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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...
2. A Short Sermon
Luke 4:14-30
Sermon
James Garrett
During Advent and Christmas we examined Luke’s account of the birth of Jesus. The first Sunday of the new year we watched as the young parents brought the Child into the temple. There in the temple was an old man, whose name was Simeon. He takes the baby from Mary and cradles him in his own arms. Holding the baby close, he says: “Lord, now let thy servant depart in peace… mine eyes have seen thy s...
Sermon
James Garrett
Jesus is in the synagogue on the Sabbath day at Nazareth. He stood there in the center of all those who knew him. He was a hometown boy, the center of attention that day. “The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him” says Luke. From the prophet Isaiah, Jesus reads these words: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to pr...
Sermon
Brett Blair
Yesterday our great country swore in the 43rd president of these United States and George Walker Bush delivered the 54th Inaugural Address to the nation. You may not know this but every single Inaugural Address from George Washington to George Bush has been preserved. In these speeches presidents have laid out for the country their dreams, goals, and aspirations. I would like you to listen to some...
Sermon
Louis H. Valbracht
Text: Luke 4:18-19 - "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord."Some years ago a friend wrote to the Russian author, Turgenev, telling him that he felt that the most impo...
Sermon
Charles H. Bayer
Toward the end of the Old Testament history, a controversy arose about how far God's grace and care extended. The real question was not put in those metaphysical terms, but took shape as the Jewish people thought about how far their love extended. Some held that in order to maintain the purity of worship and faith it was necessary to eliminate all foreign influences. Cited in support of this argum...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
One of the most helpful organizations I belonged to as a teenager was the Future Farmers of America. What little I know about public speaking, organizational leadership and parliamentary procedure I learned from this association. The FFA opened its meetings with a distinctive ritual. The president called the meeting to order and immediately asked “Future Farmers of America, why are we here?” Jesu...
8. Edges
Luke 4:14-30
Sermon
Richard A. Wing
"Life is a daring adventure or it is nothing." Helen Keller said that, a lady robbed of her sight, hearing, and ability to speak. She was saying that life is to be lived on the edge, or not at all. There is a difference between living on the edge and being what we call an "edgy" or irritable person. Jesus was on the edge at all times, and only once can I recall when he was edgy. That moment was w...
9. A Justice Jesus
Luke 4:14-21
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
When I did my doctoral studies in organizational revitalization, we were taught a simple way to bring about transformation in the way ministry is done. Simply change the name of the committees or create a brand new structure to do new things in new ways. In one of the parishes I served, we re-envisioned our ministry every five years. One year, more to humor me than anything else, the Vision Task F...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
I confuse “inversion therapy” with “aversion therapy.” The latter (“aversion therapy”) is where you train your dog not to leave your yard, or not dig, or not bark, with a collar that shocks the dog when it does run off, dig, or bark. “Inversion therapy” helps alleviate back and neck pain by taking the usual gravitational press we live with and literally “standing it on its head.” One method is t...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In us, the world sees a picture of Christ. Printed as a bulletin insert this morning is a simple bunch of dots a kind of randomly-shaped, computer-generated blob. Right? Now try an experiment. Stare at the four dots right in the center of the blob for about thirty seconds. Concentrate all your attention on them, don't look away and let the dots be all you see....(wait 30 seconds.) Now let's all ...
Sermon
Mark Trotter
Much to my surprise the title of this sermon, "Scandalous News," has caused a lot of people this past week to take notice. They would ask me, "What are you going to say?" I said, "I don't do previews." I did say, though, "It's not what you think, but it's probably much better than you could ever imagine." Titles can be misleading, but I have to put something out there on the billboard that will c...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
Today, I invite you to look and examine for a few moments these words coming to us from the Gospel of St. Luke which describe the Homecoming of Jesus to the Town of Nazareth and his subsequent rejection by them. As our Gospel Lesson opens it states: "And he came to Nazareth where he had been brought up, and, as his custom was, he went into the synagogue on the Sabbath Day." I have never been to ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
When the immensely popular author Stephen Covey wowed the world with his Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, he encouraged every person to sit down and write a personal mission statement. “Once you have that sense of mission," said Cover, “you have the essence of your own proactivity. You have the vision and values which will direct your life." Jesus of Nazareth never read Covey's books. But...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
The world is abuzz these days about values. We promote our values, debate our values, vote our values, teach our values, and hopefully, live our values. Values are the personal qualities that sustain us in the big picture of life. Values are a set of guiding principles that help us make decisions. Values are beliefs and attitudes about what is good and right and desirable and worthwhile. People wi...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Let’s begin this morning with a song. Please stand. Most of you know the song “Beneath the Cross of Jesus.” If you don’t, you are hearing our organist/pianist/keyboardist play it right now as I’m talking. On the PC-USA webpage, there was posted a hymn written a week ago by Carolyn Winfrey Gillette. It addresses in song the Haitian disaster where, according to the most recent estimates, between 100...
Sermon
King Duncan
Like most pastors I’m always looking for ways to improve our church. Recently I ran across a list by Pastor Grant MacDonald of what he calls the “Top Ten Ways to Promote Growth in Your Church.” These suggestions are offered with tongue firmly planted in cheek, but I thought you might enjoy some of them. These are ways we might grow our church: Offer free frequent flyer miles with every visit! Use...
Sermon
Cynthia Cowen
It was the History Day Parade at James T. Jones Elementary School. Each class picked a period of time to portray. The sixth grade chose the medieval days. Every student was to design a costume, and, of course, mom, auntie, grandma, or another family member - female or male - was to create it. Those who couldn't sew could make a placard or paper bag costume or wrap themselves in universal duct tape...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
I am angry. I am angry that the open-minded, open-hearted denomination I have always loved has become more and more legalistic and polarized. I am angry that my country, the wealthiest and most powerful nation in the world, has one of the highest rates of child mortality and child poverty of any industrialized nation in the world. I am angry that a huge percentage of US foreign aid goes to Israel ...
Sermon
J. Howard Olds
The book Crossing Over is the story of the rejection one woman faced when she fell in love with a person outside the Amish Community and ran away to marry him. Ruth Garrett had always been a little rebellious, but not even she could imagine the pain she was about to experience from being shunned by her family and community. Rejection, even the word, has a foreboding sound. Yet, it is an experienc...
Sermon
King Duncan
Have you ever been rejected? Have you ever had a door shut in your face? Welcome to the real world. Parents spend years grooming their children for success. Perhaps it would be more profitable to train our children to handle failure and rejection because everyone faces these unhappy experiences sooner or later. Go to Google. Type in the words “famous rejections.” If you do, you will learn that J....
Sermon
Charles H. Bayer
One of the marvelous gifts I have been given is the capacity to tell at a glance what somebody is like. I have no trouble seeing a person for the first time and identifying all her faults. What is more, in a split second I can tell you what she ought to be doing. Like one of Gilbert and Sullivan's characters: Of everybody's weaknesses I know a thing or two, I can tell a woman's age in half a minu...
Sermon
Cynthia Cowen
The ministry of Jesus was on a roll. After his baptism and time in the wilderness, he went forth to proclaim God's gospel of love. Following his preaching in Galilee, he entered his hometown. Although born in Bethlehem, his parents had fled to Egypt to protect their son from the wrath of King Herod. When Joseph heard of Herod's death, he brought his family back to live in Nazareth. As a young boy...
24. Good and Mad
Luke 4:21-30
Sermon
Billy D. Strayhorn
Before we start the message this morning I need you to do something for me. I want everybody on this side (point to the right side) to move over here (point to the left side). I want everybody in the center to move there (point to the right side). And I want everybody on this side (point to the left side) to move to the center. OK, let's go. After everyone has moved, and is uncomfortable, mad and...
Sermon
Gary L. Carver
"With Jesus in your heart, you just can't hate anybody." That is our destination, but sometimes the journey is just as important as the destination. I want to take you on a journey through the text for today. As we continue to preach on the life of our Lord Jesus, we will basically arrive at the same destination: "With Jesus in your heart, you just can't hate anybody." This is a wonderful text, a ...
Showing 1 to 25 of 48 results