FAITH AND ACTION Franz Kafka has powerfully described faith and action in a story in The Trial. A man comes to the door leading into heaven and begs admittance from the doorkeeper. The doorkeeper says…
Sermon Illustrations
JOWETT ON FAITH Commenting on Hebrews 11:6-10, John Henry Jowett writes: And that is faith, to do God's will here and now, quietly leaving the results to Him. Faith is not concerned with the entire…
FAITH VERSUS LUCK The other day I heard of a man whose only motivation was luck. He tried to make a living by gambling in the lottery, and indeed, he was lucky. When he won…
MY SOUL HATH WINGS When I shall die and leave behind this earth I love, These trees, This sky, The ever pounding sea, The yearly hope of spring, Cry not for me. Rejoice! My soul…
TO MY FATHER A giant pine, magnificent and old, Stood staunch against the sky and all around Shed beauty, grace, and power. Within its fold Birds safely reared their young. The velvet ground Beneath was…
THE WAY YOU DIE How do we prepare for death? A dozen years ago Michael Roemer produced a 97 minute television documentary on three cancer patients dealing with how they faced or didn't face the…
THE TRUTH ABOUT GOODBYES Goodbyes are sad things. You leave behind the dreams that you've worked to make real, friends that you've suffered with and grown to love, and sometimes a quiet security that was…
A DAD REFLECTS ON THE DEATH OF HIS SON The following is the funeral message of William Sloane Coffin, Jr. after his son Alexander's accidental death. Having five sons roughly Alex's age, I found it…
GETTING OVER GRIEF Frequently in the course of counseling with someone, the conversation will turn to an area of hurt and sorrow over the death of someone very close. As we talk more in this…
DEATH FROM KIDS' PERSPECTIVES Death and dying is a subject that always is on the back burners of every mind from preschoolers to the oldest adult. Some nine-year- old children were asked what they thought…
A CHILD'S LOGIC A five-year-old girl came home from a funeral of her grandmother, in a car with her other grandmother. "Where did Grandma go?" she asked. "We believe she went to be with God,"…
THE DOOR Death is a door with two sides. One side says "EXIT" and the other side says "ENTER." From Craig McNair Wilson's YHWH Is Not a Radio Station in Minneapolis
IMMORTALITY, THE SIMPLE WAY I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve immortality through not dying. Woody Allen
THE FAUX AND THE REAL Don Harp, pastor of First Un. Methodist Church, Gainesville, GA, did a great memorial sermon at our Annual Conference in 1986. He spoke of the deceased as the "salt of…
WHERE I'M NOT Do not stand by my grave and weep. I am not there. I do not sleep. I am a thousand winds that blow. I am a diamond glint on snow. I am…
COUNT YOUR BLESSINGS Count your garden by the flowers, Never by the leaves that fall. Count your days by golden hours, Don't remember clouds at all. Count your nights by stars, not shadows. Count your…
WHO CAN DIE BETTER Many years ago the ship known as the "Empress of Ireland" sank. Among its many passengers were 130 Salvation Army officers. Only 21 of those Christian workers' lives were spared --…
A CONSTANT REMINDER John Donne was a British poet who later became a minister in the Church of England. Donne was persuaded, after he took holy orders and repudiated his former ambitious and worldly life,…
THE LAST TIME I'LL SEE YOU Recovering from a serious illness, Phillips Brooks refused to receive any visitors, even his closest friends. When the agnostic Robert Ingersoll called, however, the bishop did not turn him…
AT THE NOOSE St. Thomas More, on the way to his execution, came to the scaffold and turned to the executioner and said, "Would you mind helping me up, I can get down by myself."…
