Mark 11: 1-11 (links validated 2/28/24)

Illustrated New Resources

  • Palm Sunday of the Lord's Passion (B)(2024)

    by Tony Kadavil
    When the ‘Unsinkable” Titanic sank in the abyss of the Atlantic Ocean on April 15, 1912, 1517 people lost their lives. However, 705 people escaped death thanks to the radio communication established between the Titanic and the Carpathia. When the radio message was received by RMS Carpathia, a transatlantic passenger steamship, it raced at high speeds to pick up the survivors in lifeboats. When Carpathia arrived in New York, Marconi who had invented and introduced radio communication, was at the port to receive the survivors. When the survivors heard that Marconi was there, they sang his praises saying he was their ‘savior’ and they thronged to see him. – Roughly two thousand years ago, people sang the praises of Jesus in Jerusalem, and they thronged to see him when they found out he had come to save them from their sins and give them new life...
  • Serious Fun

    by Toby Lees, OP
    In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis has a wonderful little section on child’s play and how we’re all at it, adults included. He says that child’s play begins the moment we say ‘Our Father.’ When we pray the Our Father, we’re pretend-playing at being children of God...But we shouldn’t stop playing, he insists, just because we’re not very good at it, because playing is the way we get better at it. In a very real sense we have to start pretending to be sons and daughters of God in order to become sons and daughters of God...Reflecting further on child’s play, Lewis notices that most of the time children are playing they are playing at being grown-ups. And in their play he thinks they are developing a moral equivalent of muscle memory. In practising bravery in their war fantasy, in practising compassion and skill in their doctors and nurses game, they are learning a disposition which they will need to be truly brave or compassionate. Play is so very serious, as well as great fun, because the way we play affects who we become...

Other New Resources

Recommended Resources

{Based on requests from several members (although I am reluctant to do so since my favorites may not be those of others), I am listing here some of my own favorite resources. FWIW!!]
  • The Donkey

    Poem by G. K. Chesterton
  • Coming on a Clothes-Covered Colt

    by D. Mark Davis
    includes lots of Greek exegesis!
  • Jesus, Rain on My Parade

    by Andrew Prior
    (includes several quotes)
  • Illustrations, Quotes and Lectionary Reflections (Palm Sunday)(ABC)

    by Various Authors
    ("Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was When The Cheering Stopped. It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero. There was a great spirit of optimism abroad, and people actually believed that the last war had been fought..." and many more)
  • More Illustrations, Quotes and Illustrations (Palm Sunday)

    by Various Authors
    Corrie Ten Boom was a famous Christian whose testimony of suffering in Nazi concentration camps and God's grace through it all touched millions of lives. A few years ago, in a press conference following a ceremony in which Corrie Ten Boom was given an honorary degree, one of the reporters asked her if it was difficult remaining humble while hearing so much acclaim. She replied immediately, "Young man, when Jesus Christ rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday on the back of a donkey, and everyone was waving palm branches and throwing garments in the road and singing praises, do you think that for one moment it ever entered the head of that donkey that any of that was for him?" She continued, "If I can be the donkey on which Jesus Christ rides in his glory, I give him all the praise and all the honor."

Narrative Sermons

  • Untying the Colt

    Narrative Sermon by Larry Patten
    ("At Bethphage and Bethany, near the Mount of Olives, the Nazarene slowed his ground-consuming gait and then, abruptly, stopped. I expected he'd say something to Simon Peter, who'd matched him stride for stride, or perhaps to John, a half step behind. But he gazed at me. And the disciple beside me...")
  • Hosanna! Crucify Him!

    Narrative Sermon by Pamela Tinnin
    ("I was just a girl when it all began, but the events of those last days are as clear to me as this morning's first light. Aah, I had the best of childhoods—the only daughter of a Roman general...")
  • The Donkey Owner's Story

    Narrative Sermon by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
  • The Donkey Detail

    by Marek Zabriskie
  • The Street Sweeper

    Narrative Sermon by Tim Zingale

Illustrated Resources from 2018 to 2023

(In order to avoid losing your place on this page when viewing a different link, I would suggest that you right click on that link with your mouse and select “open in a new tab”. Then, when you have finished reading that link, close the tab and you will return to where you left off on this page. FWIW!)
  • Put Out the Red Carpet

    by Dave Delaney
    Even before television got involved, the Academy Awards ceremony, held around the first week in March each year, has been preceded by “the red carpet,” where arriving celebrities are greeted by fans and the press as they enter the theater. This has been going on at the Oscars since roughly 1922, although the tradition of putting out a red carpet as a sign of honoring dignitaries was common in medieval Europe and dates back possibly as far as 5th century BC Greece. In recent years, the Oscars red carpet has been a place where making political statements has been possible, either by wearing some kind of extra decoration – a ribbon or a badge – or by giving (or denying!) an interview to one of the countless media outlets there...
  • The Lord Has Need of It

    by Jim Eaton
    So now we come to our Palm Sunday and like the donkey’s owner, we also are told the Lord has need of what we have: what will we do? Are you grieving? the Lord has need of it; those who grieve shall be comforted, he says. So bring our grief—his hope is for you, shown to the world in you. bring him your grief Are you joyful? Can you see the Lord in your life, blessing you, showing you the beauty of creation, helping you to feel God close and present? The Lord has need of it: bring him your joy; Are you guilty? the Lord has need of it: he’s bringing a new covenant, where forgiveness is the gate to go into glory. The Lord has need of it: bring him your guilt. Are you doubtful? The Lord has need of your doubts: bring them to him. He never asked anyone to go beyond where their faith would take them. The Lord has need of it: bring your doubts. Are you hungry? the Lord has need of your hunger, because hungry people are ready to be fed. He’s already fed thousands and he means to nourish us as well, with the bread of life. The Lord has need of it: bring him your hunger...
  • Sermon Starters (Palm Sunday)(B)(2021)

    by Scott Hoezee
    Although I have no personal experience with this, I would imagine that people whose marriages crumbled and ended in an unhappy divorce sense a swirl of emotions each year on the date of that marriage’s wedding anniversary. Possibly some look back on that marriage on the anniversary day and feel relief. If it was a dangerous or psychologically wounding relationship, one can be properly grateful to have gotten out from under all that. Others may experience twinges of remorse, or even sorrow in case the end of the marriage had not been their idea. What I am fairly sure of, however, is that the anniversary of a defunct marriage would not be an occasion for nostalgia and certainly not something anyone would in any fashion celebrate. And that makes me wonder about our celebrations of Palm Sunday as though the occasion is supposed to be chipper and cheerful. There are so many conflicting angles to all this...
  • Sermon Starters (Palm Sunday)(B)(2018)

    by Scott Hoezee
    In John Grisham's novel The Firm, an exceptionally gifted young man fresh out of law school lands a dream job with one of the most respected law firms in the country. The partners in this firm greet him royally, wining and dining him, buying a house for him and his young wife, lavishing him with accolades and praise...
  • This Is Us!

    by Beth Johnston
    Have you been captivated by the show, “This Is Us”. I have! For those of you who don’t know it, this bitter-sweet show about the lives of the members of the Pearson family, starts in the present and the plot moves forward from Season 1 episode 1 and into the past from that point through flashbacks. The basic story is this: Rebecca and Jack, a white couple from Pittsburgh are expecting triplets, but sadly, one of their biological children is stillborn. An African American baby, born the same day, is is simply dropped off at a local fire-station. The little boy’s mom has died of a drug overdose and the father can’t cope. The Pearsons take this baby into their home and into their hearts. Each of the Pearson children have their own issues and these issues drive the story forward. Early on in the series, we realize that the father of this large family died when his children were teens but it is not until many episodes have passed that we finally find out how. During the flashbacks, there is this sense of uneasiness or tension every time something potentially risky takes place and we wonder ,”is this the day he dies?”...
  • Hosanna! Blessed is the One Who Comes in the Name of the Lord!

    by Janice Love
    I remember watching a video of a child survivor of the Holocaust, as an adult, touring the concentration camp she had been imprisoned in. She recalled her realization one day that it was the Sabbath. She tells of how she had begun to sing “Shalom Aleichem” (Peace be upon you), traditionally sung as the family gathers around the table on Friday night. She describes how other children came out of the woodwork to sing it with her, and how it gave them comfort and reminded them of who they truly were...
  • On the Verge of a Miracle

    by Jack Miller
    I have intense aversions to two things: snakes and heights. So it made perfect sense to me that I felt a call to go on a mission trip to Africa. God certainly has a sense of humor. See the place I went, Zimbabwe, has 17 different species of snakes – only 16 of which are poisonous. Zimbabwe also has Victoria Falls and the Zambezi River, one of the most breathtakingly spectacular places on the planet. It is also very high. I was faithful, though, and went where I felt called. By God’s grace I never saw a snake the entire time I was there. The heights were another thing altogether. Towards the end of our trip, our group went to Victoria Falls where we could spend a couple of days being tourists. One of the options available to us was bungee jumping off the bridge over the Zambezi between Zimbabwe and Zambia...
  • Hosanna in the Highest Heavens

    by Paul O'Reilly, SJ
    (One day,) I walked under the gates of Wimbledon Lawn Tennis club. You see, when they first built the place – a hundred and fifty-odd years ago – they knew a bit about victory and defeat. They knew that there are times in everybody’s life when we feel like Palm Sunday – exalted, exhilarated, the best there’s ever been – and everyone loves us. And they knew that there are also times in everyone’s life when we feel like Good Friday: beaten, destroyed, hopeless, killed, annihilated, wiped out – and nobody loves us. And they knew that sometimes both things can happen in the course of a single week. If you don’t believe me, just ask Andy Murray. And so, when they built the place, they wrote over the gates a line from Rudyard Kipling’s poem ‘If’: “If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster and treat those two impostors just the same...” It’s an important insight – because we do not always get what we expect or deserve in life. Just as in tennis, two people may play almost equally well, try equally hard, but one will meet with Triumph and the other with Disaster. After every Palm Sunday, there comes a Good Friday. But after every Good Friday, there comes an Easter Sunday. This week, we will meet with Triumph today and Disaster on Good Friday and we will treat those two impostors just the same...
  • Improvising the Kingdom

    by David Russell
    Do you remember Chesley Sullenberger? He was the pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River after it was hit by a flock of geese. He has just taken off from New York with 150 people on board, and his engines go out. What does he do? Well, this is not the moment to get cute or try to be clever. And it is not the time to panic. It is the time to fall back on your training and what you know, what you have practiced hundreds of times. So he improvises. He looks around, sees the Hudson River, and he thinks, “I can put it down there. I might hit something, but it’s a lot better than landing in the middle of Manhattan. I’m going to give it a try.” Faith is like that. We don’t know what each day might bring...
  • The Small Things and the Great King

    by Eleonore Stump
    The Gospel says that Jesus was near Bethany when he sent his disciples to get the donkey. So maybe that donkey was in Bethany. Bethany is the home of Martha and Mary and Lazarus. Maybe Jesus knows exactly where that donkey is because he has seen it when he was visiting Mary and Martha and Lazarus. Maybe the villagers are so ready to let the disciples of Jesus take the donkey because they know and trust Jesus...
  • The Road to Jerusalem

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    I spent 10 of my growing up years in Savannah, Georgia, where my father was the pastor of a church. On March 17th of each year Savannah has the second largest St. Patrick's Day parade in the country. The whole city turns out for the parade. They dye the river green. Everybody wears green. They eat green grits. Some drink green - well, beverages. For several years, I went to that parade and enjoyed watching it. But then when I was in the 10th grade I was in ROTC, military training, and I marched in that parade. No longer was I a parade watcher, a bystander. I became a participant. Everyone loves a parade. Anyone can be a bystander. It takes a little something extra to be a participant...
  • Images of Jesus' Entry into Jerusalem

    Compiled by Jenee Woodard

Illustrated Resources from 2015 to 2017

(In order to avoid losing your place on this page when viewing a different link, I would suggest that you right click on that link with your mouse and select “open in a new tab”. Then, when you have finished reading that link, close the tab and you will return to where you left off on this page. FWIW!)
  • Living in the Vineyard

    by Christopher Burkett
    ("In the kingdom of heaven is my end and my beginning And the road that I must follow night and day. Travel on, travel on to the kingdom that is coming, The kingdom will be with you all the way...")
  • Palm/Passion Sunday

    by Jane Anne Ferguson
    ("an Estonian king wants to wage war on Finland and sends his four sons out to the corners of Estonia to gather an army. The youngest son is sent to the cities in the north with the official call to arms from the king. Along the way to the first city, he encounters a cast of characters that teach him of war...")
  • Save Us, Please!

    by Jim McCrea
    ("Scott Black Johnston is the pastor of the Fifth Avenue Presbyterian Church in New York City. He met with a seventh-grade class recently and had them write down questions they wanted to pose to their pastors. Four of the twelve cards asked: 'Is Jesus the only way to salvation?' At that point, he says: 'Being an annoying pastor, I told them that before I would answer that question, they had to answer one for me...")
  • Palm Sunday

    by Bob Stuhlmann
    ("Mr. Packard's old car sputtered and steamed as we travelled in the Dorchester Day Parade. It was one of my not so bright ideas to have a car in the parade that advertised the Dorchester Tenants Action Council. It was 1970 and Mr. Packard lived in a decrepit old mansion that had been subdivided and he had a car. I didn't have a car and he offered. And like most of us in the Tenants Council, our homes and our cars, if we had one, were held together with wire and Duct tape...")
  • Get Out the Ticker Tape

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    ("There is a time-honored story about a little boy who was sick. It was Palm Sunday and the children waved palm branches to open the service. But this young man stayed home from church with his mother. His father returned from church holding a palm branch. The little boy was curious and asked, 'Why do we wave palm branches on Palm Sunday, Dad, and why do we call it Palm Sunday?'...")
  • The Clown King

    by Debie Thomas
    ("According to New Testamant scholars Marcus Borg and John Dominic Crossan, the Triumphal Entry was not a spontaneous event. Rather, Jesus' parade-by-donkey was a staged joke. It was an act of political theater, an anti-imperial demonstration designed to mock the obscene pomp and circumstance of Rome. In their compelling book, The Last Week: What the Gospels Really Teach About Jesus' Last Days in Jerusalem, Borg and Crossan argue that two processions entered Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday; Jesus' was not the only Triumphal Entry...")
  • For Peace We Stand?

    by Keith Wagner
    ("Jackie Robinson made history when he became the first black baseball player by joining the Brooklyn Dodgers. But, it wasn't easy. He took verbal abuse from other players and many fans. One afternoon he was having a rough time and the fans were shouting 'boos' from the stands. Pee Wee Reese, the team captain and shortstop, walked over to Jackie and put his arm around him in the middle of the game..." and other illustrations)

Illustrated Resources from 2009 to 2014

(In order to avoid losing your place on this page when viewing a different link, I would suggest that you right click on that link with your mouse and select “open in a new tab”. Then, when you have finished reading that link, close the tab and you will return to where you left off on this page. FWIW!)
  • Breaking the Unridden Colt

    by Hubert Beck
    "On what 'unridden colts' of your life does Jesus offer to ride? Is it an 'unridden colt' of sins lamented, burdening your conscience? Is it an 'unridden colt' of worry and concern about your future? Is it an 'unridden colt' of a broken relationship that you long to have repaired?..."
  • Occupy Jerusalem

    by Kathy Donley
    Maeyken Wens, was a Mennonite Christian in Antwerp in 1571. In her time and culture women were not allowed to be clergy. Maeyken knew that she was called by God to preach the gospel. Since she wasn’t welcome to preach in church, she preached in the streets. She was arrested. The magistrate said that he would release her to her family if she would promise not to preach any more. She refused. Then he said that if she continued to refuse, he would have her burned at the stake. Again she refused. He set her execution for the next day. That morning her oldest son, Adrian, took her youngest son, Hans Matthew, to see their mother. She was marched through the streets. Her children could see her, and she could see them, but she couldn’t speak to them, couldn’t tell them that she loved them, because the judge had ordered that her tongue be screwed to the roof of her mouth. He was afraid that she would continue to preach all the way to her death. She must have been one powerful preacher! The next day, her children sifted through the ashes looking for the tongue screw, all that was left to remember her by. The historian, who told this story a hundred years later, mentioned that he knew Maeyken’s grandchildren and that they still had the tongue-screw. Like the cross, it is another instrument of torture designed to keep truth from speaking to power, which has become the means of remembering the story...
  • True Beauty

    by Vince Gerhardy
    ("A well-known beauty product company asked the people in a large city to send pictures along with brief letters about the most beautiful women they knew. Within a few weeks thousands of letters were delivered to the company. One letter in particular caught the attention of the company president. The letter was written by a young boy who was obviously from a broken home, living in a run-down neighbourhood...")
  • Save Us

    by Scott Black Johnston
    ["I recently met with a group of seventh-graders to answer some questions scribbled on 3x5 cards that they wanted to pose to their pastors. Four of the twelve cards asked: 'Is Jesus the only way to salvation?'. Being an annoying pastor, I told them that before I would answer that question, they had to answer one for me...."]
  • I Was There

    by Jim McCrea
    (includes several quotes)
  • The Lord Has Need of It

    by Philip W. McLarty
    One summer years ago, my brother, Tony, and I drove up to Arkadelphia to get some fluorescent lights for Dad’s shop. A law firm had bought this old church building, built its offices within the interior of the sanctuary and left the existing light fixtures in tact. They told Dad he could have them if he’d come take them down. That’s where Tony and I came in. He sent us to Arkadelphia in a pickup truck to get them. Turns out, the ceiling where the light fixtures were hung was a good twenty high. We were going to need a tall ladder. We didn’t want to drive all the way back to Hope, so we drove around the streets of Arkadelphia looking for a ladder to borrow. Sure enough, we found an extension ladder propped up beside a chain link fence in the back yard of an older home. It was just what we needed. We stopped and knocked on the door. A woman came to the door, and we told her what we were up to and asked if we could borrow the ladder. Mind you, we were two college kids who’d shown up out of nowhere. We promised we’d bring it back as soon as we got the light fixtures down. She looked us over and said, “Sure, just be sure and put it back where you found it.” We thanked her and took the ladder. By mid-afternoon, we had a whole truckload of fluorescent light fixtures to take back to Hope. We strapped the ladder on top of the truck and put it back where we found it up against the chain link fence. We knocked at the door and thanked the lady for her kindness and drove home. Nothing to it. On the way back, the oddity of it all sank in: How amazing – to think that someone would just take us at our word and loan us a ladder out of the blue. We couldn’t help but think what her husband might have said if he’d come home early and seen that the ladder was missing: “You did what? Did you get their names? Did they leave a deposit? Woman, what were you thinking? Have you lost your ever-loving mind?”...
  • Invasion!

    by Kristin Ofstad
    The most powerful example I can bring to you to explain what Jesus was doing when his hour came - and why he precipitated his own death - is a single photograph. The story of this photograph goes like this: Kim Phúc was a resident in the village of Trang Bang, South Vietnam. On June 8, 1972, South Vietnamese planes, in coordination with the American military, dropped a napalm bomb on Trang Bang...
  • Blessed Is the One

    by Jan Richardson
    ("Blessed is the one who comes to us by the way of love poured out with abandon. Blessed is the one who walks toward us by the way of grace that holds us fast. Blessed is the one who calls us to follow in the way of blessing, in the path of joy...")
  • Palm Sunday: The Temple by Night

    by Jan Richardson
    ("After sending for the colt. After the procession. After the palms. After the cloak-strewn road. After the hosannas. After blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord. After all this, Mark—alone of all the gospels—tells us that Jesus goes into the temple and looks around at everything...")
  • Spoilin' for a Fight

    by Joel Shuman
    ("In her wonderful autobiography An American Childhood, Annie Dillard fondly recalls her Sunday School days in her parents' mainline Protestant church. She notes of her introduction to the Bible, 'The Bible's was an unlikely, movie-set world alongside our world...")
  • Will You Be an April Fool for Christ?

    Sermon Starter by Leonard Sweet
    ("There is no better day for Palm Sunday to fall upon than April Fool's Day. Jesus' entry into Jerusalem is a classic 'April Fool' experience. First, the two disciples Jesus chose to go 'borrow' that colt in Bethphage must have been waiting for Jesus to say 'April Fool'. But he doesn't. Instead Jesus seriously instructs his disciples to go and commit the first-century equivalent of 'grand theft auto'...")
  • A Lesson In Humility

    by Keith Wagner
    ("Jesus had an ego with a core of humility. By humility I mean the following: First, Jesus did not limit his compassion to people he knew. He associated with everyone, regardless of the circles they ran in. His caring for others was not limited to family and friends...")

Illustrated Resources (and Other Resources of Merit) from the Archives

(In order to avoid losing your place on this page when viewing a different link, I would suggest that you right click on that link with your mouse and select “open in a new tab”. Then, when you have finished reading that link, close the tab and you will return to where you left off on this page. FWIW!)
  • A Date with Destiny

    by Mickey Anders
    ("Some years ago a book was written by Gene Smith, a noted American historian. The title was 'When The Cheering Stopped'. It was the story of President Woodrow Wilson and the events leading up to and following WWI. When that war was over Wilson was an international hero...")
  • Jesus Enters Jerusalem

    by Chris Appleby
    ("Imagine that the Dalai Lama has been invited by the Chinese Government to return to Lhasa, the capital of Tibet. He decides not to fly in, but to walk there over the Himalayas from India, to make a pilgrimage back to the spiritual centre of his religion. Imagine the excitement in the city as he approached; the anticipation; the jostling by the TV networks for the exclusive rights to cover it...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(2006)

    from the Center for Excellence in Preaching
    ("In the Pennyroyal Caxton Bible, illustrator Barry Moser provides hundreds of haunting images to accompany various Bible passages. His engraving for the Triumphal Entry captures something of this story's essence. In the picture we see Jesus astride a little donkey colt. Jesus looks a little ridiculous riding on such a small animal...")
  • A Day of Passion

    by Dan Chambers
    ("In the ride to Jerusalem, Jesus invited the bewildered, hope-filled crowd to live that passionate peace. And they came. The simple. The successful. The seeking. Rebecca is there. Of course Rebecca is there. She is a woman of untiring faith, simple faith. With the innocence and naiveté of a child, she is told and she believes...")
  • The "Legs" of Faith

    by Kate Cudlipp
    ("Six of us who are in the Gospel of Mark class in the School of Christian Living went to hear Marcus Borg last Tuesday. He talked about his and John Dominic Crossan's book The Last Week, a commentary on the story of Holy Week in the Gospel of Mark. In his lecture, he described the two processions that entered Jerusalem on Palm Sunday...")
  • The Parade and the Passion

    by Rob Elder
    ("I once read about a man, the chaplain at the University of Richmond, who traveled to Harvard to attend his brother's graduation ceremony. His father had driven there to pick him up and take him home. It turned out that they needed to leave before the ceremony was over, and they were walking across Harvard yard at just the moment when degrees were being granted..." and other illustrations)
  • What Is the Name of Your Donkey?

    by Ernest Munachi Ezeogu, CSSP
    ("Max Lucado reminds us that each of us has got a donkey that the Lord needs. Here is his reflection on using our donkey for the service of the Lord: 'Sometimes I get the impression that God wants me to give him something and sometimes I don't give it because I don't know for sure, and then I feel bad because I've missed my chance...")
  • A Date With Destiny

    by Art Ferry
    ("Hamilton Whaley was a prosperous lawyer in Tampa, Florida. From his own story in Guideposts, he was happily married, had 5 great kids, a big comfortable house in a pleasant community. He was active in a good church and making more money than he ever dreamed of. He was also a partner in one of the leading law firms in the state, a vast organization with nearly 70 lawyers..." and several other illustrations)
  • The Real Meaning of Palm Sunday

    by Art Ferry, Jr.
    ("George Fallen tells of visiting an artist's studio out in Dallas, TX. One picture was the artist's pride and joy--a picture of Jesus on the cross. Fallen and the artist discussed the painting briefly. The artist said that the hardest thing about painting the crucifixion was putting the scars in Christ's hands and feet and side...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(2006)

    by Andrew Greeley
    ("Once upon a time, not so very long ago, Jenny was the most popular girl in the senior class at the local high school. As a result, many of the other girls wanted to be in her circle of friends, hoping that some of Jenny’s popularity would transfer to them...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(2003)

    by Andrew Greeley
    ("Once upon a time, not so very long ago, a sixth grade social studies teacher in a suburban school district, decided to have her students engage in an election procedure, hoping to teach them something about the democratic process...")
  • The Man Who Wouldn't Lead

    by Mark Haverland
    ("Victor Hugo tells the similar story in one of his novels about a paroled convict who stopped at the home of a priest and asked for something to eat. The priest invited him into his home, served him his finest wine, called for his housekeeper to set the table with the finest silver, and prepared his best meal. After supper he served his best brandy and cigars..." and other illustrations)
  • Trees For Life

    by Peter Haynes
    ("Some of you know by heart that old poem by Joyce Kilmer, having memorized it in grammar school. If so, recite it with me: 'I think that I shall never see A poem as lovely as a tree A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth's sweet flowing breast...")
  • Borrowing Donkeys, Etc.

    by David Leininger
    ("The pilot of a jumbo jet with a full passenger load was coming in for a landing when he discovered that the wheels would not let down. He radioed the control tower and was told to circle the airport, dump his fuel and then come in for a belly landing..." and other illustrations)
  • Sunday's Coming!

    byDavid E. Leininger
    Well, I have some good news for you this morning. I could offer it in any number of ways, but one of my favorites is from a special book called, It's Friday, but Sunday's Comin'.(6) My mother gave it to me. It is a series of essays by Dr. Anthony Campolo, and the title work tells of a church service in which the author participated that remembered those horrific events that led up to Jesus' death on Good Friday - it is a line from a sermon preached by one of the other speakers that day, a wise old African-American pastor. Dr. Campolo writes: For an hour and a half he preached one line over and over again..."It's Friday, but Sunday's comin'!" He started his sermon real softly by saying, "It was Friday; it was Friday and my Jesus was dead on the tree. But that was Friday, and Sunday's comin'!" One of the Deacons yelled, "Preach, brother, Preach!" It was all the encouragement he needed. He came on louder as he said, "It was Friday and Mary was cryin' her eyes out. The disciples were runnin' in every direction, like sheep without a shepherd, but that was Friday, and Sunday's comin!"
  • And When You Think It's All Over...

    by Jeffrey K. London
    In his book Messengers of God, Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel talks about the difference between Judaism and Christianity by comparing the two mountains that rise in each one. For Judaism, it is Mount Moriah, where Abraham bound his son Isaac. Remember that story? God tests Abraham by telling him to go up the mountain and offer Isaac as a burnt offering, his only son Isaac, whom he loved, sacrifice him on a bed of kindling wood. And just when you think it’s all over, God intervenes and provides a ram that’s stuck in the thicket as the sacrifice instead (Genesis 22:1-19). For Christianity, Wiesel writes, the mountain is Golgatha, where according to tradition another father bound an only son to a deadly piece of wood. The difference between the two religions, Wiesel says, is that in the Jewish story the father does not kill the son, but in the Christian story he does. “For the Jew,” Wiesel says, “all truth must spring from life, never death.”...
  • A Public Proclamation of...

    by John Manzo
    ("The minister, Bill Self, from Georgia speaks about preaching at a place called Koinonia Farms in Americus, Georgia. Koinonia Farms was a interracial, Christian farm commune founded by Clarence Jordan, the author of The Cotton- patch Gospel, in the 1940's and it was as controversial as it could be...")
  • Hey Sanna, Ho Sanna

    by Edward Markquart
    ("Hey sanna, ho sanna, sanna, sanna, hey sanna, ho sanna sanna sanna , ho sanna, hey sanna, Hey, hey JC, JC won't you smile at me. Jesus Christ, if you're divine, turn my water into wine...")
  • A Palm Sunday Kind of Love

    by Jim McCrea
    ("Norm Seli tells of a time when he attended an unusual event at the York Equestrian Centre in Toronto, Canada. About a thousand people were in attendance that day to see a man named Monty Roberts. Roberts is known as The Horse Whisperer, and is the inspiration for the Robert Redford movie of the same name...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(2006)

    by Robert Morrison
    ("the Jesus who rode in on that humble beast of burden, and who ended the week on a cross, is the same one whom Anselm addressed in his song of Christ’s goodness, saying: 'Jesus, as a mother you gather your people to you; you are gentle with us as a mother with her children...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(2006)

    by James Mueller
    ("Ultimately, to celebrate is to say that God had enough. Enough of Satan and sin and death. Too many people suffering the effects of a life ruined by cancer. Too many countries staying at war with each other for 5, 10, 100 year wars...")
  • Blessed Is He Who Comes

    by Ray Osborne
    ("Walt Wangerin writes the story that reminds us of our need of Jesus' touch... 'I saw a strange sight I stumbled upon a story most strange, like nothing my life, my street sense, my sly tongue had ever prepared me for. Even before the dawn one Friday morning, I noticed a young man, handsome and strong, walking the alleys of our City. He was pulling an old cart filled with clothes both bright and new...")
  • A Royal Redeemer

    by Glenn Pease
    ("About 3 centuries ago the Spaniards were besieging the little town of St. Quentin on the frontier of France. The walls of the city were battered; fever and famine raged within destroying the defenders. There was good reason for pessimism and discouragement. One day the Spaniards sent a shower of arrows over the wall with parchment notes attached promising that if they would surrender and submit their lives and property they would be spared...")
  • Palm Sunday (B)(1997)

    by Kathie Sandmaier
    ("Only one participant in the Gospel accompanied Jesus through all the length of his days. This character was present at Bethlehem and during all of the events of Holy Week right up to and after the Crucifixion. We are speaking of The Crowd...")
  • Into Jerusalem!

    by Martin Singley
    ("the Jesus we meet on Palm Sunday and Holy Week is sort of like the Music Committee in my first church! You see, they had a problem. The church organist, once a brilliant musician, trained at Julliard and able to make our 1865 George Stevens tracker-action organ sing as sweetly as you can imagine, had lost it all to alcoholism...")
  • And Do Not Bring Us to the Time of Trial

    by Laird Stuart
    ("Prince of Tides is a movie based on a novel by Pat Conroy. Like other novels of his, it is very autobiographical. It is about loyalties, strained and tested loyalties, mostly family loyalties. Early in the novel there is a scene featuring a brother and sister. They are twins. They are Tom and Savannah Wingo. They have come from a family which was rough, where loyalties were not honored well...")
  • Illustrations (Palm Sunday)(B)(2006)

    by Tim Zingale
    ("There's a story about a little boy who lived in a small country town where there had never been a circus. He knew about circuses from his school books, but never had he seen a real, live circus. And then one day there was a poster on the side of a building announcing that a circus was coming to his town...")
  • Excitement

    by Tim Zingale
    ("A young man walked up the sidewalk toward his home late one Friday afternoon and was greeted by his two children. They laughed and bounced with more than the usual amount of excitement. 'Daddy, Daddy,' the three-year-old started to say, There's a. . . Whumpf! The five-year-old stuffed his palm vigorously across the three-year-old's mouth...")

Other Resources from 2021 to 2023

Other Resources from 2020

Other Resources from 2018 and 2019

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Other Resources from 2015 to 2017

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Other Resources from 2009 to 2014

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Other Resources from the Archives

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Children's Resources and Dramas

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The Classics

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