Zoom
Showing 26 to 50 of 53 results
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
The Thanksgiving edition of the dream-food magazine Gourmet features – guess what? – an exquisite turkey dinner on the cover. Inside this special holiday edition are upscale recipes for, guess what? Stuffing, cranberries, squash, green beans, and pumpkin pie. Although a few snooty ingredients are scattered throughout Gourmet's versions of these old favorites (Shitake mushrooms, black truffles), no...
Sermon
Cynthia Cowen
Today we enter the season of Advent. The countdown has begun as we once more anticipate the celebration of the birth of Christ. Advent is a time to prepare, not just our homes but our hearts. What joy floods our hearts as we sing "Joy to the world, the Lord has come!" The Son of God entered our world so quietly — no one, except those searching the heavens, saw the star that announced his birth. Ho...
Sermon
Wayne Brouwer
"Screw your courage to the sticking-place," says Lady Macbeth to her doomed husband in Shakespeare's tragedy, "and we'll not fail." But fail they do and no amount of courage in the world can save them or turn them into heroes. Courage is a funny thing. It's a bit like happiness: the more you seek it, the more you demand it, the more you try to call it up, the less it shows its face. Words can sti...
Sermon
Scott Bryte
"Wars and revolutions, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines, and pestilence ... betrayal, hatred..." (Luke 21:10-11). Whoa! What season is approaching? What about "Peace on earth and mercy mild"? Actually, both images are at play here. Yes, Christmas is coming — a beautiful time. But juxtaposed against that is a life of great uncertainty for all of us, a time when ...
30. Eyes Up!
Luke 21:25-36
Sermon
David E. Leininger
A bit of a contrast, isn't it? The sweet strains of "Away In A Manger" followed by "... nations will be in anguish ... the roaring and tossing of the sea ... People will faint from terror ... the heavenly bodies will be shaken." Ho, ho, ho! Where is Santa when we need him? Why in the world would the church choose a gospel lesson such as this to begin Advent and our preparation for the coming of th...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
"Wars and revolutions, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines, and pestilence ... betrayal, hatred..." (Luke 21:10-11). Whoa! What season is approaching? What about "Peace on earth and mercy mild"? Actually, both images are at play here. Yes, Christmas is coming — a beautiful time. But juxtaposed against that is a life of great uncertainty for all of us, a time when ...
Sermon
Leonard Sweet
Jesus came to save humans from being rat packs feeding on each other instead of sheep feeding with each other. This was never made so clear than in the recent “Black Friday” images of people stomping on each other and fighting it out, all done to the musical background of Christmas music. Our sentimental — yet always cynical — culture likes to start singing Christmas carols the moment Thanksgivin...
33. Here We Go Again
Luke 21:25-36
Sermon
Mark Trotter
This last week I got a letter addressed to, "The Pastor of the MethodistChurch," unsigned. It began, "To the church that awaits my coming. I am the Lord." That got my attention. This is from Jesus, I could see. It was handwritten, which I want to point out to all of you who have been trying to get me to get a computer. I just follow Jesus. When he gets one, I'll get one. I read on. "I am not ple...
Sermon
William G. Carter
The door slammed. There was a rush upstairs. The man looked at the clock; it was time for his daughter to be home from school. Fourth grade was not going very well, and from the sound of the slam of the door, it had not improved. He went up to her room and asked about her day. “It was awful,” she said, and then she filled in the details. When she unzipped her backpack at school, her homework was ...
Sermon
Theodore F. Schneider
Appropriately Impressed! They were impressed! Mark's gospel quotes the comment Jesus overhead in the opening of today's lesson: "Look Teacher, what large stones and what large buildings!" The contemporary Roman/Jewish historian Josephus writes that the temple "appeared from a distance like a snow-clad mountain, for all that was not overlaid with gold was of purest white." This temple built by Her...
Sermon
James Garrett
Today is the start of the season of Advent. A season of anticipation. A season of hope and waiting. It is a time of preparation for the coming of Jesus Christ. It has been said: “The extraordinary thing that is about to happen is matched only by the extraordinary moment just before it happens. Advent is the name of that moment.”1 Jesus shares with his disciples concerning his second coming. An ex...
Sermon
Charles H. Bayer
On clear summer nights my wife and I often stretch out on the deck of our Maine cabin scanning the skies for satellites. While it might be dark at ground level, neither satellites nor stars appear until the sky is black. The ancient Persians put it this way: "When it is dark enough you can see the stars." At the graveside of his brother, the agnostic Robert Ingersoll, said, "In the darkest night h...
Sermon
Larry R. Kalajainen
You may remember reading or hearing of the Korean Christian group who predicted that Christ was going to return on October 28, 1992, all Christians would be taken to heaven, and the rest of the world would enter the terrible catastrophes of the end times. Well, we're still here, and unless you count the presidential election which was held a month later as a terrible apocalyptic catastrophe, I don...
Sermon
Erskine White
Look up and raise your heads, because your redemption is drawing near. (Luke 21:28) A few years ago, a rather well-known preacher wrote a book called Shaping a Successful Life, and as is customary in the book business, his publisher arranged a series of interviews on radio and television as a way of promoting sales of the book. Now, amid everything he had written on being successful, he also inc...
Sermon
David E. Leininger
Hmmm. "Wars and insurrections, nation against nation, kingdom against kingdom, earthquakes, famines and plagues...arrests, persecution, some put to death...days of vengeance...great distress on the earth...People will faint from fear and foreboding..." Whoa! What season are we in? What about "Peace on earth and mercy mild?" Actually, BOTH images are at play this morning. Yes, Christmas is coming ...
Sermon
King Duncan
Just outside Knoxville, Tennessee, in the town of Alcoa there is a very unusual stone house called Millennium Manor. The house was built over a nine-year period from June 1937 to December 1946, by William Andrew Nicholson and his wife Fair. The Manor was built using Roman architecture. This was important because it was built to last a thousand years--thus the name Millennium Manor. The Nicholsons...
Sermon
Eric Ritz
She had every reason to be bitter. The circumstances of life had dealt a ton of harshness for her to handle. "Though talented, she went unrecognized for years. Prestigious opera circles closed their ranks when she tried to enter. American critics ignored her compelling voice. She was repeatedly rejected for parts for which she easily qualified. It was only after she went to Europe and won the hea...
Sermon
John P. Jewell
In his award winning book, The Education of Little Tree, writer Forest Carter writes of life with his Cherokee grandparents.  He tells of sitting with his grandfather watching the morning sun rise over a mountain one winter morning. "... we watched the mountain while we ate.  The sun hit the top like an explosion, sending showers of glitter and sparkle into the air.  The sparkling of the icy tree...
44. Head's Up!
Luke 21:5-38
Sermon
David E. Leininger
Wait a minute! Christmas is coming. What about Silent night, Holy night, All is calm, All is bright?" Instead we hear "...nations will be in anguish...the roaring and tossing of the sea...People will faint from terror, apprehensive of what is coming on the world...the heavenly bodies will be shaken." Ho, ho, ho! Where is Santa when we need him? So why in the world would the church choose a Gospel ...
45. Survival
Luke 21:5-19
Sermon
Will Willimon
365 Days a year you can see them, tourists from all over the nation, all over the world, come to admire the beauty of this place. Why do you think that so many thousands come to see this Chapel? I'll tell you what I think. In a world of disposable diapers, non­returnable soft-drink bottles, throw away cartons, bio-degradable shopping bags, and plastic everything, it is good to encounter something ...
Sermon
R. Robert Cueni
Cindy and Don, a daughter and father, were dining in a restaurant in Nairobi, Kenya. Cindy, a recent college graduate, had committed a year to teaching in a developing country before settling down to make the "big bucks" as a public school teacher in the United States. She had been in Kenya long enough to begin acclimating to some of the cultural differences. Don, on the other hand, was in the fir...
47. The Bedrock of Faith
Mark 13:1-8 · Luke 21:5-19
Sermon
Brett Blair
Have you ever tried to make a prediction? Here are some predictions from the past. All from people who were trusted individuals: Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, in 1943 said, "I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Popular Mechanics magazine in 1949 made this prediction: "Where a calculator on the ENIAC is equipped with 18,000 vacuum tubes and weighs 30 tons, computers in the...
Sermon
Brett Blair
A.J. Gordon was the great Baptist pastor of the Clarendon Church in Boston, Massachusetts. One day he met a young boy in front of the sanctuary carrying a rusty cage in which several birds fluttered nervously. Gordon inquired, "Son, where did you get those birds?" The boy replied, "I trapped them out in the field." "What are you going to do with them?" "I'm going to play with them, and then I gues...
Sermon
Lori Wagner
What’s your RP? That is the prime question as we get ready for Advent. In other words: “Are you ready?” RP is the abbreviation for “Readiness Potential,” a term in cognitive science which technically stands for your brain’s potential readiness which precedes volitional action, the brain signal linked to voluntary movement, your awareness or readiness that occurs before conscious intention. Sounds...
Sermon
King Duncan
Let me see your hand if you are you a fan of disaster movies. [Well, somebody must be.] Disaster movies tend to do well at the box office, whether they feature frightened people battling floods or volcanos or Godzilla or zombies invading major cities. Speaking of zombies, there is a company in London called Vollebak that manufactures what they call an “Apocalypse Jacket.” The Apocalypse generally...
Showing 26 to 50 of 53 results