Psalm 104: 1-35

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  • Creeping Things, Innumerable

    by Kristofer Phan Coffman
  • Exegesis (Psalm 104)

    by Richard Donovan
  • Pentecost (A)(2023)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Sermon Starters (Pentecost)(A)(2023)

    by Scott Hoezee
    My wife oversees all of the staff education at a large senior living facility. Among her tasks is to teach classes to keep everyone’s American Heart Association /American Red Cross CPR certification up to date. She does a 2-hour version and a 4-hour version. One is called “Heartsaver” and the other is called “Basic Lifesaver” but both have the same goal: keeping the heart beating and the lungs breathing to save a life in a moment of cardiac crisis. CPR, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation, was one of the 20th century’s most amazing medical breakthroughs. Although many heart attacks prove to be too catastrophic to recover from, in a decent percentage of cases people who suffer a cardiac arrest for whatever the reason can be saved with the swift administration of CPR—it works to save a life about 45% of the time it is administered according to the American Red Cross. Someone figured out that we can take the breath from our lungs and transfer it to another person’s lungs to save their life (along with chest compressions that keep blood pumping and the brain profused with oxygen until something might be done to jumpstart the heart). I suppose since Genesis pictures God breathing God’s ruach / breath into Adam’s nostrils at the dawn of creation, we might have tumbled to the idea behind CPR way earlier than we actually did. In any event, CPR may turn out to be a small part of the Image of God in us: taking our own ruach and letting it bring life to another. It’s very medical. But it’s pretty biblical too!
  • Pentecost (A)

    by Howard Wallace
  • Pentecost (A)(2023)

    by Elizabeth Webb

Resources from 2021 and 2022

[If you have any questions about navigating through the site (and for some helpful tips even if you don’t!), please check out our video guide. Just copy this link (https://www.loom.com/share/afe3352a69f44bff814af8b695701c5e) and paste it into your favorite browser.]
  • Pentecost (B)(2021)

    by Jay Richard Akkerman
  • Pentecost (C)(2022)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Sermon Starters (Pentecost)(B)(2021)

    by Scott Hoezee
    One of the greatest innovations in emergency medicine and first aid over the last century was the development of CPR, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. Although many heart attacks prove to be too catastrophic to recover from, in a decent percentage of cases people who suffer a cardiac arrest for whatever the reason can be saved with the swift administration of CPR—it works to save a life about 45% of the time it is administered according to the American Red Cross. Not too terribly long ago someone figured out that we can take the breath from our lungs and transfer it to another person’s lungs to save their life (along with chest compressions that keep blood pumping and the brain profused with oxygen until something might be done to jumpstart the heart). I suppose that since Genesis pictures God breathing God’s ruach / breath into Adam’s nostrils at the dawn of creation, we might have tumbled to the idea behind CPR way earlier than we actually did. In any event, CPR may turn out to be a small part of the Image of God in us: taking our own ruach and letting it bring life to another.
  • Pentecost (B)(2021)

    by J. Clinton McCann, Jr.
  • Proper 24B (2021)

    by Sam Powell
  • Pentecost (C)

    by Howard Wallace
  • The Life-Creating Spirit of God (gwh)

    by Garth Wehrfritz-Hanson
    The Amazon River is the largest river in the world. The mouth is 90 miles across. There is enough water to exceed the combined flow of the Yangtze, Mississippi and Nile Rivers. So much water comes from the Amazon that they can direct its currents 200 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. One irony of ancient navigation is that sailors in ancient times died for lack of water caught in windless waters of the South Atlantic. They were adrift, helpless, dying of thirst. Sometimes other ships from South America who knew the area would come alongside and call out, “What is your problem?” And they would exclaim, “Can you spare us some water? Our sailors are dying of thirst!” And from the other ship would come the cry, “Just lower your buckets. You are in the mouth of the mighty Amazon River.” The irony and the tragedy around us today is that God, the fountain of living water, is right here and people don’t recognize Him!...

Resources from 2019 and 2020

[If you have any questions about navigating through the site (and for some helpful tips even if you do!), please check out our video guide. Just copy this link (https://www.loom.com/share/afe3352a69f44bff814af8b695701c5e) and paste it into your favorite browser.]
  • Pentecost (C)(2019)

    by Jay Richard Akkerman
  • God's Creation

    by Neil Bishop
  • Pentecost (A)(2020)

    by Jason Byassee
  • Worship God, the Creator

    by Craig Condon
    How many of you have seen the movie Saving Private Ryan? It’s a war film set during the invasion of Normandy in World War II. The film is about U.S. Army Ranger Captain John H. Miller (who was played by Tom Hanks) and his squad as they search for Private First Class John Francis Ryan (who was played by Matt Damon). Private Ryan was the last surviving brother of four servicemen. Captain Miller lost several of his men in their search to find him. After finding him, Captain Miller himself was mortally wounded. As he laid dying, he told Private Ryan, “Earn this.” Years later Private Ryan stood in front of Captain Miller’s grave and said, “Every day I think about what you told me that day on the bridge. I tried to live my life the best I could. I hope that was enough. I hope that, at least in your eyes, I’ve earned what all of you have done for me.” He turned to his wife and said, “Tell me I have led a good life…. tell me I’m a good man.” Private Ryan asked the same question many of us ask ourselves: “Have I done enough with this one and only life God has given me?”...
  • Manifold Works of God

    by Bob Cornwall
  • Pentecost (A)(2020)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Pentecost (C)(2019)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Sermon Starters (Pentecost)(A)(2020)

    by Scott Hoezee
    One of the greatest innovations in emergency medicine and first aid over the last century was the development of CPR, Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation. Although many heart attacks prove to be too catastrophic to recover from, in a decent percentage of cases people who suffer a cardiac arrest for whatever the reason can be saved with the swift administration of CPR—it works to save a life about 45% of the time it is administered according to the American Red Cross. Not too terribly long ago someone figured out that we can take the breath from our lungs and transfer it to another person’s lungs to save their life (along with chest compressions that keep blood pumping and the brain profused with oxygen until something might be done to jumpstart the heart). I suppose since Genesis pictures God breathing God’s ruach / breath into Adam’s nostrils at the dawn of creation, we might have tumbled to the idea behind CPR way earlier than we actually did. In any event, CPR may turn out to be a small part of the Image of God in us: taking our own ruach and letting it bring life to another.
  • Sermon Starters (Pentecost)(C)(2019)

    by Scott Hoezee
    You wouldn’t think a wasp could do so much damage. Unless you are allergic to bee and wasp stings, getting stung by these bugs, though briefly painful and annoying, does not generally create any lasting effect or damage. However, about 150 years ago there was one particular kind of wasp that appears to have created a very long-lasting effect indeed. Charles Darwin was not even stung by this wasp but he did observe it and drew some pretty dire conclusions from what he saw. Darwin had grown up embracing pretty much the same perspective on the natural world as we just absorbed from listening to Psalm 104. That is, the world is the result of God’s handiwork, is filled with God’s holy designs, and so is something that bears witness to God in and through the goodness of that design. But then one day, in the course of his studies, Darwin discovered a species of wasp that was so pernicious, it shook his belief in the world’s benevolent design. Because this particular wasp injects its larvae into the abdomen of a living host. Then, like some nightmare of an alien in a science fiction movie, the larvae mature inside this other creature, literally sucking the life out of the host in order to nurture its own development. Finally, when the wasps are ready to hatch, they burst out of the host’s body, leaving that host, not surprisingly, quite definitively dead. Darwin considered this grisly scenario and concluded that something so predatory and dreadful could not possibly be the result of any good God’s design...
  • Pentecost (A)(2020)

    by Lisa Michaels
  • Pentecost (C)(2019)

    by Courtney Pace

Resources from 2016 to 2018

  • Strengthened for Holiness

    by Anne H. K. Apple
  • Pentecost (C)(2016)

    by Jerome Creach
  • Pentecost (A)(2017)

    by Nancy deClaissé-Walford
  • Pentecost (B)(2018)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Pentecost (A)(2017)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Pentecost (C)(2016)

    by Phil Heinze
  • Pentecost (B)(2018)

    by Cameron B. R. Howard
  • Creation Psalm

    Art and Theology by Victoria Jones
    The 104th Psalm is a song in celebration of all creation. The psalmist marvels at the infinite variety of life on earth. With words that reflect a deep awareness of our finitude and an implicit faith in the eternity of creation, we are reminded of the intricate web which connects all living creatures. In the ten illuminations which comprise Psalm 104: You Renew the Face of the Earth, Barbara Wolff has attempted to reflect some of the light and brilliance of this word picture of the cosmos and illuminate its profound sense of reverence for all creation. In a number of the paintings she has portrayed flora and fauna which the ancient Psalmist would certainly have known, and which still may be found in the land of Israel today. She has included the flowers and grasses of its fields and forests, birds which pass through the land each spring and fall, and sea creatures of the Mediterranean, from a precious Murex snail to the great whales.
  • Pentecost (C)(2016)

    by Stan Mast
    The lovely image of God clothed in the glory of his creation, wrapping “himself in light as with a garment,” brought to mind the old fable about the Emperor’s new clothes. Or, more relevant to our younger listeners, it made me think about the invisibility cloak in the Harry Potter books. Hide under it and no one can see you. According to Psalm 104, creation functions in exactly the opposite way; it makes the invisible God visible to the eyes of all who have not been blinded by the god of this world.
  • Psalm 104

    by Juliana Mercer
  • Pentecost (A)(2017)

    by Jonathan Platter
  • Clean Water

    by Chuck Summers
  • Proper 24B (2018)

    by Leonard Vander Zee

Resources from 2013 to 2015

Resources from the Archives

Children's Resources

The Classics

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