Zoom
Showing 1 to 25 of 50 results
1. Mary's Complaint
Luke 1:26-38, Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56
Sermon
David E. Leininger
I suppose you have had the chance to watch at least a little television during these busy days before Christmas. Have you noticed that the news programs are carrying more stories about unfortunate people these days...people who have lost their homes, people who are facing debilitating disease, people who seem to have had their whole world fall in on them? Have you noticed that? I understand why: s...
Sermon
Richard A. Wing
We are made new when we dare to go home by another way. This reality has ancient roots. The stories of the season are about people who were made new by taking a different road home. Mary visited Elizabeth and remained there three months. She went home by another way. After saying earlier, "Do with me as you will," before God, and after singing her song of praise to God, she went home a different ...
Sermon
Charley Reeb
This morning I want to tell you how to get blessed by God. We all want God to bless us. This morning I am going to tell how to get that done. How many of you want to be blessed by God? Me too! Now when I say blessed I am not talking about the prosperity, name and claim it gospel that’s popular. I am not talking about saying a prayer and having a million dollars in cash show up in a briefcase at y...
Sermon
Charles H. Bayer
The Gospel of Luke, above all books of the New Testament, is about women. It reads as if a woman might have written it. It contains intimate details which hardly would have occurred to a man. It begins with the birth of John the Baptist, focusing on Elizabeth, his mother. The next major section is Mary's story. To her we will shortly return. There follows the prophecy of an old woman named Anna. W...
5. The Christmas Song
Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56
Sermon
James Garrett
The business side of Christmas -- the commercialism -- doesn’t bother me as it does some. There are those who think the spiritual import of Christmas may be forgotten. There’s no danger of that. The spiritual significance of Christmas is so dominant that many who are ordinarily indifferent go out of their way to find a religious service. That is part of the miracle of Christmas. Personally, the e...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Despite the Scrooges among us who annually decry the commercialization, the crassness and the blatant sentimentality of so much of the Christmas preparations, it is still a magical time of the year. The daily popping out of multi-colored lights at doorways and windows, the Christmas tree lots that seem to spring up over night, the magnificent window displays, the wreaths, the tinsel, the reds and ...
7. Beware of Cute
Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:26-38
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Beware of Cute. This is the time of year when we need to be on high alert for cute. We love cuteness. This is a cute-driven culture. And this season of year turns everything it touches into glitz and cuteness. But the story of Jesus’ birth wasn’t cute. The Annunciation wasn’t cute. The virgin birth wasn’t cute. The Magnificat wasn’t cute. The little town of Bethlehem wasn’t cute. The killing of...
8. The Baby Leaped
Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
King Duncan
Dr. Jerry Schmallengberger, former president of Pacific Lutheran Seminary in Berkeley, CA, tells a hilarious story about a Christmas program that went awry. The story concerned a Pastor Paul Dahlrimple who had a great scheme to illustrate baby Jesus coming down from heaven. Pastor Dahlrimple asked Elder Fred to help. In preparation, he carefully rigged a baby doll to an invisible fishing line, str...
9. The News From Nazareth
Luke 1:39-45 (46-55)
Sermon
David E. Leininger
"Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer...." We hear a lot about old Rudy these days. Are you aware that, while male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year, male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December? Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. This is according to the Alaska Department ...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
In the year 1870 the Methodists in Indiana were having their Annual Conference. At one point, the president of the college where they were meeting said, "I think we live in a very exciting age." The presiding bishop said "What do you see in our future?" The college president responded, "I believe we are coming into a time of great inventions. I believe, for example, that men will fly through the...
11. Two Women
Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
Mark Trotter
Our text for this morning is about two women who come together to tell their stories. They are cousins, distant cousins. Elizabeth, the city cousin, Luke says, lives in the hills of Judea. Her husband, Zechariah, is the priest in the Temple. It must have been a big city to have a temple. Perhaps it was Jerusalem, and if so, then Zechariah would have been one of the priests assigned to the Temple i...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
So What? All of us have one annual event, or one family tradition, that definitively makes Christmas official. What is yours? What ritual do you perform that inaugurates the Christmas season? For some of us it's the hanging of the greens the act of putting up the tree, decorating it and the house with all those much-loved cheesy, twinkly, shiny ornaments. For others it may be a traditional coo...
Sermon
King Duncan
The red flag on the parking meter was visible, and sure enough, Scott Seomin found a souvenir on his windshield. It wasn't a ticket from the city of West Hollywood, California, however. Instead it was a poem that went like this: The meter was red, as time had expired. In the rush of the season, we knew you'd be tired. A parking ticket would just make you blue, And in the holiday spirit this just w...
14. Poor Mary
Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
Mark Trotter
The scene in the Gospel lesson this morning is called, "The Visitation." It's about two women, cousins. They have something in common. They are both going to have babies, and both, miraculously. Elizabeth is too old, and Mary is so young, she is a virgin, betrothed, but not married. What does this mean? Mary comes to Elizabeth's house in the Judean hills. It sounds upscale, doesn't it, the "Judea...
Sermon
King Duncan
(Fourth Sunday in Advent) There is a book titled BARREN COUPLES AND BROKEN HEARTS. It is about married couples who desperately want to have children but, for one reason or another, are unable. It is one of life's ironies, isn't it? Some couples have unexpected and even unwanted pregnancies. Other couples who are totally unfit to be parents also have no difficulty breeding. Then there are those cou...
16. Blessed among Women
Luke 1:39-45, 1 Samuel 2:1-11
Sermon
Erskine White
"And Elizabeth ... exclaimed with a loud cry, ‘Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’ " (Luke 1:42) No one knows what she looked like. European artists have made her look European. African artists have made her look African. Native American artists have drawn her in their image, as have artists from South America, the Far East and nearly every other part of the world...
Sermon
King Duncan
Pastor Melvin Newland tells about a man in Salt Lake City who decided to send out 600 Christmas cards to total strangers. He got telephone directories from several cities, addressed 600 cards to people he had never met, put his return address on the envelopes and mailed them. Amazingly, he received 117 responses from these total strangers. One lady wrote, “It was so good to hear from you. Your c...
18. Oh, How The Mighty Have Fallen
Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56
Sermon
Brett Blair
I am holding in my hands a copy of one of the world’s most revolutionary documents. In it are found these immortal words: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal. . .” Of course, that document, the Declaration of Independence, is the charter of the American Revolution. Though we have not yet lived up to it, it has been the vision that inspires us. The only documen...
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
An eight-year-old girl was showing her preschool sister a picture of Mary and the baby Jesus. The younger girl examined the picture closely and then she asked, "Where's Joseph?" The older sister thought for a moment and then replied, "He's taking the picture." (1) This is sort of the season for questions isn't it? Especially questions about the Christmas Story. There are so many elements that are...
20. Mary's Song
Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
King Duncan
I want to make my annual public service announcement to the men in our congregation. Guys, it’s time to do your Christmas shopping. I hope our men have this task already out of the way. But just in case, please heed my announcement. I understand that a [certain couple in our church] slipped off to [a nearby city] to do their Christmas shopping and somehow they got separated for several hours. For...
21. Songs of the Season
Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
J. Ellsworth Kalas
No season of the year sings as well as Christmas. This seems to be true whether one is a saint or a sinner. The world about us has occasional songfests for patriotic days or school homecoming celebrations, but those songs are sung by selected groups in isolated places. Only at the Christmas season does the majority of the population choose to sing or to listen to the singing of others. Some of the...
22. Two Blessings for an Unwed Mother
Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
William G. Carter
By Christmas vacation of my first year in college, I had become an expert on the birds and the bees. Biology was my major, and after a semester in the freshman class, I was certain that I knew more biology than most adults did in my hometown ... including my minister. A few days before Christmas, I stopped in to see him. He received me warmly and asked how I had fared in my first semester. “Okay,”...
23. The News from Nazareth
Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
David E. Leininger
Interesting item in the paper the other day. "According to the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, while both male and female reindeer grow antlers in the summer each year...Male reindeer drop their antlers at the beginning of winter, usually late November to mid-December. Female reindeer, however, retain their antlers until after they give birth in the spring. Therefore, according to every histor...
24. When God Comes with a Blessing
Luke 1:39-45, Luke 1:46-56
Sermon
John P. Jewell
With this fourth Sunday in Advent, we have arrived at the dawn of another Christmas Eve. It is almost mind boggling to realize that we stand at the beginning of the third millennium since the good news of God's blessing the world through the Christ child was proclaimed.  Yet, the words of the angel Gabriel, Elizabeth and Mary continue to stir the hearts of Christian people around the world today a...
25. Song of Promise
Matthew 1:18-25, Luke 1:46-56, Luke 1:39-45
Sermon
Lori Wagner
I have a confession to make: I love Christmas carols. I mean, really LOVE Christmas carols. Can I get a witness? On the radio….on CDs….in the stores….in the car….they just uplift our spirits in this season, don’t they? There’s something about Christmas Carols that just seem to warm the heart and stir the soul. I know you’re not supposed to listen to them until after Advent, but I admit it before ...
Showing 1 to 25 of 50 results