Sermons on 13th Sunday Of The Year:

Perfecting Love (Fifth Sunday Of Easter, Lectionary Year B)

Contributed by John Williams Iii on Apr 28, 2021

Tying the Gospel portion of the lectionary (John 15:1 - 8) to today’s text (I John 4:7 -21) we can draw the conclusion that if we are detached from the life giving vine that we are incomplete, insecure, dissatisfied and spiritually starving.

PERFECTING LOVE Text: I John 4:7 - 21 1 John 4:7-21  Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. (8) Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  (9)  God's love was revealed among us in this way: ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 4:7-21

Denomination: United Methodist

Sixteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C: Martha And Mary

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jun 1, 2022

When Martha brought her stress and complaints to Jesus, he heard her deepest need. He wanted Martha’s soul to catch up to her body.

A journalist with Bon Appetit Magazine asked readers to submit examples of their worst dinner party experiences. A woman names Bea Stein wrote about how the candles on her patio table fell over and set the whole table on fire. Another hostess had 50 guests coming over for brunch when the city ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:38-42

Denomination: Catholic

Thirty-First Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A- Hypocrites

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Oct 8, 2023

We ask for the daily grace to walk the talk.

Have you heard the one about the priest, the minister, and the rabbi?” A rabbi and a priest were talking about the perks of each job. The priest mentioned that he gets a rectory to live in that comes with a housekeeper and a cook, all paid for by the church. The rabbi responded by asking if ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 23:1-12

Denomination: Catholic

Prodigal Stories-- Fourth Sunday Of Lent Year C Readings

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Mar 26, 2022

Now, what he had put his hopes in lay broken all over the floor.

John Claypool told a story about William Muehl of Yale Divinity School and something that happened in his family years ago when Dr. Muehl’s son was young. His five-year-old son made a clay pot for his dad one year in Vacation Bible School.? Open House night finally rolled around.? The little boy ...read more

Scripture: Luke 15:1-32

Denomination: Catholic

Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B--Spiritual Multiplication

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jun 24, 2024

“Gift” is only gift if we give all the pieces.

Percent means “parts per hundred,” from the Latin, per centum. Edward Denison, in 1060, thought of a neat phrase, “Three percent is greater than two percent by fifty percent. I have math anxiety but there are listed several ways to prove this, including that the reason that 3 is 50% bigger than 2 ...read more

Scripture: John 6:1-15

Denomination: Catholic

Nineteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: Food For The Journey

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jul 5, 2024

[Bless those] who…know the depths of [the] sacrament.

Elijah went a day's journey into the desert, until he came to a broom tree and sat beneath it. He was the last remaining Prophet of the true religion left. He had just stood his ground against four-hundred pagan prophets of the fertility god Baal. Today’s pagan fertility god is In-Vitro ...read more

Scripture: 1 Kings 19:4-8, John 6:41-51

Denomination: Catholic

Twentieth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: Eucharistic Fix

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jul 14, 2024

Transformation by an alternative Eucharistic consciousness in Jesus Christ.

We just heard John 6:52, “The Jews quarreled among themselves, saying, "How can this man give us his flesh to eat?" That reminds of me two men who lived in a small town who got into a terrible dispute that they could not resolve. So, they decided to talk to the wisest man in town. The ...read more

Scripture: John 6:51-58

Denomination: Catholic

Tenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: Combat Boots

Contributed by Paul Andrew on May 4, 2024

“feet shod with the kind of shoe created for the Gospel of peace.”

General Douglas MacArthur wrote that there are 4 things necessary to win any battle. One is strength-- We hear Mark 3:27 in our Gospel, “no one can enter a strong man's house to plunder his property unless he first ties up the strong man. Then he can plunder the house.” Jesus explains that ...read more

Scripture: Mark 3:27, Genesis 3:15, Ephesians 6:15, Ephesians 4:27

Denomination: Catholic

First Sunday Of Lent, Year B-- Among The Wild Things

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 20, 2024

Jackals, “wild dogs, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and lions all of which are often "starvation driven."

He was among wild beasts. (Mark 1:3 from our First Reading) This is no Garden of Eden. Jackals, “wild dogs, cheetahs, spotted hyenas and lions all of which are often "starvation driven" must exploit every opportunity to obtain a meal, which includes humans.1 The wild beasts “likely ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 9:8-15, Mark 1:12-15

Denomination: Catholic

Second Sunday Of Lent, Year B- The Three Mountains: Transfiguration

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 22, 2024

“You aren’t going to sacrifice me, are you, Dad?”

Because of our three readings, today could be called the Sunday of the Three Mountains. "Take your son Isaac, your only one, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah.” Moriah, as a girl's name, is of Hebrew origin, meaning "the hill country." The land of Moriah was a ...read more

Scripture: Genesis 22:1-18, Mark 9:2-10

Denomination: Catholic

Fifth Sunday Of Lent, Year A- "Lazarus, Come Out!”

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 16, 2023

We have a part to play in our coming out of the tomb

Reader’s Digest has printed many quirky items from the daily lives of ordinary people. Many of these items are quite amusing. For example, Jennifer Pace wrote a few years ago to tell about a billboard she passed while driving through Texas. The billboard read: “Stand Up and Be Counted for the 2000 ...read more

Scripture: John 11:1-45, Ezekiel 37:12-14

Denomination: Catholic

Learning To Live Inside Out: First Sunday In Lent, Year A Series

Contributed by Amiri Hooker on Feb 25, 2023

Intro: If Black America endeavor to work in the world around us, we will fall. From time to time, we will fail; our efforts will not be received in the spirit intended; the fruit of Black History has been slow in coming. So, if we must fall, let us fall down in worship of the one who redeems us.

Matthew 4:1-11 The Message (The Test) 4 1-3 Next Jesus was taken into the wild by the Spirit for the Test. The Devil was ready to give it. Jesus prepared for the Test by fasting forty days and forty nights. That left him, of course, in a state of extreme hunger, which the Devil took advantage of in ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 4:1-11

Denomination: United Methodist

Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A- Fishers Of Men

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Dec 16, 2022

The goal is to lead a person to acknowledge Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Later will come baptism and R.C.I.A.

Off the coast of Maine lies an island so small that the surrounding ocean can be seen from any point on the island. A visitor to the Sunday school class asked the children, "How many of you," he asked, "have ever seen the Atlantic Ocean?" To his surprise, not a single hand went ...read more

Scripture: 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, Matthew 4:12-23

Denomination: Catholic

Betwixt And Between (Sunday After Christmas And Before New Year)

Contributed by Steve Pearman on Dec 19, 2024

The Sunday between Christmas and the New Year can be quiet and reflective. Here is a sermon I've prepared for such a Sunday

The phrase "betwixt and between" is an old-fashioned or literary expression that means being in an intermediate or transitional state—neither fully one thing nor the other. It describes a situation of uncertainty, ambiguity, or being caught in the middle. One such example is the days ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:25-38

Eighth Sunday In Ordinary Time Year C- Mote And Beam

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jan 27, 2025

We get impatient with others who represent aspects of ourselves that we have pushed away

Doctor Jesus is like an ophthalmologist and a psychologist in our Gospel today. He is speaking about projection. We get impatient with others who represent aspects of ourselves that we have pushed away.1 We are aware of all the mitigating factors that go into our own mistakes but not those ...read more

Scripture: Luke 6:39-45

Denomination: Catholic