Sermons on Leap Year:

Love Is A Verb (Lectionary, Year B, Fourth Sunday After Easter)

Contributed by John Williams Iii on Apr 21, 2021

We are called to live out God’s love and truth through our deeds by keeping God’s commandment to love one another in the name of Jesus Christ (I John 3:23)! Love is a verb because the kind of love that today’s text is talking about requires us to go beyond words and put love into action.

LOVE IS A VERB Text: I John 3:16- 24 1 John 3:16-24  We know love by this, that he laid down his life for us—and we ought to lay down our lives for one another.  (17)  How does God's love abide in anyone who has the world's goods and sees a brother or sister in need and yet ...read more

Scripture: 1 John 3:16-24

Denomination: United Methodist

Third Sunday Of Lent, Year A--“Worn 5 Times By Mistake.”

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 19, 2020

This woman faced her dragons. She is no longer hiding out.

An ad in the local newspaper read: “For sale, sleeveless wedding dress, white, size 8, veil included. Worn once, by mistake.” That woman of Samaria could have said “worn 5 times by mistake.” Her marriages could have been because of economic and social reasons rather than for lustful ones, ...read more

Scripture: John 4:5-42

Denomination: Catholic

Seventeenth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Cycle A -- 17th Sunday, Year A

Contributed by Paul Andrew on May 25, 2020

It’s so important that ordinary Catholics read Scripture as a devotional inquiry which the Catholic Catechism calls “the intimate sense of spiritual realities which believers experience.”

A foolish old farmer, so the story goes, concluded one day that the oats he had fed his mule for years were simply costing him too much. So, he hatched a plan: He mixed a little sawdust in with the feed, and then a little more the next day, and even more the next, each time reducing the amount of ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 13:44-46

Denomination: Catholic

12th Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A. Sparrow Stories.

Contributed by Paul Andrew on May 26, 2023

Several times the sparrow flew at the closed window and smacked itself into it, until it got so weak it could no longer fly; it only could walk.

Pastor Don Friesen tells a fascinating story about a sparrow that somehow got into the rafters of St. Helen’s Parish Church in the English town of Brant Broughton. At the time of the intrusion, they were recording a guitar recital for later broadcast on the radio. The chirping bird didn’t exactly ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 10:26-33

Denomination: Catholic

A Faithful Plan For Fallen People (#2 In Preaching Through The Bible In A Year) Series

Contributed by James Jackson on Jan 11, 2023

God planned it all before the fall.

This morning, I want us to look back at Genesis 3-8. We are going to look at how sin came into the world, but even more importantly, we are going to look at how God already had a plan to deal with our sin. And we are going to see how God illustrated that plan over and over, just in this first week ...read more

Denomination: Baptist

Fourteenth Sunday In Ordinary Time- Year C: Suitable Explanation Of The Gospel

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Jul 1, 2025

An encounter with Jesus Christ through Scripture, prayer, and friendly conversation

You are among the seventy-two disciples Jesus appointed, and commissioned by your baptism, and confirmation to tell others that Jesus saves. The verb used is “apostle”: He literally “apostled” us into the world. The Church officially teaches in the National Statutes of OCIA that baptized ...read more

Scripture: Luke 10:1-20

Denomination: Catholic

Twenty-Ninth Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A--Church And State

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Sep 3, 2023

Otherwise, politics is about "bread and circuses."

Have you ever noticed that when you combine the two words, “THE” and “IRS,” it spells “THEIRS”? At one and the same time Jesus affirmed the rights of the state and freedom of conscience to worship and serve God. By allowing Caesar to collect taxes, Jesus opposes the Pharisees by acknowledging ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 22:15-21

Denomination: Catholic

Twenty-Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: The Fellowship Of The Rings

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Sep 1, 2024

When I was a young boy; My mama said to me; “There’s only one girl in the world for you; And she probably lives in Tahiti.”

Marriage requires 4 types of "RINGS”:1 The Engagement Ring: The idea of Soulmates was first written about by a Greek playwright, the ancient equivalent of Hollywood.1 It’s a made-up romantic term meaning that there is only one person whom you are spiritually destined to marry. “Those ...read more

Scripture: Mark 10:2-16

Denomination: Catholic

Twenty-Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year A- Wicked Tenants

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Aug 27, 2023

In one word, what do you live for?

In 1962, when President John F. Kennedy was visiting the NASA Space center, he noticed a janitor sweeping the hallway and asked him, “What do you do around here?” To his surprise, the janitor replied, “Well, Mr. President, I’m helping to put a man on the moon.” This janitor found meaning in seeing ...read more

Scripture: Matthew 21:33-43, Isaiah 5:1-7

Denomination: Catholic

Third Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year B: How To Catch A Fish

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Dec 18, 2023

Cast, get a bite, and try to hook it; loose it; say something emotional, sit and cry. And repeat.

How to catch a fish. Cast, get a bite, and try to hook it; loose it; say something emotional, sit and cry. And repeat. James Merritt has come to the conclusion that there are basically four reasons why people do not catch fish: (1) Some people are using the wrong bait. (2) Some people are ...read more

Scripture: Jonah 3:1-10, Mark 1:14-20

Denomination: Catholic

Sixth Sunday Of Easter, Year B- The Best Seller On Joy And Love

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Apr 3, 2024

The anointing with this oil causes our faces to be joyful and serene.

There is a joke that asks, “What do you call a book club that's been stuck on the same book for more than 2000 years?” [The answer] The Church. We have covered much of John’s Gospel in the last few weeks so that Joy and Love are the only new themes that emerge this Sunday. The most popular ...read more

Scripture: John 15:9-17

Denomination: Catholic

Third Sunday Of Advent, Year C: Advent Joy On Gaudete Sunday

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Nov 21, 2024

How many admonishing or warning songs or hymns can you find?

Today the Church takes a break from the penitential color violet (often referred to as purple) which symbolizes penance particularly because Pilate dressed Jesus in a purple robe to mock his kingship. Today, however, is Gaudete Sunday and the color is Rose (often referred to as pink) as we ...read more

Scripture: Luke 3:10-18

Denomination: Catholic

Growing In Wisdom: Even 12 Year Old Jesus Needed To Learn

Contributed by Jessica Linde on Jan 6, 2025

By looking at the story of 12 year old Jesus wandering away from Mary and Joseph to go to the Jerusalem Temple, this sermon’s ultimate goal is to highlight that Jesus is fully Man as well as fully God, thus He needed to "grow in wisdom" just like the rest of us.

Because today marks the Christian feast of Epiphany—the day in which the Three Kings (the Magi) finally arrived in Bethlehem to adore the newly born Christ Child—this also means that today marks the official end to the liturgical season of Christmas! ?Now for some of us here, this might be a sad ...read more

Scripture: Luke 2:41-52

Third Sunday Of Lent, Year C- Exhausting The Soil Or Bearing Fruit

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Feb 8, 2025

I believe that there are a number of Christians living in their spiritual grace period

Jerry Flury, who once worked in the insurance industry, said, “I constantly had to deal with people seeking to maintain their policies perpetually in what they referred to as the policy’s grace period. A grace period is defined as the additional period of time a lender, or an insurance policy ...read more

Scripture: Exodus 3:1-15, Luke 13:1-9

Denomination: Catholic

Twenty-Seventh Sunday In Ordinary Time, Year C: Divine Passives

Contributed by Paul Andrew on Oct 3, 2025

How? By (1) being small; (2) daily fervent prayer (3) and knowing that God’s grace precedes and enables our good works, the (4) fourth is tapping into the “fulfillment formula” of God’s sovereignty by God’s divine passives.

Walking or moving in the Opposite Spirit is a teaching from Saint Ignatius of Loyola, [Agere contra, Latin “to act against"]. This spiritual practice involves purposefully acting in the opposite direction of your natural inclinations to produce a positive spiritual resolve and result. So, the ...read more

Scripture: Luke 17:5-10

Denomination: Catholic