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Glorifying God in difficult times

Commentary
Fifth Sunday in Lent - B
Jeremiah 31:31-34
Hebrews 5:5-10
John 12:20-33
David Coffin
Today’s texts afford the preacher an opportunity to identify which difficult times people in our congregation face, even after the Holy Week and Easter Sunday is past on the calendar. The shadow of the cross still casts its darkness in the lives of many people of faith, even though the liturgical calendar says it is “Easter” season. Today’s texts address three concrete situations that people might face in their lives. Jeremiah speaks to those who have seen the foundations and constants of their world collapse beneath them.
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New & Featured This Week

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John Jamison
Again he said, “What shall we say the kingdom of God is like, or what parable shall we use to describe it? It is like a mustard seed, which is the smallest of all seeds on earth. Yet when planted, it grows and becomes the largest of all garden plants, with such big branches that the birds can perch in its shade.” (vv. 30-32)

The Immediate Word

Bethany Peerbolte
Thomas Willadsen
Mary Austin
Dean Feldmeyer
Chris Keating
George Reed
For June 13, 2021:
  • The Image of God by Bethany Peerbolte — Pride at its core is a time for people to cry out to God about the oppression and pain they have suffered. They have the right to hear God respond with powerful rescue.
  • Second Thoughts: Uprooting Evil by Tom Willadsen — Our culture continues to reap a harvest of racism. How can we uproot it? What can we transplant in its place?

Emphasis Preaching Journal

David Kalas
The old aphorism claims that “seeing is believing.”  Doubting Thomas might agree. And so, too, would the present culture, which seems increasingly to prefer the physical over the metaphysical. We believe what we can see, but we are skeptical of what we cannot. 
Mark Ellingsen
Frank Ramirez
Bill Thomas
Bonnie Bates
1 Samuel 15:3--16:13

StoryShare

Frank Ramirez
John E. Sumwalt
Contents
“A Person’s A Person” by Frank Ramirez
“Aaron Was A Great Baseball Player Too” by John Sumwalt


A Person’s A Person
by Frank Ramirez
Mark 4:26-34

He did not speak to them except in parables, but he explained everything in private to his disciples. (Mark 4:34)

SermonStudio

Stephen P. McCutchan
1 Samuel 15:34--16:13
Do not look on his appearance or on the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for the Lord does not see as mortals see; they look on the outward appearance, but the Lord looks on the heart.
-- 1 Samuel 16:7

Gregory L. Tolle
It is good to give thanks to the Lord, to sing praises to your name, O Most High; to declare your steadfast love in the morning, and your faithfulness by night, to the music of the lute and the harp, to the melody of the lyre. For you, O Lord, have made me glad by your work; at the works of your hands I sing for joy. (vv. 1-4)

Nibs Stroupe
I've got a home in that kingdom -- ain't that good news.
I've got a home in that kingdom -- ain't that good news.
I'm gonna lay down this world, I'm gonna shoulder up my cross,
I'm gonna take it home to my Jesus, ain't that good news.1

Richard E. Zajac
"... It is like mustard seed ... the smallest of all the earth's seeds ... yet ... springs up to become the largest of shrubs ..."

A mustard seed yields power in different ways.

We are all, I believe, familiar with the story of the Titanic. An unsinkable ship on its maiden voyage strikes an iceberg. The ship goes down, over a thousand people die. It's an amazing story, which is why it's been told not only on the silver screen and on Broadway, but in countless books as well.

Stan Purdum
It seems to me that the so-called "reality" television shows that have proliferated on the airwaves recently have introduced some new lows in the quality of broadcasting, and one of the more unwholesome -- and dare I say even ungodly -- notions they have reinforced is that what you look like is a measure of your value as a person.

Two shows in particular promote this view: Extreme Makeover and Average Joe.

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