Sermons on Idop 2025:

Blessed Be The Holy Name Of Jesus

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 31, 2024

The two texts look contradictory, but they are not, and that itself is part of the Good News.

Holy Name of Jesus 2025 Christian apologists are not people who are constantly making apologies, like some politicians. No, Christian apologia is defense of our faith. One of the recurring accusations made against the Christian Scriptures is that there are contradictions in the received texts. So, ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 1:18-23, Psalm 113:1-8, Philippians 2:5-11, Isaiah 7:14

Denomination: Catholic

Too Big For Us To Understand

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 7, 2025

Jesus, in His compassion for us mentally and spiritually wounded humans, used His Sacred Body in His ministry, and used material things in His contact with men and women.

Friday after the Epiphany 2025 Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, was descended from King David, as Matthew’s Gospel tells us, but more fundamentally, He was a real human being, a real man, ultimately the offspring of Adam and Eve. Luke’s Gospel, in the third chapter, takes us all the way back ...read more

Scripture: Luke 5:12-16, 1 John 5:5-13

Denomination: Catholic

Experiencing The Rest Of God

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 14, 2025

Jesus knew that the hypocrites in the crowd would accuse Him of playing God. So Our Lord asks, “what is easier for me to say, ‘your sins are forgiven’ or ‘arise and walk.’”

Friday of the First Week in Course 2025 Psalm 29 is prescribed for all of us clerics as the first prayer of the Divine Office. It’s a very short history of the Israelites. It begins “come ring out our joy to the Lord; hail the Rock who saves us. Let us come before Him giving thanks; with songs let ...read more

Scripture: Mark 2:1-12, Psalm 78:3-8, Hebrews 4:1-5, Hebrews 4:11

Denomination: Catholic

When Righteousness And Peace Embrace

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Jan 21, 2025

We've all seen stories of people who think they are on God's side, identify evildoers, and confront them with force. But in God's kingdom, initiated in Jesus Christ, things are otherwise.

Friday of the Second Week in Course 2025 The Church has no definitive teaching on who wrote the Letter to the Hebrews, but we know that the Holy Spirit inspired the author, and he or she was very familiar with the liturgy of the Jewish Temple, especially the annual Day of Atonement, when the High ...read more

Scripture: Mark 3:13-19, Hebrews 8:6-13, Exodus 24:10, Luke 1:37, Jeremiah 31:33, Psalm 85:8-13  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Catholic

Ask, Seek, Knock

Contributed by Mary Erickson on Jun 9, 2025

Jesus invites us to seek him out and come to him

June 5, 2025 Women’s Retreat, Luther Park Rev. Mary Erickson Matthew 7:7-8 Ask, Seek, Knock Knock, knock, (who’s there?) Dozen (Dozen who?) Dozen anyone want to let me in? Oh, groan! That’s the proper response to a knock-knock joke. They’re all about the pun. And as Oscar Wilde noted, a pun ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 7:7-8

Denomination: Lutheran

When Anger Knocks

Contributed by Rick Boyne on Jun 10, 2025

You can be angry, but don’t let it turn into sin.

When Anger Knocks June 8, 2025 Morning Service Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK Rick Boyne Message Point: You can be angry, but don’t let it turn into sin. Focus Passage: Ephesians 4:26-27 Supplemental Passage: Do not be eager in your heart to be angry, For anger resides in the bosom of ...read more

Scripture: Ephesians 4:26-27, Ecclesiastes 7:9, Proverbs 29:11

Denomination: Baptist

The Antidote To The Deadly Sin Of Pride

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Sep 8, 2025

Countering the deadly habit of thinking of ourselves as a "god."

Friday of the Twenty-Third Week in Course 2025 Take a look at the opening prayer for our worship today. We implore God, by whom we are redeemed and receive adoption, to look graciously on your beloved sons and daughters. We are redeemed by God through the free and meritorious ace of the Son of ...read more

Scripture: Luke 6:39-42, Psalm 16:1-11, 1 Timothy 1:1-2, 1 Timothy 1:12-14

Denomination: Catholic

Rage Of The Heathen

Contributed by Charles Payne on Sep 12, 2025

If there is any purpose to be gleaned from the murder of Charlie Kirk, it is this: we can no longer lean on activists like Charlie to do our work for us.

RAGE OF THE HEATHEN (Inspired by the political assassination of Charlie Kirk) 2 Samuel 1:17–27) “The beauty of Israel is slain upon your high places: how are the mighty fallen!” (v.19) PROLOGUE: A WORLD SHAKEN BY VIOLENCE When a public figure is assassinated—Lincoln, Martin Luther King Jr., ...read more

Scripture: 2 Samuel 1:19, Psalm 2:1, Acts 4:25-28, Acts 8:1-4

Denomination: Christian/Church Of Christ

The Parable Shocks But Christ's Message Is Powerful

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Sep 16, 2025

The goal is to spread the message of Christ and His Church of the will of God to save all human beings. If the authorities are dragging us off to jail it’s hard to fulfill that mission.

Twenty-fifth Sunday in Course 2025 Reading today’s excerpt from the letter of Saint Paul to Timothy, you might get the impression that the goal of any church congregation is to “lead a quiet an tranquil life in all devotion and dignity.” That sounds like an average middle-class suburban lifestyle, ...read more

Scripture: Amos 8:4-7, Psalm 113:1-8, 1 Timothy 2:1-8, Luke 16:1-13

Denomination: Catholic

Let's Help The World Get "soaked In Christ."

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Oct 7, 2025

We have died with Christ through our baptism, our “soaking” in Christ, and so we will live with Him. Persevering through life and suffering we will reign with Him.

Twenty-Eighth Sunday in Course 2025 Every day we stand with the ten lepers of Luke’s Gospel, raising our voices in the Kyrie Eleison shouting “Jesus, Master! Have pity on us.” And in that prayer, if we truly repent of our many shortcomings, we are cleansed of every “venial” sin. With the one ...read more

Scripture: Luke 17:11-19, 2 Timothy 2:8-13, Psalm 98:1-4, 2 Kings 5:14-17, Leviticus 14:1-32  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Catholic

What Does It Mean That "Jesus Is Lord” Over My Life? Series

Contributed by Joel Bernardino on Oct 16, 2025

The Bible says that to be saved, we must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord.” This declaration is more than just words — it’s a life-changing commitment.

WHAT DOES IT MEAN THAT “JESUS IS LORD” OVER MY LIFE? Pastor Joel Bernardino – October 16, 2025 The Bible says that to be saved, we must believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths that “Jesus is Lord.” Romans 10:9 — “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart ...read more

Scripture: Romans 10:9, Matthew 7:21

Patient Attention Needed For True Devotion

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 10, 2025

And it was through the faith of the virgin Mary of Nazareth and the birth of Her Son that the promises of Isaiah came to life in the Church Jesus left after His resurrection and ascension.

Third Sunday of Advent 2025 Today we sing psalm 146, the first of the five alleluia psalms which act as a final movement to the whole book of psalms. It’s easy to hear the poetry of this hymn, even in English: “Adonai frees imprisoned; Adonai opens closed-eyes; Adonai lifts the prostrate; Adonai ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 11:2-11, Isaiah 35:1-6, Psalm 146:7-10, James 5:7-10

Denomination: Catholic

Joseph Is Not Angry, But He Does Show Fear

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 16, 2025

What is Fear of the Lord? Joseph exemplifies this virtue.

Jesus IS Emmanuel: Fourth Sunday of Advent 2025 One of the mistakes people frequently make when they read the Bible, particularly the New Testament, is to project our own experiences into the lives of the saints and sinners we find there. That’s not entirely an error. After all, part of becoming ...read more

Scripture: Psalm 24:1-6, Romans 1:1-7, Matthew 1:18-24, Isaiah 45:8, Isaiah 7:10-14  (view more)  (view less)

Denomination: Catholic

The Holy Family Counsels Our Modern Family

Contributed by W Pat Cunningham on Dec 24, 2025

In counseling members of the Christian family, St. Paul taught what we might call “charity lived out in deference.”

Feast of the Holy Family 2025 One of my favorite theologians has pointed out that St. Joseph had the hardest ministry of all. He was just an ordinary Jew who happened to be a descendant of King David, but that put him as the guardian and leader of two persons who were both in intimate contact with ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 2:13-15, Matthew 2:19-23, Psalm 128:1-5, Colossians 3:12-21

Denomination: Catholic

The Great Reversal

Contributed by John Hamby on Jul 23, 2018

Esther 9:1 is a portrait of the reversal in the lives of God's people in Persia under King Xerxes.

“The Great Reversal” Esther 9:1-10:3 Tonight we finish the great story of Esther. It a rich book and I wish I could have done it justice. Esther was the young orphan girl; we grew up to be ...read more

Denomination: Baptist