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Illustration
Passion Sunday - A
Isaiah 50:4-9a
Leah Thompson
Knowledge is a great honor and a great responsibility. Whether we are learning or teaching, we expose ourselves to disagreement, dissent, disgust. As teachers, our students may refuse to listen to the things we tell them -- either because they don't want to learn or because they are frightened by the truths they hear. As students, we open ourselves to revelations that may change our perspective on the world -- and not always in a good way. For as much information that makes us happier in our world, we learn an equal amount that makes us nervous, uncomfortable, or distrustful of others.
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Proper 6 | OT 11 | Pentecost 3
25 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
22 – Children's Sermons / Resources
18 – Worship Resources
23 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
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Proper 7 | OT 12 | Pentecost 4
30 – Sermons
160+ – Illustrations / Stories
27 – Children's Sermons / Resources
25 – Worship Resources
27 – Commentary / Exegesis
4 – Pastor's Devotions
and more...
Proper 8 | OT 13 | Pentecost 5
30 – Sermons
150+ – Illustrations / Stories
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New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Thomas Willadsen
Dean Feldmeyer
Mary Austin
Christopher Keating
Katy Stenta
George Reed
Quantisha Mason-Doll
For June 20, 2021:
  • Underdog? by Tom Willadsen — It’s a more satisfying story if we don’t consider what David brought to the fight, but the outcome was never really in doubt.
  • A Non-Anxious Presence by Dean Feldmeyer — An anxious world longs for non-anxious leaders to help us discover the solutions to our problems.

CSSPlus

John Jamison
That day when evening came, he said to his disciples, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd behind, they took him along, just as he was, in the boat. There were also other boats with him. A furious squall came up, and the waves broke over the boat, so that it was nearly swamped. Jesus was in the stern, sleeping on a cushion. The disciples woke him and said to him, “Teacher, don’t you care if we drown?”

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Frank Ramirez
Appearances are deceiving. Goliath looks unconquerable, and the young shepherd boy who says thanks but no thanks to the king’s armor, is pretty confident that five smooth stones will be enough to change the world.

So it is that the Apostle Paul reminds us we don’t see anyone from a human view anymore. We see them through God’s eyes.
Mark Ellingsen
Frank Ramirez
Bill Thomas
Bonnie Bates
1 Samuel 17: (1a, 4, 11, 19-23) 32-49
We like underdogs, which is why we like the story of David and Goliath. About David’s improbable victory John Wesley wrote:

Thus does God often do great things for His people by the weak things of the world. (Commentary On the Bible, p.189)   

The world needs Davids — people who take on the powerful and the social consensus even if it does not seem that they have a chance. The playwright George Bernard Shaw explained why the world needs such people like David:

StoryShare

Peter Andrew Smith
David O. Bales
Contents
“A David and Goliath Story” by Peter Andrew Smith
“Re-crossing Galilee Lake” by David O. Bales
“Seminar: Working Together In Him” by David O. Bales

A David and Goliath Story
by Peter Andrew Smith
1 Samuel 17:(1a, 4-11, 19-23), 32-49

Laura took some vegetables out of the bag to chop. “So, I hear you are in a bit of trouble at school.”

“Who told you that, Auntie?” Joan asked.

“Your mother. She wanted me to see if there is anything I could do.”

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
The first thing Jack saw when he walked into church on the Sunday morning was a bright red octopus. It seemed an odd animal to be in church, but Jack's heart lifted in anticipation, for with an octopus in the offing and a bright red one at that, surely the preacher would have an exciting talk this morning.

Of course it was only a paper octopus, but nonetheless it filled Jack's mind with thoughts of the sea and strange sea creatures and coral reefs and snorkelling and all those things you never usually thought about in church.

SermonStudio

Kristin Borsgard Wee
Just a short time ago, a young homemaker and mother sat in my office telling me how she was feeling about her life. She said she felt she was adrift in a tiny boat in the middle of a great and surging ocean. How she had gotten into that boat and where she was going was a mystery to her. All she could see were the huge waves towering over her frail, little boat, threatening at any moment to swamp it and sink it, to swallow her up forever.

Stan Purdum
The United Methodists came out with their most recent hymnbook in 1989. Three years before that, while the hymnal committee was deciding which hymns from the previous book would be included in the new one and which would be deleted, they concluded that "Onward Christian Soldiers" should be omitted. The committee voted to delete it, feeling that the hymn was overly militaristic and thus was inconsistent with the church's goal of eradicating war and establishing world peace. The announcement of this decision, however, made in mid-May 1986, launched a great brouhaha in the church.

Glenn W. Mcdonald
In the year 2000 Forbes Magazine featured a special edition on a single topic that it called "the biggest issue of our age -- time." The editors wrote, "We've beaten, or at least stymied, most of humanity's monsters: disease, climate, geography, and memory. But time still defeats us. Lately its victories seem more complete than ever. Those timesaving inventions of the last half-century have somehow turned on us. We now hold cell phone meetings in traffic jams, and 24-7 has become the most terrifying phrase in modern life."

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