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The Immediate Word

TIW Contributors

George Reed
Mary Austin
Dean Feldmeyer
Chris Keating
Tom Willadsen
Bethany Peerbolte
Katy Stenta
Quantisha Mason-Doll
Proper 26 | Ordinary Time 31 - B
Dean Feldmeyer
Christopher Keating
Thomas Willadsen
Mary Austin
George Reed
Katy Stenta

For October 31, 2021:



What is The Immediate Word?

The Immediate Word gives a theological perspective on today's headlines and popular culture for your sermon, children’s sermon, and worship service. The Immediate Word gives a theological perspective on today's headlines and popular culture.

Cutting Edge: THE IMMEDIATE WORD gives you the tools to be cutting edge ... to put you in touch with today's most critical issues and to aid you in crafting messages and presentations that will truly help your congregants understand the Gospel in the context of what is current and most important to them.

Collaborative: THE IMMEDIATE WORD is a unique collaboration of some of the sharpest, most contemporary clergy of our day in an Internet-based service that gives you weekly information, inspiration, and presentation materials for your sermon, children’s sermon, and worship service.

Enabling: THE IMMEDIATE WORD will enable you to create high-impact sermons, children’s sermons, sermon outlines, worship services and compose pastoral prayers that help people pray with you, write compelling pastoral columns for your newsletter, arm your Sunday school teachers with meaningful, up-to-the-minute discussion sermon material, speak more constructively during the "Concerns of the Church" portion of your sermon, children's sermon and worship service about matters that worry your parishioners, advertise timely discussion topics to draw people into your church, and more.

Interactive: THE IMMEDIATE WORD is a dynamic, interactive process. First, among the team of clergy that creates it every week. Secondly, with you: you can personally participate in the creation process by providing your input and reactions to the input of others on new sermons, children’s sermons, sermon outlines and worship resources.

Timely: THE IMMEDIATE WORD sends participants the topic of the week on Friday and the final product on Tuesday afternoon, giving you time to digest the sermon and worship service materials and then incorporate them into your preparations for the coming Sunday service to deliver high-impact sermons and worship services.

Satisfaction Guaranteed: THE IMMEDIATE WORD is not only guaranteed to satisfy you, we believe it will actually energize your ministry. We are so confident that you will find THE IMMEDIATE WORD to be such a great value that if you are not completely satisfied with the service we will refund the balance of your subscription payment, no questions asked.
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Recent TIW Installments

Proper 26 | Ordinary Time 31 - B
Are We There, Yet?
Proper 25 | Ordinary Time 30 - B
Vision Check
Proper 24 | Ordinary Time 29 - B
Not Suffering Alone
Proper 23 | Ordinary Time 28 - B
When You Say Sell Everything, Do You Mean Everything?
Proper 22 | Ordinary Time 27 - B
The Kingdom of God Goes to School

New & Featured This Week

StoryShare

Frank Ramirez
John E. Sumwalt
Contents
“This Will Make A Great Shot!” by Frank Ramirez
“A Modern Lazarus” by John Sumwalt

This Will Make A Great Shot!
by Frank Ramirez
Psalm 24

Who shall ascend the hill of the Lord? And who shall stand in his holy place? Those who have clean hands and pure hearts, who do not lift up their souls to what is false, and do not swear deceitfully. (vv. 3-4)

Emphasis Preaching Journal

Bill Thomas
Frank Ramirez
Bonnie Bates
Mark Ellingsen
Isaiah 25:6-9
Mark Ellingsen
Ruth 1:1-18
Bonnie Bates
Bill Thomas
Mark Ellingsen
Frank Ramirez
Ruth 1:1-18

SermonStudio

Steven Molin
Mary and Martha; remember them? They are the sisters who were hosting Jesus for dinner one evening, except that Martha did all the work, and Mary sat at Jesus' feet for the Bible study. And when Martha complains to Jesus about it, Jesus corrects her! "Martha, Martha, you worry about so many things, but just one thing is necessary ... and Mary chose it." Ouch!

Lee Ann Dunlap
On U.S. Route 40 just west of New Concord, Ohio, stands an S-shaped bridge spanning a creek on the old National Road. Standing uphill from that bridge a traveler can simultaneously observe five historic transportation links that helped to build a nation:

• The original trail blazed by Ebenezer Zane, also known as "Zane's Trace."

• The brick roadbed of the old "National Road" that followed.

• The train tracks of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, which nearly made that early highway obsolete.

Richard E. Zajac
... love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength...

In an interesting twist, the talk was well received by some patients, not so much because of the point, but because my opening comments helped alleviate fears in regard to their bizarre mental behavior. They hadn't realized that what they experienced was not far from the "norm" when it comes to surgery.

__________
H. Alan Stewart
"Trouble comes in threes," so many people say. Every time something goes wrong, those people expectantly look for numbers two and three to hit them, full force, taking a huge sigh of relief after number three. "Pessimists" we sometimes call them.

In our story, Naomi and Elimelech experience a famine in their homeland Judah. The couple goes to Moab, a neighboring country east of the Dead Sea, with their two sons, Mahlon and Chilion. Elimelech dies in Moab. The two sons each marry Moabite women, Orpah and our heroine, Ruth, and then the two sons both die.

CSSPlus

John Jamison
When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.

“Come and see, Lord,” they replied. (vv.32-34)

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today, okay? (Let them respond.) Great!
John Jamison
One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” (v. 28)

Hello, everyone! (Let them respond.) I have another story for you today, are you ready? (Let them respond.) Great!

The Immediate Word

Dean Feldmeyer
Christopher Keating
Thomas Willadsen
Mary Austin
George Reed
Katy Stenta
For October 31, 2021:
  • Are We There, Yet? by Dean Feldmeyer — Jesus tells the scribe that he is “not far from the kingdom of God.” But is that good news or bad news? And how far is “not far?”
  • Second Thoughts: Ruth’s Radical Reformation by Chris Keating — Ruth breaks the norms by redefining family similar to the changing patterns of many American families today.

The Village Shepherd

Janice B. Scott
In any daily newspaper there are always catalogues of horrific events perpetrated by human beings on other human beings, and it seems to be getting worse. There doesn't seem to be much respect for law and order, and even those who once would have been ashamed to be involved in any questionable activity, now seem to work under the premiss that if they don't get caught, it's all right.

Some of the horrors are inflicted on the body; rape, assault, grievous bodily harm, murder. But other horrors are perpetrated on the

Special Occasion