Stories | Genesis 9 | Stone Drunk And Naked | SermonSuite

Passion Sunday
March 29 Maundy Thursday
April 2 Good Friday
April 3 Matthew 26:14--27:66
March 29 Philippians 2:5-11
March 29 Isaiah 50:4-9a
March 29 Psalm 31:9-16
March 29

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SermonStudio

Stone Drunk And Naked

Stories

Seldom-Told Bible Tales

Fifteen Eye-Opening Stories from the Bible

The gallon wine jug was lying uncorked, on its side, drained dry by the bleary-eyed sailor stretched out on the warm ground nearby. He twitched and moaned faintly, making erratic designs in the dirt with his toes and fingers. A dozen desert flies swarmed about the empty jug and the inebriated victim, sprawled in his foggy, limp condition.

Read more about Stone Drunk And Naked

New & Featured This Week

The Immediate Word

Rethinking Kingship, Power, and Faith

Nazish Naseem
Dean Feldmeyer
Thomas Willadsen
Katy Stenta
Christopher Keating
Mary Austin
George Reed

For March 29, 2026:

Rethinking Kingship, Power, and Faith by Nazish Naseem based on Matthew 21:1-11.
Second Thoughts: From Cheers to Jeers by Dean Feldmeyer. That great, grinding, rumbling sound you heard was not another asteroid burning up in the atmosphere over Cleveland.

Emphasis Preaching Journal

The Work Of Salvation

Sandra Herrmann

The work of salvation is embodied in the crucifixion and death of Jesus. That, all Christians are agreed upon. But how does that work? Jesus is obedient to God, undergoing torture and a horrible death, naked and in public view. Unless someone will come forward and claim the body after the crucifixion is over, it will be disposed of like garbage, literally: it will be thrown in the garbage pit outside of Jerusalem and slaked with lime to hold down the smell of the decaying flesh and hurry the process of tissue breakdown.

The servant king

Perhaps we lose the punch of the imagery of "servant" in the Bible when we in our day view on cable television a movie like Remains of the Day. Watching the ever meticulous and loyal Anthony Hopkins prepare a table for dinner in a British palatial estate enables us to see what the ideal servant should do, how he should dress and act and talk, and how he should close his ears to whatever conversation takes place between host and guest.

Passionate about the passion

R. Craig Maccreary

I suspect that most preachers will not be looking for ways to dive headlong into lifting up the passion as the centerpiece of their homiletical offering for this Sunday. No doubt there are good reasons to avoid wandering off the usual beaten path of the Palm Sunday parade: the palms, on order for a year, beckon to be taken home and folded into family Bibles as bookmarks; the children wait to have the promise fulfilled that they will be able to act up a bit in the parade of palms with a passion that is not usually permitted; and the choir has practiced for months.

The Village Shepherd

The Braying Of A Donkey

Janice B. Scott

Call to Worship:
When Jesus died, the centurion who crucified him said, "Truly this man was God's Son!" Let us worship God's Son in all our activities today.

Invitation to Confession:
Jesus, forgive us when we fail to recognise you in other people.
Lord, have mercy.
Jesus, forgive us when we let ourselves down.
Christ, have mercy.
Jesus, forgive us for all those occasions when we crucify you afresh.
Lord, have mercy.

Reading:

StoryShare

Upwards Motion

Bryan Meadows
David O. Bales

Contents
What's Up This Week
"Upwards Motion" by Bryan Meadows
"Is It Truth?" by David Bales

What's Up This Week

In The Arms Of Love

Judy Sepsey
David O. Bales

Contents
"In the Arms of Love" by Judy Sepsey
"Mother of Judas" by David O. Bales

* * * * * * * *

Introducing Judy Sepsey

SermonStudio

Remembering Jesus

David O. Bales

The novel The Ugly American is based upon facts of how Americans related to people in Southeast Asia. The insensitivity and arrogance of American government officials was generally depressing. One chapter of the novel, however, is particularly inspiring. An American woman, Emma Atkins, has come with her engineer husband to the fictional nation of Sarkhan. Emma is a curious, good-hearted person and she soon notices that in their small village all the older people are permanently bent over.

A Salvation Army Parade

Lee Griess

Different churches celebrate Palm Sunday in different ways. At one church in Chicago, there is a tradition for worshipers to gather outside the church. Palm branches are distributed, and when the time comes, another group of worshipers emerge from the front doors playing instruments and together they march around the block, singing the songs of Palm Sunday. One year as the procession made its way around the block of the church building, a young man living in an apartment across the street, threw open the window and in his pajamas shouted, "What's all this noise?

God Works Through Opposites

Mark Ellingsen

God simply does not seem to do the sort of things we would expect our God to do. He does not always give us what we want. Most of us do not have everything we had hoped and dreamed for in life. He does not always answer our prayers. After all, we have all lost loved ones.

Slaving After Freedom

Robert J. Elder

Preachers often wonder what to do with Palm Sunday. Frequently the day is given to a celebration of Jesus' triumphal procession into Jerusalem.

Sometimes, though, worship provides a different offering, given the alternate title of Passion Sunday, leaving behind the pomp and celebration of Palm Sunday for a hard look at the events of the coming week, the last supper, the betrayal, the crucifixion, the burial in the tomb. It is because we know about the passion that is coming that preachers always wonder what to do with the happy celebration of Palm Sunday.

The Cry Of The Vacant Heart

Albert G. Butzer, III

One of the harsh realities of the life of faith is feeling abandoned by God. Sooner or later most of us will experience what college chaplain Will Willimon once called "vacant places of the heart when God seems far away, remote."1 We often hear people say, "I come to church to celebrate the presence of God in my life," which is true for many people much of the time. But if we listen carefully we will hear others say:

I come to church to try to find what's missing in my life.
I come hoping that Someone will shed some light on my darkness.

Dark Ugly Clouds

Bill Mosley

Things are hardly ever the way they appear and certainly not on Calvary's hill. The Passion story from Luke makes the turning tables graphically clear. The king is crucified. The court of law is not legal. Justice is not done. Even the Roman governor can find no crime in this man. The evidence is compromised. Everything points the other way. So why does Jesus have to die?

Sunday Of The Passion (Sixth Sunday In Lent)

Dallas A. Brauninger

First Lesson: Isaiah 50:4-9a
Theme: Like Flint

Call To Worship

He, who could tenderly sustain the weary with a word, was about to be clobbered. He knew it. He did not run. He faced it. He turned his own other cheek.

Collect

We stand together with you, O Parent of Jesus, through the unholy events of this holy week. We stand with you as you wait with your own face set like flint as you hear him cry out to you on the cross.

Prayer Of Confession

Sunday Of The Passion

Beverly S. Bailey

Hymns
At The Name Of Jesus (PH148, UM168, CBH342)
All Hail The Power Of Jesus' Name (PH142, 143, CBH106, NCH304)
He Is Lord (UM177)
Blessed Be The Tie That Binds (CBH421)
Go To Dark Gethsemane (PH97, CBH240)
He Never Said A Mumblin' Word (PH85)
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna (UM27, PH89, NCH213)
Mantos y Palmas/Filled With Excitement (UM279, NCH214)
All Glory, Laud, And Honor (PH90, NCH216)

Anthems
Hosanna, Loud Hosanna, Kenyon, Agape, handbells

CSSPlus

Going down! Going up!

Good morning, boys and girls. Everyone here this morning has taken an elevator ride before, right? (Let them answer.) Have you ever gotten on an elevator that was going down, (point down) and you wanted to go up, (point up) so you went down (point down) to go up (point up)? That's what we are going to do this morning. Only our elevator is an imaginary one.

King Jesus

Good morning! Today I brought a sign with me. Can someone tell me what it says? (Have one of the older children read it.) Now why do you think I brought this with me this morning? (Let them answer.) I brought this with me because it is very similar to the sign they put on Jesus' cross. (Here you can recap the Passion Sunday reading.)

Submission

Good morning! I brought two pictures to show you today. Here is a picture of Jesus having a dinner with his friends (show the picture), and here is one of Jesus suffering on the cross (show the picture). Now, if you were Jesus, which of these two things would you rather be doing? (Let them answer.) Yes, of course. If any of us were given that choice, we would rather be doing anything other than suffering on a cross. In fact, I doubt that there is anything that would convince one of us to allow ourselves to be crucified, but that's exactly what Jesus did.

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