe is this nation’s greatest living poet, ended his poem entitled “Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front” with two words. Those two words are “practice resurrection.” In his own life as a farmer and philosopher, “practice ...

6. Everyday Miracles

Matt.14:22-33; John 2:1-11

Illustration

Leonard Sweet

... the case that turning water into wine is a relatively small miracle compared to turning water (and soil and sunlight) into grapes. Many times we are so transfixed by the humongous miracles God is capable of that we forget the humble, every day miracles that go on all around us. Wendell Berry's way of putting this is: "We are alive within mystery, by miracle." (Life is a Miracle: An Essay Against Modern Superstition [Washington, D.C.: Counterpoint, 2000], 45).

7. When Did This Start? — Part 1

Mark 1:1-8

Sermon

Robert J. Elder

... season, to listen to the terse words of the baptist: "The one who is more powerful than I" — than all of us — "is coming after me ... he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit" (vv. 7-8). If only we will let him. Novelist, Wendell Berry, once said, "The industrial economy's most marketed commodity is satisfaction, [but] this commodity, which is repeatedly promised, bought, and paid for, is never delivered."1 When the voice of the baptizer calls out in the wilderness, "Prepare the way of the Lord, make ...

8. Welcome to the Center of Life

Ephesians 1:3-14

Sermon

Gibson “Nibs” Stroupe

... sexual orientation. The invitation comes to us because of the nature of God's love. Welcome to the center of life! Let us say, "Yes," and let us send up our praise at dawn. Amen. 1. From the poem "Meditation in the Spring Rain," by Wendell Berry, Collected Poems (San Francisco: North Point Press, 1988), p. 135. 2. For more discussion on these issues, see any mainline commentaries. These have been helpful to me: Robert G. Bratcher and Eugene A. Nida, A Translator's Handbook on Paul's Letter to the Ephesians ...

9. Jesus Baptism and Ours

Isaiah 42:1-9

Sermon

Mike Ripski

I. Life Questions “I’ve got a lot of questions,” says Jayber Crow, a character in Wendell Berry’s novel of the same name. Jayber is recalling his seminary days and a visit to his professor of New Testament Greek, Old Dr. Ardwire. The professor replies, “Perhaps you would like to say what they are?” The inquisitive student runs down the list. He fears his teacher will be ...

10. Does Love Really Make the World Go ’Round? (Series: Real Faith for Real People)

1 John 4:7-21

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... us be honest! Is there anybody anywhere, Christian or un-Christian, religious or non-religious, who does not believe that Jesus Christ showed the world a better way to live? What keeps us from adopting His values and imitating His life style? As my fellow Kentuckian Wendell Berry writes, “In times like these when we have been most cruelly hurt by those who hate us, it is hard to speak of the way of peace and to remember that Christ enjoined us to love our enemies, but this is no less necessary for being ...

11. Finding Our Place in All Creation

Genesis 1:1, 26-31

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... . To be good is to be fitting. To be good is to be flawless. Goodness is not a sudden blaze of glory won. Goodness is not fame and glory. Goodness is the accomplishment of the purpose for which we were made. Goodness is at the core of the universe. Wendell Berry is an author and poet who still lives close to the place of my birth. He writes novels about small town life on the Kentucky River and he writes poetry about nature itself. In one of his works he says, “When despair for the world grows in me, and ...

12. Finding Our Place In All Creation

Job 38:1-18

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... is the created and not the creator. We are made in the image of God. We are not God. It is a happy day when we discover that truth. Not far from the place where I retreat to pray and play, a famous author and poet by the name of Wendell Berry does his writing. In one of his books he says, “When despair for the world grows in me, and I wake in the night in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty ...

13. The Bread We Daily Need

Luke 11:1-10

Sermon

J. Howard Olds

... dining establishments we have a choice of bread—will it be white, wheat, rye, rolls, biscuits, or buns. Bread—most of us have more to worry about than bread. We take that for granted, day after day. My fellow Kentuckian, Wendell Berry, says we industrial eaters have lost touch with the reverence of eating. And then he said this. “In the first place, we consume food that has been processed, dyed, breaded, sauced, gravied, ground, pulped, strained, blended, petrified, and sanitized beyond resemblance ...

14. Christ the King

Psalm 46:1-11, Jeremiah 23:1-6, Luke 1:68-79; 23:33-43, Colossians 1:11-20

Bulletin Aid

Julia Ross Strope

... immersed in unfair, unjust, and unhealthy real situations. Poets, musicians, and artists often lift us out of our gutters and help us hope for better times. Consider The Peaceable Kingdom and Tavener’s Funeral Ikos, Rita Dove’s poetry, and writings of Wendell Berry. Attention can be called to the encouraging passages of scripture like Psalm 46, John 6:25-35, 63. Musicians, dancers, and artists in the congregation could be invited to demonstrate hopefulness with works of their own crafts and with a one ...

15. Rest

Matthew 11:16-19, 25-30

Sermon

William G. Carter

... . It is to come to Christ, who alone is saving the world as an expression of the goodness and grace of God. We really do have to give up the burden of being addicted to ourselves. I recently picked up the latest collection of sabbath poems by Wendell Berry, the Kentucky farmer. For forty years, he has spent Sundays resting, going for a walk, and writing short poems on sabbath themes. He pays attention to the world that thrives even on his sabbath day off. In the book’s preface he wrote these words: We are ...

16. Surprised By Christmas

Isaiah 9:1-7

Sermon

King Duncan

... the doctor. As he sat in the waiting room, he noticed an attractive elderly couple waiting, too. The woman wore holly berries and poinsettia leaves in her hair. The man leaned toward Fulghum, smiled, and announced, "Merry Christmas!" Fulghum replied in same before ... the future was frail. All the while, however, babies were being born. Alfred Lord Tennyson, Edgar Allen Poe, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Felix Mendelssohn, William E. Gladstone, destined to become one of England's finest statesman, Charles Darwin, and a ...

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