5 Practices for Better Writing

I do not describe myself as a writer, although I enjoy it very much. I am a minister and this requires me to write, and write well. Each week I write at least one sermon, sometimes two. For each sermon I write an entire manuscript of what I am going to say. I also write […]

Come, Lord Jesus

Here is the sermon I preached yesterday morning at La Grange Church of Christ. We have been studying the gospel of Luke and I decided to use the text for the week, but changed my message in light of the tragic events in Newtown, Connecticut.   He began to tell the people this parable: “A […]

Living in a Dangerous World

A Sermon Based on Luke 13:31-35 At that time some Pharisees came to Jesus and said to him, “Leave this place and go somewhere else. Herod wants to kill you.” He replied, “Go tell that fox, ‘I will keep on driving out demons and healing people today and tomorrow, and on the third day I […]

A Sermon on Jesus and Nonviolence

Here is an excellent sermon from my good friend, Matthew Dowling, on Jesus and nonviolence based upon Matt. 5:38-48. Matthew is a former Marine who is now working on his MDiv at Oklahoma Christian University. He is a great student of the word who offers some wonderful insights into the text. Nonviolence is a controversial […]

A People in Transition

A Sermon Based on Ezekiel 8:1-6 “In the sixth year, in the sixth month, on the fifth day of the month, as I sat in may house, with the elders of Judah sitting before me, the hand of the Lord God fell upon me there. I looked, and there was a figure that looked like […]

By the Grace of God We Have Come to Mount Zion

A Homily on Hebrews 12:18-24 “You have not come to something that can be touched, a blazing fire, and darkness, and gloom, and a tempest, and the sound of a trumpet, and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that not another word be spoken to them. (For they could not endure the order […]

The Sermon as Art

What is art? Art is given several definitions in Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, including “the conscious use of skill and creative imagination.” According to Dictionary.com art is “the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.” I would define art as both beauty and truth. […]

The Magnificat

The following is a sermon I presented at Austin Graduate School of Theology.  It was adopted from an earlier sermon I preached at La Grange Church of Christ. Text: Luke 1:39-56; 1 Sam. 2:1-10 Luke is a wonderful storyteller, and he begins this narrative by introducing, not one, but two stories. The birth announcements of John […]

A Homily for My Grandfather

In Loving Memory of Bob Parker. July 5, 1929 – June 18 2011 For 31 years I have looked up to the man we are here to remember today.  I believe it was sometime around the 4th grade when I was asked to write a paper about the person I admired the most.  For me […]

It’s Friday But Sunday’s Coming