There is a wonderful story of an elderly woman in a nursing home who was faced with a very hard choice. Being an avid baseball fan, she had been following the World Series which was…
Sermon Illustrations
Why are fire trucks red? Well, fire trucks have four wheels and eight men; everybody knows that four plus eight is twelve. There are twelve inches in a foot, and a foot is a ruler.…
A fellow declined an invitation to go golfing with his neighbor one Sunday morning, saying, “You know I go to Church every Sunday, yet you have asked me to go golfing on Sunday every week…
Recently, a West Coast pastor compiled a list of parishioners whose Christian powers he felt were withering with disuse. To them he mailed the following message concerning a forthcoming “no-excuse-to-stay-home-Sunday:” There will be: ...cots available…
Theologian Bernard Haring tells the moving story of his visit to a little church in Bavaria where he had been invited to preach. He says that as he went into the church for the first…
Someone once said that Church members come in three types: 1) The jawbones who talk and find fault. 2) The tailbones who sit and watch. 3) The backbones who willingly and tirelessly do the work…
Several years ago, “Readers Digest” published a story about a parish “Adult Religious Education Class” that attracted a marvelously diverse group of students, in terms of race, ethnicity and economic status. One evening, a woman…
Christ climbed down from His bare Tree this year and ran away to where there were no gilded Christmas trees and no tinsel Christmas trees... and no powder blue Christmas trees hung with electric candles…
Those of us who are looking forward to Christmas with joyful anticipation need to realize that for many people it is a season of horror. It is a season when their loneliness presses in on…
A few years ago at this time, a story was going around about a man in a department store during the Christmas rush who noticed a little boy trudging along all by himself. He didn’t…
It was the day before Christmas and little Bobby was in his room trying to be good. He was being so quiet that his mother called into him, “Bobby, what are you doing in your…
A few days before Christmas, a five-year-old boy went with his mother to a big shopping mall. Their first stop was the toy department at Macy’s and soon the child was propped on Santa’s lap.…
Three little brothers had all been given new sleds for Christmas. That night they prayed for snow, and they laid in bed with the radio turned on in order to hear the latest weather forecast.…
At Christmastime, a schoolteacher in England supervised the construction of a manger scene in a corner of the classroom. It delighted her pupils to set up the model barn and cover the floor with real…
The shepherds were sitting around a fire on a hill near Bethlehem. The night before an angel had appeared to them, and now the air was filled with the sound of a choir of angels…
It was Christmas Eve and, as usual, George Mason was the last to leave the office. He walked over to a massive safe, spun the dials, swung the heavy door open. Making sure the door…
Several years ago a Washington TV reporter who was working on an assignment on “the Spirit of Christmas,” telephoned the British Embassy and asked to speak to the British Ambassador. ”Ambassador,” the reporter said, “you…
Christmas, I would like something with a French name. It is called a Treve de Dieu. A treve is a truce, an intermission, a respite. A Treve de Dieu is the Truce of God to…
At Christmas, all roads lead home. The filled planes, packed trains, overflowing buses, all speak eloquently of a single destination: home. Despite the crowding, the crushing, the delays, the confusion, we clutch our bright packages…
The parents of three grown children would divide their Christmases among their children’s families. But with the difficulties involved in holiday preparation and extensive travel, sometimes they were tempted to throw up their hands and…
