TO EACH HIS OWN Did you hear about the college student who got into trouble? He went to see his advisor. His advisor heard him out and said, "Why don't you talk to your priest?"…
Sermon Illustrations
IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER I 'd dare to make more mistakes next time, I'd relax, I would limber up, I would be sillier than I have been this trip, I would…
THE RIDDLE OF SALVATION You are on the road of life and you come to a fork in the road. One road leads to heaven and the other to hell. There are two guides standing…
ANSWER TO THE RIDDLE Remember, you can only ask one question. And you don't know which of the guides will tell the truth and which will tell you the lie. Here's the question you ask…
GOING THE SECOND MILE A salesman called his wife from a coin-operated phone in a distant city, finished the conversation, said good-bye and replaced the receiver. As he was walking away, the phone rang. He…
SCAM OF THE MONTH CLUB Recently Psychology Today had a contest they called Scamarama, asking their readers to send in a creative scam. In the Mar, 84 issue they printed their winners. This one took…
TALK "Blessed is the man who, having nothing to say, abstains from giving wordy evidence of the fact." George Eliot. Oh, that my tongue might so possess The accent of His tenderness That every word…
RISK To laugh is to risk appearing the fool. To weep is to risk appearing sentimental. To reach out for another is to risk involvement. To expose feelings is to risk exposing our true self.…
ENHANCED VERSIONS OF THE TRUTH It seems that an old storekeeper, who was also the community's postmaster, was a real go-getter. He had no helper, and when he had to leave his store to meet…
CLARIFIED PURPOSE Much of the wasted effort in human activity is a result of lack of clear definition of the real or total reason for doing something. If you cannot determine why you are doing…
REJECTION In a bit of whimsy, Neil Postman quotes a letter written by a high school senior who had received a letter of rejection from the college he wanted to attend. "Dear Admissions Officer," the…
HOW COMMITTED ARE YOU? There is a silly story about two New York men who had never been out of the city who decided that they had just about "had it" with city living. So…
REJECT REJECTION Many of those who have risen from failure to real achievement have rejected the rejection of this world. In 1902, the poetry editor of The Atlantic Monthly returned a sheaf of poems to…
OVERCOMING HARDSHIPS Rabbi Earl A. Grollman has a fine book on death and grieving, entitled Talking About Death: A Dialogue Between Parent and Child (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970), in which he tells a famous rabbinic…
MORE IMPORTANT KNOWLEDGE A young man was being interviewed to be a pilot for a steamboat on the Mississippi River. The interviewer, doubtful that the young man could know the dangers of the river, asked…
CHANGE It is in changing that things find purpose. Heraclitus
IRONIC TWIST There is an old story that recalls how Satan once summoned his top demonic aides to plan strategy against the Church of Jesus Christ. Satan stood at the blackboard lecturing and illustrating the…
DOGMATICS IN OUTLINE The life of the one holy Universal Church is determined by the fact that it is the fulfillment of the service as ambassador enjoined upon it. Where the life of the Church…
INCARNATION Years ago I remember seeing the news reports of a coal mining accident in the Alleghany Mountains. Many miners escaped with their lives, but three men were still trapped somewhere deep within the earth's…
SAFE IN YOUR FATHER'S ARMS Several years ago my family of four lived on a farm with another family of four. We shared many sermon-illustration-type experiences and there's nothing like farm life, they say, to…
