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 Home: Worship: Sermon Seeds 
Lent 1
Striving to articulate and name the concrete dimensions of faith that allow Jesus and his contemporary followers to respond to temptation will be a significant challenge for this opening Sunday of Lent. Even though we often associate the Spirit with avoiding temptation, can you speak about ways the Spirit leads people into the middle of temptation? Can you describe why, after facing temptation, Jesus was "filled with the power of the Spirit" (v. 14)? Delving deeper than the usual or obvious, how will you help people in your local community name the actual temptations they face? What specific aspects of Christian identity will help them face those temptations?
Lent 2
The text reveals to us the strange and poignant irony of call, that what we feel most challenged to do and be is precisely what others will seek to silence and destroy. Where in our world do we see human beings longing to "gather a people together," only to face rejection and dismissal? Casting out demons and performing cures is the work of Jesus. What is the work of your specific community, and who are the Herods? When Jesus says, "See, your house is left to you," what is the nature of his indictment? For you and your community, what is worth weeping over (Luke 19:41)? How is your community ever like Jerusalem, stoning and killing its prophets?
Lent 3
The text invites and instructs us to fully enter into the joy, the newness of life, and the freedom that comes as God touches human living with healing. Why is it that even before this woman speaks or asks, Jesus calls to her, touches her, and frees her? What is the true nature of rejoicing, and why is that the response of both the woman and the crowd? Why would religious leaders of Jesus' day consider ministries of healing to be work? What is the relationship between God's power and those who are instruments or channels of God's power?
Lent 4
Because this parable is so thoroughly familiar, restoring the challenges, the offense, and the grace of it will be essential. What feelings enable the father to move through his anger, hurt, and disappointment? Why do you think this parable is labeled the "lost son" instead of the "betrayed father"? What are the bold stories you might tell that portray the offense and radicality of grace, not just its wonderful and comforting compassion? What is it that compels us to celebrate when people who were lost are found, and those who were dead come back to life (v. 32)? Where do we see these celebrations happening, free of blame, guilt, or shame?
Lent 5
Even though we may resist the dichotomy of "Jesus or the poor," Mary's extravagant sacramental gesture still demands insightful interpretation and probing. How does the intimacy that Mary, Martha, Lazarus, and Jesus share directly inform or inspire Mary's generous and discerning act? Mary's anointing connects her to Jesus and his ministry, yet are there times when our extravagance does in fact separate us from our intended mission? Where in your life of faith have you performed the totally unexpected and uninvited act, and how was it received? What are some of the tensions between sacramental ministries and social justice ministries in your local congregation? How is Mary's act of touching Jesus' feet and wiping them with her hair, and not the nard itself, the heart of this sacred moment?
Palm/Passion Sunday
The challenge of Passion/Palm Sunday is to recognize the power and possibility of faithful action in the world, even unto death, while not romanticizing or encouraging unnecessary human suffering. How do we speak about people emptying and humbling themselves in response to God's call in ways that do not encourage unhealthy self- denial? Knowing the oppression and horror of human slavery, how might you critique or reinterpret this metaphor for ministry (v. 7)? Can you feel your way into how this text might be experienced by those who are martyred in our world for justice, exalted in their "obedience to the point of death"? Would you be willing to explore some of the voices critiquing the concept of "Lord" while probing who the Christ was and is in ever-deepening ways?
Easter Sunday
Mary's story reminds us in a powerful way that sometimes we must linger and dwell in places of death in order to finally experience the power of resurrection. On Easter Sunday, how might we honor with our stories and our words the importance of weeping to the opening of our lives to resurrection (vv. 11, 13, 15)? Mary's response to the Resurrection was to proclaim, "I have seen the Lord." What do individuals in your own faith community proclaim when they have felt and touched resurrection and new life? If it is true that for some people resurrection is not a moment in time, but a process, how will you make that reality come alive? When resurrection happens in our lives, is it true there is no more weeping, or does the nature of our weeping change?
Easter 2
Even though this is a resurrection text, to feel its full weight it might be important to explore some of what keeps the disciples afraid and behind locked doors. Thomas needs and wants concrete, tangible signs of the Resurrection. When in life have you needed that same concreteness? Can you describe it in ways others can feel and experience? Could Thomas possibly be the most courageous, wanting to come close enough to "put my finger in the mark of the nails, and my hand in his side" (v. 25)? Why do we label Thomas "doubting" simply because he wanted what Jesus freely gave the others (v. 20)? What is the nature of the peace that Jesus offers the disciples, and where in our world do people seem to experience others in the midst of resurrection?
Easter 3
This resurrection narrative invites us to make imaginative and compelling connections between sustaining/symbolic meals, and demanding, tending mission. What must happen in our ordinary lives for "breakfast moments" to be filled with the presence of Christ? Where has the call of Christ caused you to passionately and spontaneously "jump into the sea" (v. 7)? Can you create a liturgical opportunity for members of the community to share a time when their faith has "taken them where they did not want to go" (v. 18)? In a time when many take offense at the notion of people as sheep, how will you breathe new life into the feeding and tending images of ministry? Why does Jesus ask, "Simon son of John, do you love me more than these?" (v. 15)
Easter 4
This psalm continues to inspire and comfort because it addresses a profound work of hope in response to our human need for restoration, release from fear, life direction, comfort in times of need, and the gifts of goodness and meaning. When in your own life of faith have you experienced mercy, and how might you describe its character and some of its dimensions? Why is the image of "a table prepared before me in the presence of my enemies" so wonderfully shocking? Describe concretely what God's rod and staff may represent for contemporary Christians, and how they comfort in times of fear? Can you draw from a movie, a work of art, or a poem in order to portray a strong image of a person's soul being restored? In the face of much fear and evil, where are the still waters and green pastures? Are these places of escape, or places of profound nurturing?
Easter 5
This powerful apocalyptic vision of a new reality challenges us as preachers to shape and proclaim a revelational/eschatological vision of our own that is contemporary, relevant, and inspiring. In what ways do people who are struggling in their lives demonstrate that they believe "the home of God is among mortals" (v. 3)? Keeping the faith with the biblical context, will you speak about persecuted and oppressed communities that await water and long for death, pain, and crying to be no more? What particular ministries in your religious community are grounded or rooted in a vision of "all things new"? How can apocalyptic visions be understood and lived out in the world as we know it, not only in a world to come? Who are the local and global people that are persistently declaring that all things are new even in the face of violence and destruction?
Easter 6
Perhaps the text might claim us even more if preachers explored the terror and demands that come from opening heart and home, as well as the deep joy. Could you create a narrative exploring what Silas and Paul felt sitting by the river with the women (v. 13), who Lydia might have been in that community, and what kind of experience they all had that day outside the gates of Philippi? Knowing that human beings often cling to control, how will your words this day inspire people to open their hearts, and consequently their homes, their relationships, their resources, their lives? How do our hearts open so that we can listen eagerly? How do we judge one another's faithfulness, and what guides us to stay in another's home?
Easter 7
This text urges preachers to critique the corruption and oppression that enslaves this girl, and simultaneously to celebrate her absolutely persistent, annoying voice. Voices that are oppressed often feel annoying to those of us who are privileged. How would you describe and quote some of those messages? Can you move your congregation into the hearts and minds of the prisoners who were listening to the prayers and singing of Paul and Silas that night? Who are the contemporary jailers who eventually wash the wounds of those the officials have beaten? Why were the prisoners all still in the prison if their chains had been unfastened? If you look at this story as a whole, can you make analogies to places in our public lives where money, political power, and salvation intermingle?
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Bible Learning Center Homily Service Sermon Resources The Text This Week National Bible Association
Word and You Excellent resource for personal and group Bible study using weekly texts from the Revised Common Lectionary. Published by Pilgrim Press.
Texts for Preaching Commentaries published in three volumes for each year in the Revised Common Lectionary cycle by some of the best OT and NT scholars in North America, including Walter Brueggemann, Charles B. Cousar, Beverly R. Gaventa, James D. Newsome. Published by Westminster John Knox Press. |
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