Sermon and Worship Resources

[While King Duncan is enjoying a well deserved retirement we are going back to his earliest sermons and renewing them. The newly modernized sermon is shown first and below, for reference sake, is the old sermon. We will continue this updating throughout the year bringing fresh takes on King's best sermons.]

Original Title: He Touched Me
New Title: A Little of That Human Touch

Liz O’Dwyer, a mother of two, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2016. She underwent chemotherapy and a double mastectomy, but the cancer returned and spread to her bones. She was given a terminal diagnosis and was told she had only a few months to live.

One day, Liz was feeling particularly low and decided to go for a walk. She came across a group of people who were giving out free hugs. Liz was hesitant at first, but then decided to approach them. She was embraced by a stranger who held her for a long time. The hug was so comforting that Liz broke down in tears.

The stranger turned out to be Juan Mann, the founder of the Free Hugs Campaign. You can see a video about him on YouTube that has over 78 million views. Juan had started the campaign in 2004 after he had returned to Australia from London, where he had been living. I’ll get back to Liz in a moment but how did this guy Juan end up on the streets giving out free hugs.

This is how it happened. His life was falling apart. His parents were divorcing, and his fiancée broke off their engagement. He quit his degree in anthropology in London and moved back to his native Australia, in a remote area away from all people. A friend of his tracked him down and dragged him to a party. At the party, a complete stranger walked up to Mann and hugged him, and for that brief moment, Juan Mann didn't feel down about himself. That embrace made Juan Mann realize something: the power of a simple hug. So, he made a sign, went out on the Sydney streets, and started giving out free hugs. The Free Hugs Campaign was born and it quickly went viral and spread all over the world.

Now what about Liz? Liz and Juan became friends and stayed in touch until Liz passed away in 2017. Juan was devastated by her death, but he was grateful that he had been able to give her a moment of comfort during her difficult time.

Their story reminds us of the power of human connection and the importance of reaching out to others in times of need. Sometimes, all it takes is a simple hug to make a difference in someone’s life.

Can you think of a time when you needed a hug?

A man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Notice what Jesus did. Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched him. Do you know how remarkable this simple act was? If not, you need to know that no one touched people with leprosy.

For one thing, the Hebrew law required that no one touch a leper. They were ritually unclean. Secondly, leprosy is a loathsome disease in which the skin putrefies on the body. Who wants to touch someone in such a condition? So, this man may have gone for many years without the simplest human contact. Think about that, years without a touch. Every one of us needs physical, human touching.

Experts tell us that infants need to be held a lot. You know who those experts are? Mothers. The moms here can talk about that basic need for physical warmth. I believe you cannot spoil an infant by touching them.

When Marcel Gerber was sent by a United Nations committee to study the effects of protein deficiency on Ugandan children, she found, to her surprise, the opposite of what she was expecting. Uganda infants were developmentally the most advanced in the world. It was only after two years of age that the children began to be seriously damaged by such things as tribal taboos and food shortages. Why were they so healthy? It seems that Ugandan infants are almost constantly held by their mothers and mother surrogates. They go everywhere with their mothers. The physical contact with the mother and the constant movement seemed to be the factors that propelled these infants to maturity beyond Western standards. (1)

Many young parents today understand this principle and make it a practice to massage their infants. That’s a wise practice. We all have a need to be touched. Studies have shown that touching has physiological benefits--even for adults. One researcher made numerous studies on the effects of the practice many Christians recognize call “laying on of hands.” She discovered that when one person lays hands on another, the hemoglobin levels in the bloodstreams of both people go up, which means that body tissues receive more oxygen, producing more energy and even regenerative power. (2)

Jesus could have healed this man with leprosy simply by speaking to him, but he reached out and touched him. He may have known that this was exactly what this man needed.

This is a spiritual principle we need to recognize and understand: Christ gives us individually what we really need. This man needed to be touched. Jesus dealt with other people in other ways. Remember the blind man upon whose eyes Jesus applied the moist clay. Others received what they needed by the spoken word. To a paralyzed man, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Some theologians suggest that this man’s paralysis may have resulted from a sinful lifestyle. Maybe he needed to have those sins forgiven before he could be fully restored to wholeness. Grace is communicated to different people in different ways.

That’s true in our worship services. Some of you are especially moved by the music. Others are moved simply by the beauty and the reverence of this room. Some of you are moved by a reassuring handshake or hug. Some of you by the times of prayer. For others of you, it is the sacrament, the Lord’s Supper. Touching the bread and the cup speak more eloquently to your heart than anything I could ever say. And for one or two of you, perhaps it could even be the sermon that you need. Christ ministers to each of us in our own way.

There is a delightful story of two traveling angels who stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room. Instead, the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, after the rude reception they received, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night’s rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angel found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field. The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel, “How could you have let this happen! The first man had everything, yet you helped him. The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let their cow die.”

“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall and erased his memory of its existence. Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I told him to take the cow instead.”

What a great story! Things are not always what they seem. To the world’s eyes life is patently unfair. Good people suffer; horrendous people go through life unscathed. But through the eyes of faith, we say confidently that God grants to each what he or she needs. This world is not the final commentary on God’s will or God’s purpose. There is an unseen hand at work in our lives. And somehow, when the final tally is made, life works out.

This man needed Jesus’ touch and that is exactly what Jesus gave him. This brings us to a second spiritual principle: Christ is willing to meet our every need. The man with leprosy came to Jesus and begged him on his knees, “If you are willing, you can make me clean.” Filled with compassion, Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!”

Those are powerful words, “I am willing.” Christ is willing to heal our every hurt. Christ is willing to take away every sin. Christ is willing to grant us new life, if only we ask. “I am willing.”

Perhaps you read the gripping story of Alicia Sferrino. Alicia was just twenty years old when she was diagnosed with severe kidney failure. Although dialysis would help for a while, doctors made it clear to Alicia’s family that she would die without a kidney transplant from someone close to her who shared the same genetic profile. Like any loving parents, Deanne and Vincent Sferrino would have gladly given a vital organ to save their precious daughter. But they couldn’t. You see, Alicia was adopted, and they had no idea who her real parents were.

So began an arduous search to connect with Alicia’s birth mother. All they had was her name, Ruth Chiasson, and the state in which she gave birth. After making extensive telephone calls to this town, they learned that Ruth had married, and now her last name was Foisy. But they couldn’t find a Foisy anywhere. Finally, Deanne and Vincent tracked down the priest who had married Ruth and her husband. He agreed to send her a letter from the Sferrino’s.

When Ruth Foisy first opened the Sferrino’s letter, she was stunned. At seventeen, she had become pregnant and gave birth to a baby girl. Her parents pressured her to give the baby away. Ruth had never gotten over the heartbreak and guilt of that act, and for twenty years she had burned a candle on the date of Alicia’s birth. Now, the child she had given life to needed her to give that gift a second time. Ruth knew what she would do.

It wasn’t easy to gather her children around and tell them that they had a half-sister they never knew. It wasn’t easy to relive the story of giving away her baby for adoption. But when she was finished, Ruth’s children rallied around her. They would support her all the way.

Ruth went through with the donation, which extended her life 20 years and allowed her to marry and have her own daughter. In a time of physical and emotional crisis, these two women gave each other a special gift. Ruth gave Alicia life; Alicia gave Ruth the forgiveness she sought for so long. (3)

It’s a story of grace. Let me ask you, if a woman who gave up her baby as a teenager is willing to sacrifice her own security and safety to rescue the daughter that she once gave up, how much more willing is the God whose name and whose nature is love willing to give up His life for His children? Christ is willing to do for us everything we truly need. Notice that I did not say, “everything we want.” God works according to our individual NEEDS. What we want may not, in the long run of things, be what we really need. God is willing to give us everything we need.

And this brings us to spiritual principle number three: Our greatest need is the ability to trust God in all things. “I am willing,” Jesus said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left the man and he was cured.

Christ can do that. Christ can cleanse us and make us whole.

Dawn Weiss’ life was falling apart. Dawn, a recovering alcoholic, moved to Tennessee after the California earthquake of 1994. She got a job as a waitress and enrolled in school. But Dawn had never confronted the stress of an earthquake, of moving, of leaving loved ones. One night, she felt ready to give up. She prayed for help, but didn’t feel any better. That night, Dawn decided that after work she would go out drinking.

When Dawn got to work, she noticed that every single customer in the restaurant was wearing a button that read, “I am a friend of Bill W.” Bill W. is the founder of Alcoholics Anonymous, and this slogan helps AA members discreetly recognize one another. To Dawn’s surprise, there was a huge Alcoholics Anonymous convention in town that weekend. All the customers at her restaurant that night were attending it. After Dawn revealed her own struggle with addiction, a group of customers offered to stay with her all night and protect her from drinking. Dawn had prayed for help, and God sent her a whole convention of people who understood her problem. (4)

Christ can do that. Christ can cleanse us and make us whole. Medical science was completely unable to treat leprosy when Jesus healed this man. There was no known treatment or medicine that could possibly restore his body, make him “clean” again, revive feeling in his deadened limbs. Only Christ’s power could do that. In the same way, many of us have lost faith in God’s power and purpose in our lives. We, too, are spiritually dead, we have no feeling of purpose in life, yet Christ can cleanse and restore us, giving us not just life, but abundant life.

Notice that when the man with leprosy first came to Jesus he fell on his face in front of Jesus, an act of reverence that was only afforded to a king.

He was acknowledging Jesus’ kingship over life. That is the greatest need many of us have. We think other needs are more pressing--but they will fall in place if we acknowledge this, our greatest need. Our greatest need is the ability to trust God in all things. Our greatest need is to make Christ King of our lives.

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1. Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 1995), pp. 12-13.

2. John Bradshaw, Creating Love (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), pp. 205-206.

3. Michael Bowker, “A Second Gift of Life,” Reader’s Digest, April 1997, pp. 109-113.

4. Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, Small Miracles II (Holbrook, MA: Adams Media Corp., 1998), pp. 206ff.

[ORIGINAL SERMON]

Dr. Morris Weigelt went through a time of deep depression in his life. He particularly hit a low spot one night in the hospital when, as he put it, “all of his insecurities and depression came upon him.” Weigelt got out of bed and walked the halls looking for someone awake and willing to give him a hug. With a great deal of pathos and humor, he concluded that all he could find was a huge, burly security guard. “Sir,” he said, “Would you give me a hug?”

“I sure will!” the security guard responded. Dr. Weigelt indicated that he found comfort and encouragement from the touch of the big burly security guard. He returned to his room and slept peacefully. (1)

Have you ever needed someone to give you a hug?

For one thing, the Hebrew law required that no one touch a leper. They were ritually unclean. Secondly, leprosy is a loathsome disease in which the skin putrefies on the body. Who wants to touch someone in such a condition? So this man may have gone for many years without the simplest human contact. Think about that, years without a touch. Every one of us needs physical, human touching.

Studies show that babies who are not touched may die. Experts tell us that infants need to be held a lot. They have a basic need for physical warmth. Most authorities believe that you cannot spoil an infant by touching them.

Marcel Gerber was sent by a United Nations committee to study the effects of protein deficiency on Ugandan children. She found, to her surprise, that Uganda’s infants were developmentally the most advanced in the world. It was only after two years of age that the children began to be seriously damaged by such things as tribal taboos and food shortages. Why were they so healthy? It seems that Ugandan infants are almost constantly held by their mothers and mother surrogates. They go everywhere with their mothers. The physical contact with the mother and the constant movement seemed to be the factors that propelled these infants to maturity beyond Western standards. (2)

Jesus could have healed this man with leprosy simply by speaking to him, but he reached out and touched him too. He may have known that this was exactly what this man needed.

This is a spiritual principle we need to recognize and understand: Christ gives us individually what we really need. This man needed to be touched. Jesus dealt with other people in other ways. Remember the blind man upon whose eyes Jesus applied the moist clay. Others received what they needed by the spoken word. To a paralyzed man, Jesus said, “Your sins are forgiven.” Some theologians suggest that this man’s paralysis may have resulted from a sinful lifestyle. Maybe he needed to have those sins forgiven before he could be fully restored to wholeness. Grace is communicated to different people in different ways.

There is a delightful story of two traveling angels who stopped to spend the night in the home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and refused to let the angels stay in the mansion’s guest room. Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement. As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied, “Things aren’t always what they seem.”

“Things aren’t always what they seem,” the older angel replied. “When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune, I sealed the wall so he wouldn’t find it. Then last night as we slept in the farmer’s bed, the angel of death came for his wife. I told him to take the cow instead.”

When Ruth Foisy first opened the Sferrino’s letter, she was stunned. At seventeen, she had become pregnant and given birth to a baby girl. Her parents pressured her to give the baby away. Ruth had never gotten over the heartbreak and guilt of that act, and for twenty years she had burned a candle on the date of Alicia’s birth. Now, the child she had given life to needed her to give that gift a second time. Ruth knew what she would do.

Ruth went through with the donation, and today both women are doing well. Alicia Sferrino is healthy, her new kidney functioning fine. She is married now, and the mother of a baby daughter herself. In a time of physical and emotional crisis, these two women gave each other a special gift. Ruth gave Alicia life; Alicia gave Ruth the forgiveness she sought for so long. (4)

Here is a story of grace. Let me ask you, if a woman who gave up her baby as a teenager is willing to sacrifice her own security and safety to rescue the daughter that she once gave up, how much more willing is the God whose name and whose nature is love willing to give up His life for His children? Christ is willing to do for us everything we truly need. Notice that I did not say, “everything we want.” Go back to principle 1. God works according to our individual NEEDS. What we want may not, in the long run of things, be what we really need. God is willing to give us everything we need.

Christ can do that. Christ can cleanse us and make us whole.

Notice that when the man with leprosy first came to Jesus he fell on his face in front of Jesus, an act of reverence that was only afforded to a king.

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1. Stan Toler, God Has Never Failed Me, But He Sure Has Scared Me To . . . (Tulsa: Honor Books, 1995).

2. Michael B. Brown, Be All That You Can Be (Lima, Ohio: CSS Publishing Company, Inc., 1995), pp. 12-13.

3. John Bradshaw, Creating Love (New York: Bantam Books, 1992), pp. 205-206.

4. Michael Bowker, “A Second Gift of Life,” Reader’s Digest, April 1997, pp. 109-113.

5. Yitta Halberstam and Judith Leventhal, Small Miracles II (Holbrook, MA: Adams Media Corp., 1998), pp. 206ff.

Dynamic Preaching, Collected Sermons, by King Duncan