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Sermon
J. Will Ormond
The family heard the tornado warning on the radio. They turned on the television; the radar map showed the storm was headed for their town. The wind picked up and rattled the windows. The sky became dark. They went out on the front porch and looked at the sky. And then they saw it: a funnel cloud swaying along the ground like a hungry elephant's trunk sucking up everything in its path. They made a...
Sermon
Richard A. Wing
Exterior design is changing everywhere in this season of Advent. The exterior designs are nice, but they will do us no ultimate good because in the end it is interior design that counts. The new interior design will not be the result of something we do, but the result of something we allow to have happen to us. I assure you of this: God desires to do something inside us. God desires for something...
Sermon
A cartoon shows a husband and wife sitting in a living room that is cheerfully decorated for the Christmas season. The wife, however, has a deep frown on her face, and looks completely exhausted. In the caption the husband is saying: "Of course you're depressed--'tis the season to be jolly." An American couple planned to travel overseas. They looked forward to their trip for over a year. For the h...
4. Come Back
Luke 21:5-38
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Just when I think that all this talk about A.I. or Artificial Intelligence is a bunch of artificial air, something happens to show me that maybe we're further along the AI path than we think. Maybe the worlds of the born and the words of the made are coming together faster than we ever imagined. In researching this week's theme of betrayal, I undertook a Google search to reference a disturbing new...
5. The End of Time
Luke 21:5-19
Sermon
John Wayne Clarke
No reading of Luke is complete without coming to realize that Luke is concerned that the world understands that Jesus is the hope of the world and that any teaching that leads away from that fact is a false teaching. No matter what, no matter when, Jesus will be there to give us life. In our own time, there have been those who have predicted that the end was near because of some tragedy that has ...
Sermon
Susan R. Andrews
It is a newspaper image I will never forget. And for me it is an image of Advent. The time was the early 1990s. The place was Sarajevo — the gutted, bombed out epicenter of the Balkan War — when ethnic violence had destroyed beauty and buildings and any sense of human community. One day, a man put on his tuxedo, picked up his cello and a chair, and went and sat at the central intersection of town ...
7. Stable-Time
Luke 21:5-38
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In a culture where even the atheists claim to have a "spirituality," it's time for the church to soul out. Until March of 1997, the approaching Third Millennium sneaked up on us like some great, fun adventure. For intrepid entrepreneurs, the year 2000 promises huge sales in commemorative junk. Party planners have been plotting big New Year's Eve blowouts for years. Except for those nerdy computer...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The cost of not being a disciple is so much greater than any cost discipleship itself might entail. Non-discipleship makes us nothing. Discipleship makes us something. There are so many ways we unintentionally invalidate the truth of the gospel. Simply by going through the church calendar, we can see that Christians are asked to "give instead of receive" at Christmas, to "give up" something for L...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The Advent season invites us to consider sprucing up our inner selves and souls along with our homes and offices and churches - interior decorations that will go with all our exterior decorations. The Advent season is a decoration season. In fact, most churches designate a decoration day called "Hanging of the Greens" or some such title. During Advent we spend a great deal of time decorating - we...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
In a culture where even the atheists claim to have a "spirituality," it's time for the church to soul out. Until March of 1997, the approaching Third Millennium sneaked up on us like some great, fun adventure. For intrepid entrepreneurs, the year 2000 promises huge sales in commemorative junk. Party planners have been plotting big New Year's Eve blowouts for years. Except for those nerdy computer...
Sermon
Memories of my father are as vivid in my heart and mind today, thirty years beyond his going home, as on the day those memories were in the making. Mother is included, too, but for my purpose here, I mention Dad especially. To my youthful mind he always seemed to be on top of it. He was down to earth, lived in the midst of life’s realities, and never soared on clouds with spiritual fanaticism. The...
Sermon
What does this Scripture mean? There are preachers on radio and television who delight in conjuring with these words about wars and tumults, earthquakes, famines, and pestilences, terrors, and great signs in the heavens, and connecting them with current events in Afghanistan, India, the Middle East, Ethiopia, Central America, and Russia. (But one author has counted 300 wars in Europe in the last 3...
Sermon
King Duncan
In one of his books, motivational speaker Zig Ziglar tells the story of NFL quarterback Jeff Hostetler, formerly with the New York Giants. At the beginning of his career, Jeff was a back-up quarterback. By the end of his seventh season, he had thrown less than two hundred passes, and none of them had any bearing on the outcome of a game. Then Phil Simms, the starting quarterback of the Giants, wen...
Sermon
King Duncan
I know they’re corny, but I love good news/bad news jokes. We laugh at them because of the element of surprise, but also because we can relate to the scenarios in them. They appeal to the cynic in us that just expects the world to operate in that order--good news, then bad news. A young man phones up his dad at work for a chat. Dad says, “I’m sorry, son, but I’m up to my neck in work today” Son...
Sermon
King Duncan
Welcome on this First Sunday of Advent. Today’s lesson from Luke’s Gospel is a little unsettling. In it Christ seems to be describing the end of the world.  Listen to his words: “There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea. People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world, fo...
Sermon
King Duncan
Today we’re going to talk about hair. That’s a universal subject, isn’t? All of us have hair well at least most of us. A balding man once asked his barber, “Why do you charge me full price for cutting my hair? There’s so little of it.” “Actually I don’t charge you that much,” said the barber. “But I do have to tack on a finder’s fee.” A little boy was looking through the family album and asked h...
Sermon
King Duncan
Have you ever noticed how uncomfortable people are when nothing is going on? The great pianist Rachmaninoff tells of giving a piano recital when he was very young. He began with a Beethoven sonata that had several long rests in it. During one of those long rests, a motherly lady leaned forward, patted him on the shoulder, and said kindly: “Honey, play us something you know.” There is an awkwardn...
Sermon
King Duncan
Chuck Swindoll tells a rather gross, but humorous story in one of his books. It takes place right after his graduation from high school. He was working in a machine shop in Houston, Texas. One of the men he worked near in the shop was named Tex. He was an unforgettable character. Tex spent most of his adult life operating a turret lathe in that shop. He was a typical machinist. He wore a little gr...
Sermon
King Duncan
Humorist Lewis Grizzard writes about a man in his hometown named Luther Gilroy. Luther claimed he was out plowing his field and saw a sign in the sky that said THE END IS NEAR. So Luther let his mule and his cow out of their pens, gave all his chickens away, and climbed on top of his house to await the end. When it didn't come, he pouted and refused to come down off the roof. Finally, his wife cal...
Sermon
King Duncan
This is the third Sunday in November--a day that will live in infamy for diehard football fans. The year was 1968. The exact date was November 17. Little did people know as they made their way home from church and prepared for an afternoon of professional football on television that this would be a day that would plunge a large portion of our population, mostly male into outrage. The New York Jets...
Sermon
King Duncan
Two-year-old son Jack leans on his father’s knee. His rumpled baseball jersey bears a fresh spaghetti sauce stain from that night’s dinner. "Daddy, tell me a bunny story." Rob tears his gaze away from the computer screen. "What was that, son?" asks Rob. "Tell me a bunny story," says Jack. "One with a truck in it." Rob sighs as his glance swings back to the screen. His paper is due in two days. His...
Sermon
Molly F. James
And he said, ‘Beware that you are not led astray; for many will come in my name and say, “I am he!” and, “The time is near!” Do not go after them.’ ” This is the heart of our gospel reading today. For those of us who live a comfortable middle class existence, it can be easy to dismiss our whole reading with its predictions of persecutions, earthquakes, and famines. How could those apply to our liv...
Sermon
Gary L. Carver
No moment in the life of a parent is more awesome than when a child leaves home for the first time and as you watch them walk away, you wonder: "Have I prepared this one adequately for all he or she will face?" Because none of us complete the parenting task perfectly, it is not unusual that sooner or later those same children come back and ask: "Why did you not tell me thus and so? I never heard a...
Sermon
Maxie Dunnam
A man was running down the pier, heading for the ferry boat, afraid he was not going to make it. Here was a man of some status, a man who was concerned about his dignity. He wore a pin-striped suit, carried a black umbrella in one hand and a black boler hat in the other, which he was waving at the ferry boat, and yelling at the boat to stop so that he could get on it. He ran all the way to the end...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Theme: Here is all you and I need to know about the future: It will be filled with Christ’s Presences, and fulfilled with his Promises. This is our destiny as disciples of Jesus: filled presences, and fulfilled promises. Exegesis: “The Word-Made-Flesh . . .” The gospel text for this Sunday before Thanksgiving Sunday continues the theme of last week’s lectionary reading: predictions of impending ...
Showing 1 to 25 of 53 results